A couple of weeks ago I had the super fun opportunity to travel to Vermont to visit Ben & Jerry’s Headquarters.
Here’s a peek at my adventures in ice cream through photos.
So let’s start by stating the obvious. Ice cream = amazing. I felt like I was in wonderland. By the way, their offices pretty much look like the packaging exploded all over the walls. Such a fun environment. From the indoor slide that greets you in the lobby, to the Cookie Dough Conference Room to an actual on-site ice cream shop in the middle of the building. It was undeniably Ben & Jerry’s at every turn.
Did you know employees can take home three pints of ice cream? EVERY. DAY. Repeat. EVERY. day.
I would be in such big trouble if I worked here.
Oh hey Cakespy. I forgot to mention the ultra adorable Jessie was there. My sweet friend from the days when I first started blogging. It was such a surprise seeing her that we almost fell down from hugging.
And by the way, you can totally stop reading my post right here and visit her blog for the best recap EVER. She basically illustrated all of our adventures in watercolor ice cream characters.
I’m not kidding. It’s awesome.
Okay, back to my less colorful account.
Before the trip, I would have to say that my favorite flavor was Chocolate Fudge Brownie. But that’s because it’s the only one I would repeatedly buy. It was like a dream to be able to try out so many different flavors while I was there.
But I still didn’t get anywhere near tasting them all of them so which ones are your favorites at home? I have a few new ones. New York Super Chunk, Cotton Candy, and Chocolate Therapy really got me.
During the event, we learned about the company’s values.
Their Product Mission, Economic Mission and Social Mission, which stood out to me the most because of how focused everyone at the company is to make things better. At first all I wanted to do was eat ice cream, but it was inspiring to learn about all of their initiatives outside of making great flavors.
Later in the day, we teamed up with the Ben & Jerry’s Flavor Gurus (real title) to make our own custom ice cream flavors. This photo pretty much sums up how much fun we had working with Peter.
With all the ingredients to choose from, it was hard to decide which way to go at first.
But we started with a really cute name that Jessie came up with and we went with it.
Our team (Me, Jessie and Nick of On Second Scoop) made a peanut butter ice cream with blondies, caramel and pecans.
It was pretty delicious and our flavor gurus loved it, too. Score!
Want to know our flavor name?
Gentlemen Prefer Blondies! After working out our flavor, we collaborated with one of the designers to create our own poster.
We also got a sneak peek at their brand new BRRR-ito that’s available in scoop shops starting TODAY!
That’s right… your two favorite flavors, topped with a fudge drizzle, cookie crumbs and wrapped up in a soft and chewy waffle wrap.
The next morning, we visited a dairy farm and learned more about how their Caring Dairy Program.
Here’s Stacie from One Hungry Mama making a new friend.
I made a couple, too.
In the afternoon, we went on a factory tour. Eeek!
Owen! Our truly awesome tour guide made it memorable.
They were making Coffee Toffee at the factory that day and we were able to enjoy it straight from the production line. Soooo good.
Oh hi Jimmy! You taste great too. : )
Here’s the whole ice cream loving group.
Amanda Topper, Deanna from Domestic Chicky, Sandra Perez, Colin Pinkham from Jezebel, Gwen Paja of the LA Girl, Kristin Hunt from Thrillist, Owen!, Stacie from One Hungry Mama, Jessie from Cakespy, Nicole from Popsugar, Natalie from NJinLA, Me, Nick from On Second Scoop and Katie from Good Life Eats.
After the tour we tried samples of this Vanilla Brownie Caramel flavor. It’s not sold in pints, but it totally should be.
Then in the afternoon, we went snowshoeing around the factory, through the woods and down to the flavor graveyard where people can pay tribute to the “dearly depinted.”
So much fun.
So much ice cream …
Oh and in the end, I even got to meet Ben!
It was a pretty sweet couple of days.
Disclosure: Travel and accommodations provided by Ben & Jerry’s to attend this media event.
Iiiiiiii loooooooovvve iiiicccceee cccrrreeeaam
Boom chocolatta cookie core – the best ice cream in the world! Otherwise that’s a great post. Now I want to go to B&J’s headquarters more than ever!
i loved reading your ice cream adventure and envy you
3 pints a day? Goodbye California, I’m moving to Vermont!
i still get ben & jerry’s sometimes, but i don’t think it is as good since they switched over to fair-trade candies. their toffee candy in what used to be their #1 flavor (coffee ice cream with heath bars) is now horrible. the oreos in mint oreo ice cream were replaced with copy-cats (and we all know there is no other cookie but an oreo that tastes like one). also i know make homemade ice cream so that may be why the ice cream bases don’t taste as good to me. even the brownie/chocolate parts don’t taste that great (i’m comparing to homemade versions, i guess). yes, i am “throwing shade” about them – lol. i wish they would put taste first.
