There is something quite distinctly upsetting when one of your favourite snacks is discontinued and you find yourself wondering what on earth you can sink your teeth into now.
Well, for fans of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream flavours that have bitten the dust, you actually have the opportunity to pay your respects, graveside.
No need to adjust your glasses, you read that right, there is indeed an actual ‘Flavor Graveyard’ where discontinued Ben & Jerry’s ice cream flavours are laid to rest.
We’re talking about a physical graveyard full of granite headstones where little anecdotes remember the flavours of the past. Crazy, we know.
It’s a place where diehard fans can honour their dearly de-pinted and reminisce about bygone flavours.
Nicola Simmons, from Ben & Jerry’s explained the origins of the graveyard, saying: “The Flavour Graveyard started out online, when we first began a website roughly 30 years ago!
“It was a fun tie-in for Halloween and allowed us to combine fans' love for their flavours gone by along with the spooky holiday.
“Years after the virtual effort, in 1997 we repeated the graveyard in a 3D fashion at our Waterbury Plant where fans can visit, lament, and celebrate their long, lost favourites.”
The memorial site can be found at the location of Ben & Jerry’s first factory, which opened in 1985, in Vermont, USA.
While the brand has indeed created a large number of experimental and delectable flavours over the years, not all stand the test of time. Flavour experimentation comes hand-in-hand with risks meaning that the not so popular products can ultimately meet their untimely end.
The tongue-in-cheek graveyard offers ice cream lovers the opportunity to shed a tear or two in memoriam of their favourite scoops. However, miracles can happen from time to time as fans beg Ben & Jerry’s to ‘rein-cone-ate’ certain fallen flavours and some really are given a second lease of life.
If you’re wanting to pay your respects but have feet firmly on British soil, the online ‘Flavor Graveyard’ still exists.
The physical graveyard came to life in 1997 and initially contained just four flavours: Dastardly Mash, Economic Crunch, Ethan Almond and Tuskegee Chunk.
Now, you’ll find around 35 flavours buried there including Wavy Gravy, Miz Jelena’s Sweet Potato Pie, Dublin Mudslide, Holy Cannoli amongst many more departees.
In fact, in 2015, the brand took it a step further by hosting an actual funeral at the graveyard for the US flavour, ‘What a Cluster’, attracting mourners from miles away for the memorial.
Never let is be said that ice cream isn’t a passionate subject!
