Dippin' Dot Com

• The easiest answer to your child's wide-eyed question of "where can you get Dippin' Dots?" is the Internet. At the company's website (see Resources, below) you can buy quantities of Dippin' Dots in individual pouches or cups. As of 2009, $145 will get you either 25 pouches of up to five flavors, or 30 cups of all the same flavor, along with spoons and a foam cooler. For an extra $50 you get 50 pouches of up to 10 flavors or 60 cups of two flavors, while for $215 Dippin' Dots will send you 90 cups of up to three flavors. Pouches come in nine flavors, including vanilla, banana split, chocolate, strawberry, and strawberry cheesecake yogurt. Dippin' Dots has four additional flavors available in cups only: watermelon, tropical tie-dye, peanut butter chip, fudge, and cotton candy.

Dot Mania

• Dippin' Dots are fast becoming ubiquitous at amusement centers and theme parks, from Boomer's to Sea World, Six Flags and even Legoland in California. That's not surprising, considering the little beads were given their first big break at Opryland USA shortly after they were brought to market in the late 1980s by inventor Curt Jones, a microbiologist from Pulaski County, Ill. Dippin' Dots also are available at select McDonald's fast-food restaurants and, thanks to an aggressive franchise program, through carts and kiosks in shopping malls, zoos, water parks, stadiums, arenas, aquariums, theaters and other attractions. According to the company's website, as of mid-2009 Dippin' Dots "can be found in over 1,500 locations throughout the country."

  To find the Dippin' Dots location closest to you, visit the company's online store locator (see Resources, below) and type in your city and state or ZIP code. As an example, typing in the 90210 ZIP code, for Carlsbad, Calif., identifies 13 locations within a 30-mile radius, including two movie theaters, a bowling alley, Legoland, an ice-skating rink and the San Diego Wild Animal Park.

International Dots

• Dippin' Dots are also available outside the United States. In 1995, Dippin' Dots signed its first international license, with Japan. That same year, an Australian distribution center for Dippin' Dots opened in Melbourne. In 2004, the Dippin' Dots Global subsidiary was formed to further international expansion. Dippin' Dots broke into both Canada and Panama in 2005, followed a year later by The Netherlands and, in 2007, by Colombia.

Future Plans

• While Dippin' Dots must be stored at a temperature a little colder than the average American home freezer, the company is still hoping to break into supermarkets. Kroger supermarkets in the Midwest in 2006 began testing a new product called Dots 'n Cream, regular ice cream enhanced by beads of Dippin' Dots.