The History of Dole Whip

In 1976, Dole Packaged Foods, a division of the Dole Food Company (which famously grows pineapples in Hawaii) became the sponsor of Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room at Disneyland Park in Anaheim, California. Upon taking up the sponsorship, Dole began serving fresh pineapple spears and pineapple juice to guests there, which was a natural fit since Dole produces pineapples and the attraction was tropical-themed. Then in 1983, Dole also became the sponsor of the Walt Disney World version of the Enchanted Tiki Room (then called Tropical Serenade) at Disney’s Magic Kingdom Park in Florida. The company attempted to serve vanilla soft-serve ice cream topped with diced pineapples, but the treat couldn’t stand up to Florida's heat and humidity. A Dole food scientist named Kathy Westphal was tasked with creating a non-dairy, dry-mix version of pineapple soft-serve that could stand up to Florida’s climate. Westphal already had experience creating other frozen treats and successfully created Dole Whip at the Dole Technical Center in San Jose. It was originally available in pineapple, orange, and strawberry flavors, but it was the pineapple option that really took off. Dole Whip was first served at Disney World’s Magic Kingdom Park in 1984, then introduced at Disneyland Park in 1986. Although Dole Whip (originally known as Dole Pineapple Whip) was launched in 1983 and had partners other than Disney, the treat became inextricably linked with Disney Parks. Today, Dole Whip is considered the top must-try treat at Disney Parks all over the world and lines to buy the frozen non-dairy treat are often very long due to the consistently high demand.