Nestle tells local ice cream shop to stop calling treat a Drumstick

It’s not a Drumstick anymore at the White Cottage ice cream shop in Belleville.

Until Tuesday, there was an ice cream treat called a Drumstick on the menu at White Cottage in Belleville, as it had been called since sometime in the 1980s, says Tom Cordie. But late last week Nestle sent a letter to Chris Cordie, who now owns the ice cream shop, demanding the name be changed.

White Cottage now calls its treat a Drummie.

“We just kind of laughed. Kind of funny that they found us over how many millions of ice cream places there are,” Chris Cordie said. “Everybody started pulling out their phones and Googling, ‘Who owns the word Drumstick.’”

The White Cottage, which sells ice cream from one location in Belleville, had caught the attention of worldwide corporation Nestle.

Nestle’s Drumsticks are cones filled with ice cream, dipped in chocolate and covered with peanuts.

The White Cottage’s Drummies are ice cream in a sugar cone with a hard-shell topping and dipped in nuts. According to the White Cottage Ice Cream website, it’s among the “stuff we’re famous for” and sells for $3.80.

Despite the seeming similarity, Drummies are not Drumsticks. Nestle says so.

Nestle representatives did not immediately return calls for comment.

After receiving the notice from Nestle, the White Cottage folks got down to the serious business of changing the treat’s name. The Cordies made a contest of it, offering ice cream to the winning name.

“As of today we had to officially change the name,” Chris Cordie said. Changing the name required changing the White Cottage website and a couple of signs in the building.

“I don’t even (think) anybody even noticed,” he said. “It’s not that big of a deal. People are still going to call them what they want.”

Chris’ Dad, Tom, did point out an important distinction between the White Cottage Drummie and the Nestle Drumstick: White Cottage offers Drummies with several different flavors of ice cream.

“We take it to another level,” he said.

This story was originally published August 1, 2017 at 5:09 PM with the headline "Nestle tells local ice cream shop to stop calling treat a Drumstick."