This year I’ve been recommending a history podcast in my email newsletter each month. Of course this has led to me checking out many unfamiliar podcasts. This month I’m listening to How I Built This; each episode is an interview with the founder of a well-known brand. After listening to the episode featuring Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, I decided to share some fun facts about the history of the iconic ice cream Ben & Jerry’s.
- Before starting their first ice cream shop, Jerry twice tried to get into medical school and Ben attempted a career as a potter.
2. After they decided to launch a business together they considered making bagels but the equipment was too expensive.
3. They knew they wanted to live in a college town and sell a food product that was gaining popularity in the cities. They kept moving north till they found a town without an ice cream shop: Burlington, Vermont.
4. They took a $5 correspondence course on how to make ice cream (split between the two of them).
5. Their business plan included a promotion called POPCDBZWE (pronounced pop-si-biz-we) for “pennies off per Celsius degree below zero winter extravaganza.”
6. Their original goal was to make $20,000 each per year.
7. The reason Ben & Jerry’s chunky homemade ice cream was unique was that at the time commercial ice cream machines couldn’t handle big chunks.
8. Their first unusual flavours were Oreo Mint and Heath Bar Crunch. (They also invented cookie dough ice cream.)
9. When Pillsbury (which owned Haagen-Dasz) tried to stop distributors from carrying Ben & Jerry’s, they launched a campaign called “What’s the Doughboy Afraid of?”
10. They developed the flavour Cherry Garcia after receiving the suggestion in an anonymous postcard.
They invented cookie dough ice cream? Who knew??