The History of Cool Whip

Cool Whip was invented in 1966 as a substitute for whipped cream, which had to be made by hand and was therefore labor-intensive and time-consuming to create. But it wasn’t just convenient to use — Cool Whip was also easy to ship, since its properties allowed for it to be frozen, thawed, and refrozen without any loss in quality. To be sure, the product was first tested in two cities — Buffalo and Seattle — located on opposite sides of the United States. Successful, easy shipping made rolling out the product nationwide a breeze. While the product is now owned by Heinz, it was first sold under the General Foods umbrella. General Foods helped popularize the product by creating and publishing recipes that used Cool Whip as the main ingredient. This taught people how to use the new product and created built-in demand for it. Notably, Pistachio Pineapple Delight, a recipe that was originally intended to promote an instant pistachio pudding mix rather than the Cool Whip it contained, became massively popular after an unnamed newspaper editor changed the name to Watergate Salad. In 2010, the Cool Whip formula was changed to include skim milk and less than two percent cream. Interestingly, many people have been known to save and reuse Cool Whip containers; some are even sold on eBay! Today, Cool Whip can be found on most grocery store shelves and remains a key component of many popular dessert recipes that were developed to help market the product when it first debuted.