Humble ice cream is often added as a side to brownies or enjoyed in cones in the summer but Ben & Jerry’s tubs have changed that. They have hundreds of flavours for sweet-toothed fans to try out, moving ice cream to the centre of the plate.
From the iconic Cookie Dough to the new Tony’s Chocolonely collaboration with salted caramel and chocolate chunks, Ben & Jerry’s have all the bases covered when it comes to delicious ice cream. The brand’s flavour gurus are always creating new concoctions to try but not all of them make it to market.
Tsega Abate, flavour guru since 2018, shared that some unusual flavours have been created that are surprisingly delicious. One such ice cream was made with actual sweetcorn, creating an odd but "delicious" taste.
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She told the Daily Record: “I remember, I played around with sweetcorn ice cream. So we actually milled the sweetcorn, we sieved it, we put it in. Actually it was delicious and it was quite creamy!”
While some brands thrive on strange flavours, Ben & Jerry’s ruled that sweetcorn would not become part of the range. “It was just weird,” she explained, “It was sweetcorn in ice cream… It still gave you a very sweetcorn [taste] so people were very polarised by it. So we thought yeah, no, that one is never gonna fly.”
Along with savoury ingredients, Ben & Jerry’s are unlikely to release flavours which are on trend either. The flavour guru shared that “trending stuff like matcha ice cream” gets requested but these are flavours which the brand “don't necessarily have” already and are unlikely to bring out.
Self confessed chocoholic Tsega did add that she would love to see more chocolate flavours in the range, although they also get requests for more fruity ice creams too. She explained that the real flavour challenge at the moment is getting the non-dairy versions to taste just as good.
With the Chocolate Love-a-Fair collaboration ice cream, which hit shelves this month, they focused on one flavour but have released it in a non-dairy version as well as dairy. Tsega said: “All of our inclusions, so the chunks, are non dairy by design so they're going in the dairy and in the non dairy pints.”
While fans might not ever see sweetcorn Ben &Jerry’s make it to the shelves, they may find more and more tubs available dairy free. As for new inventions, Tsega believes no flavour is off limits but it might be adapted.
For example a request for bacon ice cream could end up as a maple syrup, pancakes and bacon ice cream instead. She said: “You can add things that would make it work. So we would have to use our own creativity and imagination kind of translate it.
“We may not be able to do it exactly in the way they've suggested it but I don't think there's any flavour we would say no, we will not do. We just make it Ben &Jerry's, let's say!”
Tony’s Chocolonely and Ben & Jerry’s collaboration aims to bring awareness to their mission to end modern slavery and child labour within the chocolate industry. Tony’s will release two chocolate bars in early 2023, while Ben & Jerry’s ice cream is on sale this month.
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