I'm back with part two of my Ben & Jerry's adventure! If you haven't checked out
part one yet, stop what you're doing and
read that first. We had so much fun I couldn't pack everything into one post!
The morning of our second day in Vermont, our group headed WAY north (almost into Canada) to visit one of the dairy farms that is a part of the Ben & Jerry's
Caring Dairy initiative. Caring Dairy is a voluntary program offering a framework for Ben & Jerry's farmers to improve their dairy farms based on social, economic, and environmental criteria. 42% of the carbon footprint created during the ice cream making process comes from dairy farms, highlighting the importance of this initiative.
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| On the Way to the Farm |
Once we arrived, all of us put on plastic shoe covers to be sure we didn't track anything onto the farm. They were quite stylish (and quite slippery on the ice)!
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| Sporting Our Shoe Covers |
We toured the farm and got up close and personal with those cows. They were truly happy cows! One even looked like it was smiling! Since it was a dairy farm, obviously we also saw cows being milked.
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| Milking Cows |
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| Vermont Dairy Farm |
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| Happy Cows! |
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| Happy Cows! |
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| Vermont Dairy Farm |
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| Happy Cows! |
Our next stop was at the Ben & Jerry's factory in Waterbury, VT. Have you been there before? It's pretty great and you can take a tour (with samples of course!).
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| At the Ben & Jerry's Factory |
Our first task when we arrived was to taste some ice cream straight off the production line. On the day of our visit, they were making Coffee Toffee Bar Crunch, a coffee ice cream with fudge-covered toffee pieces.
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| Coffee Toffee Bar Crunch |
Holy crap was this stuff delicious. When the ice cream comes off the production line it's at its freshest and is the consistency of soft serve. This is as good as it gets guys. Collectively, we polished off quite a few pints! I'm STILL dreaming of that ice cream :sigh:
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| Coffee Toffee Bar Crunch |
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| Coffee Toffee Bar Crunch |
After we were nearly sick to our stomachs, we went on a tour of the factory. Our tour guide was super knowledgeable and full of corny jokes. Laughing literally hurt because I was so full of ice cream. The factory is a 0% waste facility meaning everything from cardboard, to ice cream, to ingredient boxes gets used, sold, or recycled!
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| Ben & Jerry's Tour |
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| Our Tour Guide Owen |
We viewed the factory hard at work and of course got to sample even more ice cream!
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| Ben & Jerry's Tour |
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| Samples on the Ben & Jerry's Tour |
Post factory tour, we had a visit from several quality control guys. They showed us how they cut into pints of ice cream to ensure inclusions (mix-ins) are evenly distributed. They sliced and diced the new
cookie core flavors. How do they make the core flavors? Well, that's unfortunately under wraps!
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| Quality Control |
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| Quality Control |
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| Quality Control |
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| Quality Control |
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| Quality Control |
After 30 seconds of not eating ice cream passed, it was time to try some more. We had the chance to visit the scoop shop at the factory and taste test as many flavors as we wanted. I was a kid in a (ice cream shop) candy store. New favorite flavor?
Hazed and Confused: chocolate and hazelnut ice creams with fudge chips and a hazelnut fudge core. YEAH.
After eating all that ice cream, it was time to work a little off by snowshoeing! I had never gone snowshoeing before and I'll admit I was a little nervous! It ended up being so fun and it was actually not terribly cold with the sun out! The views were amazing!
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| Vermont Views |
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| Vermont Views |
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| Snowshoeing! |
Here's a great shot of our blogger gang:
Nicole from
Popsugar, Angie from
Bakerella, Nick from
On Second Scoop, Stacie from
One Hungry Mama, Kristin from
Thrillist, Colin from
Jezebel, Me, Sandra from
Sany Says, Gwen from
The LA Girl, Natalie from
NJinLA, Jessie from
Cakespy, (who also created an amazing
illustrated recap of our trip!) Katie from
Good Life Eats, and Deanna from
Domestic Chicky (not pictured)!
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| The Blogger Gang |
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| Snowshoeing! |
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| Of Course I Took a Selfie...The Background Was Gorgeous! |
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| Snowshoeing! |
The last stop on our snowshoeing trail was the Ben & Jerry's
Flavor Graveyard. The Flavor Graveyard is where Ben & Jerry's pays tribute to their "dearly de-pinted" discontinued flavors. There were some good ones in there! Hopefully some of them can make a comeback!
Post-snowshoeing, we had some downtime before heading to our last dinner as a group. We were all so excited for dinner because we were finally going to find out who won the ice cream flavor contest. As a quick refresher, our group of bloggers was divided into four teams and each team created their own unique flavor. One winner based on taste test votes (from bloggers, flavor gurus, and PR and marketing folks) would win entry into the pint of the month club for an entire year!
When we arrived at the restaurant, we were greeted by Ben Cohen (yes, that Ben) who announced the winner of the flavor contest.
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| Ben Cohen |
So who won?!
My group, the Bourbon Babes with our flavor, "OH, SAP!" maple brown butter ice cream with speculoos cookie bits & swirl, plus a splash of bourbon! Everyone did a great job creating their flavors but it was awesome to win the contest and a great end to the trip. I snapped a selfie with Ben after he announced we won, and team Bourbon Babes also posed for a photo with him.
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| Ben Cohen & Me |
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| Team Bourbon Babes & Ben Cohen |
Here's the whole gang with their flavor posters!
As if the trip wasn't already amazing, the Ben & Jerry's
Flavor Gurus surprised everyone by making our ice cream flavor, "OH, SAP!" and serving it for dessert. Now that was certainly a sweet ending!
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| OH, SAP! Ice Cream |
I'm so thankful for the opportunity--it was truly a trip of a lifetime! Don't just take my word for it--check out photos from
the other bloggers on Instagram too! By the way, if anyone wants to come help me eat my monthly Ben & Jerry's shipment, you're more than welcome!
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| Peace. Love, & Ice Cream |
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