Food - Drink
A Bad Review Sparked The Invention Of Ben & Jerry's Fudgy NYC Flavor
By MICHELLE WELSCH
Co-founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield were in the beginning stages of expanding Ben & Jerry’s as they explored areas outside their initial Vermont market to New York. It was then that food critic Gael Greene ventured to Dimitri's Café on Spring Street in Manhattan to taste some of their flavors.
In her critique, Greene noted that Ben & Jerry’s ice cream was thought to be the best in the United States. Yet, after sampling the flavors, she remarked, "The ice cream (15½ percent butterfat, 20 percent overrun) is pleasant enough, but not thrilling, and the chips and bits seem rather sparse;" Ben and Jerry, however, took the comment as a challenge.
Cohen and Greenfield set out to pack as much flavor as possible into their next creation, made with New York in mind, cramming 40% more chunks than any other ice cream they had previously made. Their website states, "We figured if the flavor was euphoric in New York, it would be everywhere. It was, and it is.”