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Fellowship of Fructose. Ever wonder how Ben and Jerry's comes up with its flavors? Sure you have, and so did Andy Serwer, who published an investigative report into the question in Fortune (12/8/03). As it happens, the flavor's name sometimes comes first. "Chunky Monkey came from a description of camp food sent in by a counselor." Karamel Sutra was dreamed up by a New York Times reporter. Cherry Garcia, shockingly, was thought up by "a bunch of Deadheads from Maine." The heavy lifting, however, is completed by a guy named Andrew Carbone, whose job it is to find flavors that are just as clever as their names. This involves traveling the world, eating as many desserts as possible, and determining which taste sensations might "readily translate into ice cream."
And so, Andy Serwer followed Andrew Carbone and his team on a taste tour of New York City, where the stops included the Little Pie Company, City Bakery, Gotham Bar & Grill (where "all the desserts" were ordered -- but only after a steak lunch), and Dylan's Candy Bar. The thing is, the tour results in very few new flavors, primarily because "the palette of ice-cream flavors is pretty basic." Most everyone likes "vanilla, chocolate and caramel." Fruit flavors -- such as strawberry, cherry and raspberry -- are also "popular, but less universal." Then there are the polarizing flavors -- "mint, banana and coconut," and the mix-ins, consisting mainly of "nuts, marshmallows, swirls and chunks."
It's not that Ben and Jerry's doesn't stray from that palette, though. At any given time, they may have 150 experimental batches in the works, such as "rose, jalapeno lime ice, almonds and Tabasco, sour cream dip with potato chips, Bloody Mary sorbet and anchovy-puree swirl." Comments Andrew Carbone (whose business-card title reads: Conductor of Bizarre & D): "You can make all sorts of strange flavors -- there is a guy who makes lobster-flavored ice cream ... But I always ask, 'Would you really buy that?" Uh, no, probably not. Perhaps mercifully, Ben and Jerry's "has only about 30 flavors out there at any given time."
Tim Manners, editor
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