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Disneyland is famous for its ridiculously long lines
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But some of the longest lines are for something called Dole Whip, a delicious frozen treat that, for a while
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you could only get by taking a trip to the happiest place on Earth. So how did a simple drink sponsored by a fruit company become a destination icon
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Well, today we're going to take a look at the rise of Disney's Dole Whip
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If you've never actually been to a Disney park, then you might not be familiar with the Enchanted Tiki Room
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a Polynesian-themed musical show featuring animatronic characters that first opened in June of 1963 at Disneyland in Anaheim, California
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The attraction was originally sponsored by United Airlines, the connection being that visiting the Tiki Room was like flying off on a Hawaiian vacation
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And in 1976, Disney found a new sponsor for the Tiki Room, the Dole Food Company
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You're probably familiar with at least one of the roughly 10 billion Dole products on supermarket shelves
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But you may not know that the company traces its origins to Hawaii in 1901
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They've also been more or less synonymous with pineapples since the turn of the 20th century
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So given the popular association of Hawaii and pineapples they were a natural fit to sponsor the Tiki Room Food scientist Kathy Westfall was at the Dole Technical Center in San Jose California hard at work trying to come up with a solution to Disney ice cream
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problem. Despite having only recently graduated from college, Westfall had a lot of experience
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with ice cream, and she found herself in charge of developing a dairy-free, powdered ice cream-ish
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product that wouldn't melt and go bad in the stifling Orlando heat. That product would become
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Dole Whip. Dole Whip wouldn't actually make its debut at Disney World until 1984
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At the time, it was only available at Aloha Isle in Adventureland
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Dole Whip was an instant hit, and in 1986, Disney started selling it at the Enchanted Tiki Room in
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Disneyland. The treat proved to be just as popular in Disneyland as it was in Disney World
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and the long lines for Dole Whip quickly became a standard part of the experience at the Tiki Room
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Over the decades, Dole Whip's association with the Disney brand, and by proxy, all their characters, made Dole Whip itself an object of nostalgia among the Disney faithful
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The treat got so popular that the park started selling Dole Whip merchandise
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Today, Dole Whip is available at a number of locations throughout Disney's various parks, and in a wide variety of flavors
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That level of ubiquity has helped Dole Whip secure its place in the pantheon of iconic Disney treats
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right alongside the Mickey Mouse ice cream bars and those giant turkey legs
