An Ice Surprise! (Ben & Jerry's The Full Vermonty)

Member Name: Elli

Product:	Ben & Jerry's The Full Vermonty
Date:	24/06/01 (153 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Delicious, Luxurious

Disadvantages: Expensive, Not widely stocked as yet

"I’ve got something special for you,” said my husband, “A real treat.”

“Oh yes?” I responded, somewhat vaguely. I was pleasantly full of shepherd’s pie and red plonk. Sitting comfortably curled up on the settee, dog tucked up behind my knees, I was only slightly curious.

“How about some full vermonty?”, he insisted.

“What!” I was startled. I sat up. The dog barked.

“Now or later?” he insisted.

To be honest I wasn’t really in the mood for, well, you know .... all I wanted was a mug of coffee and maybe EastEnders. But, hey, too much routine is not a good thing. This might add a bit of sparkle... The approach was certainly unusual...

“Do you really think that’s a good idea”, I said. (I knew he’d recently had some twinges in his back.)

“Yes, why not, we could both do with something nice, a bit different,” he announced.

I was still unsure. “Oh. Oh, okay,” I said, “if you’re certain.”

“Yes, I am.” he said, firmly. “I’ll go and get it ready in the kitchen.”

What! The kitchen! This was intriguing. How risque! Reminded me of years ago ... I turned the telly off, turfed the dog out, and closed the curtains (I could still hear the neighbours mowing their lawn).

A few minutes later, I was waiting with anticipation, and in sauntered my husband, fully-clothed, with two dessert bowls. “It’s very dark in here.” he said, somewhat surprised.

“What’s that you’ve got there?” I said quickly to distract him as I opened the curtains and let the dog back in. He explained, “I bought this in Tescos today. It’s a new Ben & Jerry’s ice cream called “The Full VerMonty”.

And very delicious it w
as too.

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The Full VerMonty consists of maple ice cream, with roasted pecan nuts and caramel swirls. I enjoy most of Ben & Jerry’s ice creams, but this is my favourite flavour so far. The basic maple flavour ice cream is scrumptious. You can really taste the maple syrup and the ice cream has a delicious natural creamy flavour with no nasty synthetic aftertaste. There were plenty of nuts. The caramel swirls complement the ice cream and nuts perfectly. I do have to add here that my son finds this ice cream rather sickly, something about the caramel swirls being too sweet. But me, I could eat a whole tub!

The ice cream, like any other top-quality ice cream, is impossible to eat straight from the freezer. You need to leave it half an hour or so to soften. The cheap ice creams you can eat straight from the freezer because they are full of air which softens and collapses the ice cream quickly.

The tub, 500 ml, is expensive, at £3.98 from Tesco. There are no special offers available as yet, as this is a new flavour. But the tub will give you four, albeit rather small, helpings, and as the ice cream is so rich, a little goes a long way.

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I find the story of the Ben & Jerry empire fascinating. The company emphasises its lowly beginnings, with childhood friends Ben & Jerry setting up in 1978 with one ice cream machine and hardly any capital, in their home town of Burlington, Vermont.

They have a funky website, www.benjerry.co.uk or www.benjerry.com, using Comic Sans font to give a young and friendly feel. It is a fun site, with games such as “Thumping Moo” to play, and links such as “The Flavour Graveyard”, “Fun Stuff”, newsletters and E-cards. They sponsor wacky projects such as the Nettle Eating World Championships and Bog Snorkelling. They give away 7.5 per cent of their pre-tax earnings
to the Ben & Jerry Foundation, which supports a variety of charitable projects.

Their full company name is Ben & Jerry’s Homemade, Inc. In the past they have made great play of being the underdogs against the major player, (ie against Haagen Daz). But they are a huge, successful, company ($237 million turnover in 1999).

A couple of years ago, the company was bought by Unilever, who also own Walls ice cream. Ben & Jerry are still involved, and Unilevers have agreed that the company should continue with their individual image. It must make good marketing sense. Ben & Jerry are certainly an example of local boys made good (they are multi-millionaires by now).

Long may they survive to make delicious ice cream!

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