Ben & Jerry's

Ben & Jerry's Factory!!

Izzy

7.4.19

On July 2, Koko, Ethan, and I went to the Ben & Jerry's factory here in Vermont. We took a tour and got to see the inside of the factory and how the ice cream is made. First on the tour we saw a short film about the starting of Ben & Jerry's. Ben and Jerry first took an ice cream making course in 1977, and then opened up their first ice cream shop in an old gas station. The reason Ben & Jerry's ice cream has big chunks in it is because Ben has anosmia, which means he has a lack of taste, so the chunks made it easier to "taste." I don't really remember the process of making the ice cream because it was very long, but I looked on their website and was able to find out. There are 4 6,000 gallon tanks that hold the milk and cream and keep them at 36 degrees. Then in a blend tank the milk and cream are blended with liquid sugar. A Mix Master adds egg yolks, chocolate (if the ice cream is chocolate), and some natural stabilizers. The mixture is then pasteurized and homogenized. The mix is put into Flavor Vats where the amazing flavors are added. Next it goes to a freezer to cool. Chunks are added and things like caramel or peanut butter are swirled in. The ice cream then gets put into pints--the machine can fill up to 120 pints each minute!!! It gets frozen again and then the pints are bundled. At the end we got a sample of AmeriCone Dream, which is DELICIOUS!! 

Half Baked is the most sold ice cream flavor