Ben & Jerry’s Factory Tour

July 21

Not being too big a fan of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream (based purely upon its price,) I didn’t think much about visiting their factory, but my adventurous spirit won out and we wound up booking a tour.

Ben & Jerry’s started in 1978 after the eponymous duo spent $5 to take a correspondence class on ice cream making. Soon after, they set up their first Scoop Shop in an old gas station in Burlington, VT. Decades later, the brand is now owned by Unilever and is distributed to over 40 countries world-wide.

The first actual factory they had is in nearby Waterbury, a hop skip and a jump from the first B&J’s location in Burlington, and is the only facility that is open for tours to the public.

The tickets were only $6 and, while walk-ups are allowed, it is HIGHLY recommended to buy your tickets in advance as the tours do tend to fill up quickly.

We had our reservation for 11:30 on July 21. With the drive being just over an hour, we left the AirBnB just after 10:00 am, stopping for gas on the way to the interstate.

We got to the factory just after 11:00 and made our way through the maze of parking lots, finally settling in a lot at the top of a hill, right next to the factory’s famous Flavor Graveyard.

The walk down took us past a playground that was teeming with children, then past the massive sugar, milk and cream silos situated outside of the main building.

The factory has a scoop shop set up outside and it was already busy with people that had likely just finished their own tour.

As you enter the lobby of the building, there is what was supposed to be a reception desk, behind which is a massive wall of pints of the brand’s current top sellers. Off to the right was the gift shop, then to the left was the entrance to the tour.

We waited until we heard the cowbell indicating that the 11:30 tour should start lining up. We got a brief spiel from our tour guide, a young kid, maybe on summer break from high school. His pre-tour speech was peppered with dairy-based puns and jokes, each and every one tickling my fancy (and making Brandy groan and roll her eyes.)

We were then set off up a flight of stairs and into a small movie theater where we watched a less-than-10-minute movie about the brand’s humble beginnings, it’s extensive history and the future of the brand.

After the movie, we were ushered onto a catwalk overlooking the surprisingly small production floor. We got a very thorough explanation of the manufacturing process, and were told that this small factory only produces one flavor at a time. They will produce that one flavor for up to three consecutive days before shutting down for a day of thorough cleaning to ensure no contaminants from the current flavor make it into the next flavor.

After our observations of the manufacturing area, we were herded into a smaller room where we were presented with our free sample, the flavor for the day being Broccoli Cheddar Chunk.

We were then told the story of their annual April Fool’s flavor (that they ACTUALLY manufacture for the one day), the Broccoli Cheddar Chunk being a prank flavor from the past. We were then given our samples of the actual flavor of the day, Churray for Churros! It was pretty good. I liked it, but not enough that I’d want to buy an entire pint of it.

The small room was cordoned off from an even smaller kitchen that, we were told, was the actual, official test kitchen for Ben and Jerry when they first opened the factory. The kitchen is now in disuse and is simply staged for tour-goers to see what their first test kitchen looked like.

From this area, we were shuttled down a hall, lined with posters indicating the top sellers in order, then back downstairs and into the gift shop where we picked up a few trinkets.

As we left the facility, we passed a tent where people were allowed to create their own tie-dyed Ben & Jerry shirts. Brandy paid the $20 and a plain, white Ben & Jerry’s t-shirt was banded up and the kids manning the booth took the dyes we selected and saturated the shirt. The bundle was balled up and put in a zip-top bag and sent home with instructions on how to prolong the vibrancy of the newly-minted, and truly one-of-a-kind, shirt.

After that adventure, we headed back up the hill, past the playground and into the flavor graveyard where tombstones celebrated the long (or short) lives of some of the flavors that the company had discontinued.

There were a few flavors I was surprised to see had two or even three separate runs of production, then begging the question, if the demand was there to restart the making of a flavor, why does it keep getting discontinued?

We also saw some flavors that were intended to celebrate noteworthy times in history (see Schweddy Balls).

Either way, some of the epitaphs were pretty entertaining and definitely worth the brief stroll.

After we were done gazing at the passed flavors, we hopped back into the truck and we were back on our way to the AirBnB.

Conclusion

Having never given too much thought to the brand, I suppose it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that the company is steeped in community and global activism. Ranging from fighting the deforestation in South America to more local issues such as the systemic racism that plagues our country, Ben & Jerry’s supports the people of the world. I’m glad I was able to tour this factory and now knowing what I do about the brand, I plan on buying more of their ice cream.

Pictures from this tour are, as always, on my Photo Diary.

Be sure to continue reading on for the second half of the month we spent in Vermont.

And until then,

-Phil