Get a scoop of this: creamy vanilla ice cream swirled with thick ribbons of slightly salted fudge and studded with small peanut butter cups throughout. Moose Tracks is an iconic flavor — or rather, category of licensed flavors — that recalls childhood memories of ice cream served on hot summer days, or scooped out into cones at your favorite local ice cream stand. You’re probably also familiar with Tracks, the Moose mascot for Moose Tracks. But do you know how the legendary ice cream got its name?
One might imagine that the flavor is so named for its resemblance to its namesake — the marks left by moose as they walk across snow-laden fields. The flaky fudge ribbons (and yes, fudge is something distinct from chocolate) resemble these tracks, while the peanut butter cups supposedly, allegedly, resemble moose droppings. This is a less-than-appetizing thought and, thankfully, has little basis in truth. No, Moose Tracks are not named for hoof marks and droppings. Rather, Moose Tracks are named after, of all things, a local Michigan mini golf course. So you can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that those little peanut butter cups aren’t modeled after a stomach-churning subject, even if its origins might leave you a bit deflated over its lack of connection to the big, furry, up-north animal.
The real scoop on Moose Tracks’ origins
So what’s the real scoop on the origins of Moose Tracks? Let’s dig in. According to the Moose Tracks brand, the flavor was first introduced to an ice cream shop in the Upper Peninsula, Michigan town of Marquette in the 1980s without a name to accompany it. The flavor was an instant hit, so the inventors began searching for the perfect name — and they didn’t have to look far to find it. They needed only look to a neighboring mini golf location to find proper inspiration. Moose Tracks, a local mini golf spot, served as the inspiration for the ice cream’s name and, unlike the mini golf location, which is said to have closed sometime in the late 1990s, Moose Tracks ice cream still endures.
It’s also interesting to note that, while the ice cream flavor may not be directly linked to actual moose tracks, they are connected. The ice cream flavor was first introduced around the time when moose were being reintroduced to Marquette County, the birthplace of Moose Tracks ice cream. This reintroduction of moose to Michigan kicked up quite the interest in the giant hoofed and horned creatures across the state, and might be, at least indirectly, tied to the flavor’s name. After all, moose were having quite the cultural impact in Michigan in the 1980s, and the new residents whipped up a lot of new traffic to the area. Regardless of Moose Tracks’ origins, the visage of a moose, and its tracks, have become inextricably linked with the flavor, leaving fans of the store-bought ice cream (which stands far above some less loved frozen aisle selections) to connect the animal, and its signature prints, with the flavor.
