Ben and Jerry's (Part II)

I've decided I am going to spread out my experience at Ben & Jerry's over a couple of weeks so that I don't overwhelm you all with one single post.

As a little background is the history of my 20 or so year love affair with B&J:

Sometime probably between 1988 and 1991: I visit my aunt, uncle and cousin at their house in Marshfield, Vermont and for the first time I am introduced to Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream. I am too young to appreciate the goodness and focus only on the math: 2 pints/8 people = seemingly not that much ice cream. (Stay tuned: How are those pints manufactured and quality checked?!)

Spring 1994: I take a portrait scuplture class (I make a bust of head) with two friends. We stop before class at Your Village Store and I always buy a Peace Pop. (Stay tuned: B&J's Social Mission!)

Winter 1995: My sister uses her dining points (due to expire if not used) and brings us home cartons of Ben & Jerry's. This is only the second time I remember having Ben & Jerry's. She brings us the now Flavor Graveyarded Cool Britannia.

Summer 1996: I spend the summer in Providence at RISD's Pre-College Program and am thrilled there is a Scoop Shop on Thayer Street. My new partner-in-crime and I will visit often. I will also find it to be totally cool to be able to buy a pint of B&J (with my own "college" dining points) of Low-Fat Fudge Brownie Frozen Yogurt -- and so begins the eating right out of the pint. (Stay tuned: I try my hand at working the Scoop Shop!)

Fall 1997: I start college at Tufts University. I arrive a week early for an orientation for my Tufts/SMFA program. The day most freshmen arrive, my new friend who knows Boston better than I do takes me to Newbury Street for the first time and we enjoy B&J at the Scoop Shop. My suitemates and I get goldfish and one of my suitemates suggests we name them after our favorite B&J flavor. My fish is named Low-Fat Fudge Brownie Frozen Yogurt. He has the longest name of the bunch. (Stay tuned: Let's visit with Marketing!)

Fall 1999: I live in a house off campus with friends, including my best friend I have known since elementary school. Late nights are spent talking over a pint of B&J. A tradition is born between friends that will follow us back to our parents' houses in Connecticut, to our apartments in Boston's North End, and to her apartment in New York City.

Winter 2003: My roommates buy me a Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker for Christmas. One of my first purchases following is Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book. I am hooked. (Stay tuned: We play in the B&J test kitchen!)

Fall 2006(?): I am asked to be part of a consumer panel testing a new B&J product. It never makes it to the shelves.

Winter 2008: Tina starts Scoopalicious. I join days later. Yet another excuse to both make and eat lots of ice cream, a favorite being B&J.

Winter 2011: I am invited to a B&J event at 30 Rock. Little do I know it is the release of Jimmy Fallon's Late Night Snack. I try my hardest to coordinate getting down there with my sister, but it is very last minute and the trip doesn't happen. When I find out later it was Jimmy Fallon (♥♥♥) and B&J (two favorites) I am pretty bummed I wasn't able to go.

Winter 2012: I am invited to a VIP blogging event and I spend a wonderful two days in Burlington with four other bloggers, the PR Gurus from B&J and Cone Communications meeting numerous smiling employees of B&J as well as B&J themselves. Stay tuned for the event in more detail!

Richardson's Ice Cream, Middleton, Massachusetts

Massachusetts is blessed with a lot of super ice cream spots. It's often joked that no matter how cold it is outside, you can still find many a Massachusettsians having a scoop or two...case in point: in the photo at right, my friend Rachel and I enjoy an ice cream after trudging a mile and change through slushy Waltham on December 19th of last year.

My friend Chris sent to me a link to a great audio slide show by the Salem News about how Richardson's in Middleton, Massachusetts makes their ice cream. (Thanks, Chris!) I had their ice cream at the Reading Jordan's Furniture a couple of years back, and though I don't recall what I had, I do recall loving it.

Making the ice cream extra special to me now is what I saw in the audio slide show: the history behind it and the family owned and operated feel that still seems to remain.

Richardson's site says it has been around since 1695 (!) as a dairy and has been making ice cream since 1952. That's 314 years of running a dairy and 57 years of making ice cream. You can't go wrong with that much experience!

What's best about this is that it is rare you get such a thorough tour of ice cream production...thanks Paul Richardson of Richardson's and Deborah Parker of the Salem News for a great tour!

And next time I am in the area, I promise a first hand review of Richardson's...

[Scoopalicious is celebrating National Ice Cream month with a Post-A-Day throughout the month of July!]

Ben and Jerry's Factory Tour

Sometimes I act just like a kid: I get so excited for something that when it finally happens, I am a little bit disappointed. That happened on Friday. Seeing as I love to see how things are made and I love ice cream, I had hyped up the Ben and Jerry's tour so much in my head and when we finally went on it, it just wasn't as wonderful as I expected.

The tour was quick, crowded and pretty standard. It started off with a quick film about the history and the 3-part-mission (which I really admired) of Ben and Jerry's and then our lively tour guide took us through the plant for the eight step process of making the ice cream (each step was labeled in the factory room as we looked down from the catwalk and she talked us through it). Our tour ended with a small scoop of strawberry cheesecake ice cream.

I do have to say, as a collector of ice cream paraphernalia, I did enjoy the gift shop! (I can either look at it as being unfortunate for my collection or lucky for my wallet that the shop is currently unavailable online!)

Afterwards we visited the flavor graveyard up on the hill, which was kind of fun and it inspired me to create my own flavor graveyard beginning with brother-in-law Liam's Lime Spoom. [Appropriately, at our next stop to the Rock of Ages (a great tour, I might add), I was able to pick up some flat granite scraps to use for this purpose!]

I couldn't take pictures for you on the actual tour, but I did manage to get a couple on the grounds and some photos-allowed sites.

Bethany and Kevin as Ben and Jerry

Bethany coming out of a carton of ice cream?
(It's really just an ice cream carton podium
in the sample room.)

I did have fun with my parents, husband, sister and brother-in-law, so spending time with them was well worth it...! Wished my little sister was there too, but alas, she was enjoying her own ice cream down in Virginia, and hopefully she'll be guesting with a field report soon! (Thanks, Arianna!)