Ben Of Ben & Jerry's Can Barely Taste Or Smell
The man responsible for setting your ice cream bar so high is none other than Ben Cohen, the co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s. Name another brand that gives you crunch, chew, and creaminess in literally every single bite—you can't!
And there's a reason each pint is packed with, well, everything. Since childhood, Ben has had a rare sinus condition called anosmia that has severely limited his sense of taste and smell. As a result, almost all of his enjoyment of food is derived from its texture.
I interviewed Ben—who now serves mostly as a masthead for the business—recently with the intention of learning about how his ice creams became textural masterpieces. Instead, I ended up chatting with him for almost an hour about everything from the beginning of Ben & Jerry's to its current stature as an "aspiring social justice company."
What sparked your love of and obsession with ice cream?
Ice cream, to me, is about texture. It's the sensation of it melting in your mouth, the smooth creaminess. With regular [non-Ben & Jerry's] ice cream, I would be hard-pressed to tell the difference in the flavors.
When Jerry and I first started creating the flavors [in the 1970s], he'd give me something to taste. He'd say, “Well, how do you like it?” I said, “It's good. But I can't tell what flavor it is.” So he would just keep on adding more flavoring until I could guess.
Was it always your intent to incorporate the big textures that are now so associated with your ice cream?
I mean, I was just trying to make ice cream that I personally liked. I can remember being elementary school age—my family would be sitting around the dinner table and my mom would serve ice cream for dessert. I’d go get some cookies or candies and put them in the dish and bust them up with my spoon and mix it around. It just seemed like second-nature to me to do that when we started the business.
Did you two develop any texture rules or guidelines for new flavors?
The only argument Jerry and I really got into was about the size of the [chocolate] chunks.
It's a lot easier to run ice cream in a production ice cream production facility if the chunks are small. I think that was one reason why he liked the chunks to be smaller. We finally compromised on reducing our profit and making a whole lot of really big chunks.
In fact, we ended up making our own: We came out with a special, low-melting-point compound chocolate for our chunks because at the time, all you could get for ice cream were these little chips. We added cocoa butter so that it would soften in the ice cream.
Do you have a favorite Ben & Jerry’s texture?
There [are] two that come to mind. One is Heath Bars and the other is Rainforest Crunch; they're both kind of similar because they're both a butter-crunch base. The thing about putting chunks in ice cream is that there's this phenomenon known as "moisture migration." Even though the product is frozen, there's always some amount of water in it that's not.
When that moisture migrates and the butter crunch starts to melt, it creates a caramel-y, liquid-y, buttery, and crunchy part of the ice cream. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's a swirl, but it's similar to that. A lot of it stays crunchy, though, especially with Heath bars. The chocolate coating acts as a moisture barrier.
Is there a textural innovation you were particularly proud of?
The last flavor I personally developed was Phish Food. We worked on it with the band somewhat, but the basis of it was a chocolate marshmallow ice cream. I had very strong feelings about existing chocolate marshmallow ice creams. I felt that the marshmallow variegate or swirl tended to be really, really wispy and I wanted a really thick, chewy marshmallow swirl. I kept working with the supplier and they’d send me samples, and we’d try it out and I would say, “No, this is far too fluffy and wispy.” We went back and forth quite a bit.
What we ended up using was actually not marshmallow, but it was technically more a nougat. It was thick and chewy and people really loved it.
You and Jerry have also been pioneers in corporate consciousness. How have you continued that into 2021?
Jerry and I got involved with the campaign to end qualified immunity after the protests this summer after the murder of George Floyd. We really felt like we wanted to do something about the root causes of the problem, and we saw an open letter that was written by the [NFL] Player's Coalition calling on Congress to pass a law to overturn qualified immunity. [Ed. note: Ben & Jerry's published an explainer on the subject as well as accompanying action items to their website in July of 2020.]
And, y’know, whenever you'd find out about the police brutalizing someone or killing an unarmed Black person, it was an outrage. Then it would turn out that they didn't charge the police person who did it, and if they did charge him, maybe a couple of years later, you'd find out they got off with a slap on the wrist. So I was very motivated to understand what was going on.
How do you think other businesses can strive to make activism part of their mission the way Ben & Jerry’s has?
I think there's an increasing recognition that business is the most powerful force in the country, and that currently, business has been using that power covertly in its own self-interest, essentially controlling our entire government through campaign contributions and lobbying. Consumers are waking up to that fact and they're starting to say "businesses have a responsibility to work for justice."
The traditional business model is screw the consumer, spend a bunch of money on advertising and PR to make yourself look good and go forward like that. Ben & Jerry’s is just saying: "Instead of spending a lot of money trying to make ourselves look good, let's just...be good." We've got it so that people are buying ice cream and enjoying it more because they agree with the values of the people who make it. There's really no stronger relationship.
Ben & Jerry’s has labeled itself as an “aspiring social justice company" despite the fact that many believe it's one of the very few companies putting its money where its mouth is. Why call yourselves that?
It's recognition of the fact that we are by no means perfect. We're trying to be better and better, to work more and more for social justice, but we recognize that we're not always gonna be successful at doing that.
What's important is to be transparent with the public and with your customers. Tell them exactly what's going on. Tell ‘em what's going good, what’s going bad.
How can Delish readers get more involved?
They can visit campaigntoendqualifiedimmunity.org [Ed. note: Ben and Jerry co-founded the campaign] and sign up with their email—that will allow us to keep in touch as the campaign advances. It’s also going to be important to let your members of Congress know what you think and we will help you do that when the time is right.
Read more about Ben & Jerry's ongoing social justice work here.
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