I’ll have to look out for Brrr-itos. Flavor Graveyard? That’s just awesome.
Now that my blog is a little more established, I would love it if you could have a look!
littlemiss-blogger.blogspot.co.uk
Thanks xx
So cool that you guys got to design your own flavor!
When is the best time to visit this place with kids?
What an amazingly fun trip! Your flavor should TOTALLY be in stores.
Also, is it weird that I am kind of obsessed with the Flavor Graveyard?!?!
What is your nameeee
Awesome! Sounds like y’all had a blast! My favorite flavors are Chocolate Therapy and The Tonight Dough.
very nice
Heaven! What a blessing trip and you even got to meet Ben!…As always, fantastic photos that have me wanting to reach through the computer screen…BTW Were you at Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream on Saturday night in LA? I could’ve sworn it was you but got shy. Next time this Ninja Baker is saying hello =)
No, no,… I’m not jealous… hemhem… hmmm maybe just a tiny bit… Yeah, OK! Totally and hopelessly jealous! Aaargh… ;-) Jokes aside, this looks awesome and like a great company. It’s probably a dream come true to work there. I wish more companies would try to make their employees feel valued and would also have similar company values they’d try to achieve.
Um, hello dream come true!!! What an amazing opportunity! I would have been in heaven!
lucky
It’s such a fun place to visit!!
This is soooo adorable!!! You were over there with my sweet friend Deanna!!! She said you guys had a great time…Now I can actually SEE what a great time it was!!! Slightly jealous! And what an adorable name!! Gentlemen prefer blonds!!! LOVE IT!
How fun!! Thank you for sharing. Oh, if they would only bring back Oatmeal Cookie! Cinnamon Buns is a good second stand-in though. :)
I haven’t used the term “ice cream social” since I was a very little kid when my parents would take us to church every Sunday, our church put on an “ice cream social” in an old school house like building and I remember having ice cream on cake with strawberries and hot fudge, so yummy! I love their company values, I love that you love their company values! I used to work for a famous company that is well known for their characters, they are painted in huge oversized murals all over the entry way to the employee building, it was the best part of working there – can’t say the same for company values as Ben and Jerry’s though :-( AWESOME BLOG POST!!! MADE MY DAY!
Amazing!! This is on my bucket list!!
Speculoos!?! Get, In. Mah. BELLY!
I want to go back to vermont right now. Let’s go back???
What a fun post! I don’t splurge on Ben and Jerry’s often, but I love Phish Food. (Not a Phish fan or anything, it’s just really good ice cream!!)
Your happiness at this trip shone through in this sunshiny post. My husband and I took a cycling tour of Vermont 20+ years ago and the Ben & Jerry’s shop you visited was one of our stops. So much fun we felt compelled to go back a few more times before we left Vermont. Love that place.
Super creative and FUN! This post made me smile from ear to ear. Oh, and Ben’s T-shirt proves not all GMO’s are bad for you (genetically modified organisms). GMO (Get Money Out) is good for everyone ;)
Wow loved the picture share looked like soooo much fun. Something I am going to look into for my family.
Loved taking the tour with you, Angie!! Thanks so much for the sweet and creamy scoop about B&J! ????
So much fun!
I am so envious! Thank you for sharing, I would LOVE to take this tour! It looks like such an awesome day!
Looks like an amazing trip! I would love to go with my husband. He is the biggest ice cream fan on the planet-and loves their chubby hubby????
This would be truly enjoyable :-) anything with PB and I’m in. lol
Looks fun, but I am in love with haagen daaz ice cream ;)
B&J are amazing all the ice cream they make is so good tasting!
Oh wow, that’s such a cool experience. I’d love to go there and try all the ice cream I could. We don’t get that many flavours here in the UK so this is really cool to see a little bit more of the Ben & Jerry ice creams.
eeeeeek i would love to go
Oh my goodness, your day sounds like such a dream! I guess I’ll just have to live vicariously through your icecream adventures :D Thank you so much for sharing!