Most people think they know everything about Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, but the beloved brand has been keeping some pretty wild secrets from its fans. From the co-founder who can’t smell his own creations to employees getting three free pints every day, these behind-the-scenes facts will completely change how everyone sees those colorful containers in the freezer aisle.
The company started with just a five-dollar lesson
When Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield decided to start making ice cream, they didn’t attend fancy schools or apprentice under master chefs. Instead, they split the cost of a five-dollar correspondence course from Penn State University and learned everything through the mail. This bargain-basement education became the foundation for what would eventually become a multi-million dollar empire that spans the globe.
After completing their mail-order ice cream education, the duo scraped together eight thousand dollars of their own money and borrowed another four thousand to open their first shop. They found a rundown gas station in Burlington, Vermont, renovated it themselves, and started serving ice cream to locals. The humble beginnings prove that sometimes the biggest successes come from the smallest investments and a willingness to learn something new.
Ben can’t actually smell the ice cream he creates
Here’s something that will blow everyone’s mind: Ben Cohen, the “Ben” in Ben & Jerry’s, suffers from a condition called anosmia, which means he has almost no sense of smell. This might sound like a major disadvantage for someone in the food business, but it actually became one of the company’s greatest strengths. When regular people can smell and taste everything perfectly, they might be satisfied with subtle amounts of ingredients.
Because Ben couldn’t rely on his nose to judge whether a recipe tasted good enough, he compensated by adding more and more ingredients until he could taste them. This is exactly why Ben & Jerry’s ice cream is so incredibly rich and packed with chunks, swirls, and intense tastes that other brands can’t match. What started as a personal challenge became the signature style that millions of people now crave.
Employees get three free pints every single day
Working at Ben & Jerry’s headquarters in South Burlington, Vermont comes with perhaps the sweetest job perk in America. Every employee gets to take home three full pints of ice cream each day, which adds up to more than one thousand pints per year per person. That’s enough ice cream to feed a small family for months, or to make one person very happy and very full on a regular basis.
The company knows that giving employees unlimited access to ice cream might cause some health concerns, so they’ve set up a fully equipped gym right in the office building. They also provide yoga classes and bring in massage therapists regularly to help everyone stay healthy. The office even has a designated nap room because apparently, eating that much ice cream can make people pretty sleepy. Talk about employee benefits that actually matter!
Most ice cream starts with the exact same base recipe
Despite having dozens of different options in stores, almost every Ben & Jerry’s ice cream starts its life as the same basic mixture. The standard base contains milk, cream, liquid sugar, egg yolks, and water mixed together in specific proportions. This might seem boring, but it’s actually a smart way to ensure consistency across all the different varieties while making production much more efficient and predictable.
The company does make a few variations of this base recipe with different fat and sugar levels depending on what’s going to be added later. If they’re making a pint that will include high-fat ingredients like peanut butter, they start with a lower-fat base to prevent the final product from becoming too hard to scoop. According to former Flavor Guru Kirsten Schimoler, “If you’re at too high a fat level, once you freeze it, you’re going to end up with concrete.” The same logic applies to sweet additions like caramel, which require starting with a lower-sugar base.
New ice cream takes over a year to develop
When a new Ben & Jerry’s ice cream appears in the freezer section, it’s the result of an incredibly long and detailed process that most customers never see. The average development time for each new variety is between twelve and fourteen months, which means the ice cream being eaten today was probably being planned and tested when last year’s seasons were just beginning.
The lengthy development process involves countless rounds of testing, adjusting recipes, figuring out production challenges, and making sure everything tastes perfect before any customers get to try it. However, there was one notable exception to this careful timeline. Schweddy Balls, inspired by Alec Baldwin’s Saturday Night Live skit, made it from concept to store shelves in just four months for the 2011 holiday season. Unfortunately, the vanilla ice cream with rum and fudge-covered malt balls has since been discontinued.
There’s an actual graveyard for dead ice cream
Ben & Jerry’s takes discontinued ice cream seriously enough to give each retired variety its own funeral and burial plot. At the company’s factory in Waterbury, Vermont, visitors can walk through an actual graveyard filled with headstones for dozens of discontinued ice cream types. Each headstone includes clever epitaphs that explain what happened to these “dearly depinted” varieties that didn’t make it in the marketplace.
One of the tombstones belongs to Sugar Plum, which reads: “It swirled in our heads, it danced in our dreams, it proved not to be though, the best of ice creams.” But here’s the interesting part: some of these “dead” ice creams can actually come back to life like zombies. White Russian was buried in the graveyard after being discontinued in 1996 due to the high cost of its Kahlua-like ingredients, but customer demand eventually brought it back to life in Scoop Shops around the country.
Sometimes the name comes before the actual ice cream
Most people would assume that Ben & Jerry’s creates a delicious ice cream first and then figures out what to call it, but sometimes the process works completely backwards. The company occasionally comes up with a great name first and then spends months trying to develop an ice cream that lives up to it. This backwards approach can make the development process even more challenging than usual.
This exact situation happened with Liz Lemon Greek Frozen Yogurt, which was named after Tina Fey’s character from the TV show 30 Rock. The development team knew they wanted to create something called “Liz Lemon” but had no idea what it should actually taste like. According to Kirsten Schimoler, they explored countless different lemon-based recipes before finding the perfect combination that matched the clever name they’d already chosen.
The team travels to cities just to eat all day
Ben & Jerry’s Flavor Gurus don’t just sit in an office thinking up new ice cream ideas. Every year, they take working trips to cities known for innovative food scenes where they spend entire days doing nothing but eating. These aren’t vacation trips – they’re serious research missions where team members visit up to ten different restaurants, food trucks, bakeries, and specialty shops every single day.
During these food-focused trips, the team puts in twelve-hour days of non-stop tasting to discover new ingredient combinations and cooking techniques that might translate well into ice cream. The inspiration for Liz Lemon Greek Frozen Yogurt actually came from a blueberry-lavender cocktail that someone tried in San Francisco. These research trips prove that the best ice cream ideas can come from the most unexpected places.
Customers send thirteen thousand suggestions every year
Ben & Jerry’s receives an overwhelming amount of mail, email, and social media messages from fans who have ideas for new ice cream varieties. Every year, approximately thirteen thousand suggestions pour in from people all over the world who think they’ve invented the next big ice cream sensation. The company actually reads every single suggestion and looks for patterns or recurring themes that might indicate what people really want to eat.
Some of the company’s most successful and iconic ice creams started as customer suggestions rather than internal brainstorming sessions. Cherry Garcia, which spent more than a decade as the company’s most popular variety, was suggested by two Grateful Dead fans from Portland, Maine. This proves that sometimes the best business ideas come from the people who will actually be buying and eating the final product, not from corporate meeting rooms.
These shocking secrets reveal that Ben & Jerry’s success comes from a combination of happy accidents, creative problem-solving, and genuine connection with customers. The next time someone opens a pint of their favorite variety, they’ll know there’s a fascinating story behind every single spoonful that goes far beyond what’s printed on the container.
