Winging it in... Vermont

I smell ice cream!!! It smells like... rocky road

It wasn’t rocky road, but it was ice cream, although I have to say Vermont it a mighty long way to go for ice cream. Who am I kidding, a Saturday road trip is always fun, and what is a 384 mile round trip between friends?

In all honesty the entire reason for the trip was just to buy a fridge magnet at the Ben and Jerry’s store. While there it seemed a little silly not to partake of the tour, so prepare to be dazzled with my newfound knowledge on Ben and Jerry’s ice cream… Ben and Jerry’s started out in 1978, and I must say- what a great year to be starting out, all the best things were created and started out in 1978, from an old, disused gas station in Burlington, VT. The only reason they decided to go into the ice cream business was that an ice cream machine was cheaper than a bagel machine, and the correspondence course in ice cream making was only $5.00.

There first free scoop day was in 1979, and still continues to this day, check the date – I think it is March 23…; by 1980 they had expanded into a new factory, and had started disturbing to local grocery stores.

By 1983 they had two cities outside of VT interested and stocking Ben and Jerry’s independent scoop shops- the only reason I mention this was that the second of these cities was Boston MA (the first being Portland ME). The following year they opened up stock options to residents of VT, and started to expand.

By 1986 they had launched their campaigns to give back to the community, making charitable donations, and thought about a bigger nationwide product. It was about this time they decided to go on an ice cream tour, using an old VW van. This was a great idea… until the van caught fire and burned to a cinder. The biggest baked Alaska ever.

By 1994 they were ready to start disturbing in Europe- and stared sales in the UK. New flavors were being added all the time, and charitable donations continued to be made.

People in charge and flavors have consistently changed over time, as have the causes they promote, usually identifiable by the names… “One Sweet Whirled” in 2002 for an environmental campaign, “KaBerry, KaBOOM” for children’s playground in 2001… well you get the idea. But really what I learned is that there are 100s of ice cream flavors I have yet to try.

Most importantly I have THE most amazing ice cream bowls from which to eat all of my ice cream. So, now for history of the ice cream bowl; are you all sitting comfortably? Then I shall begin…