Food - Drink
The Tiny Team Responsible For All Of Ben & Jerry’s New Flavors
By ERIN SHAW
Have you ever found yourself chuckling at one of the cleverly named Ben & Jerry’s ice cream flavors and wondered, who comes up with this stuff? As it turns out, there’s a specific — and very small — team of Ben & Jerry’s employees who are tasked with the job of thinking up new flavors.
There is a tiny team of just nine people, known as “flavor gurus,” who innovate, create, and test new flavors for Ben & Jerry’s. These employees describe the job as eating a lot of ice cream, but they’re not just testing for flavor; they’re paying attention to texture too, making sure the balance is just right between smooth, silky, creamy, and crunchy.
Part of the process is doing market research, meaning the flavor gurus will explore different cultures and draw inspiration from the cities they visit. Once they’ve got an idea, it takes about 12 months for a flavor to move from a concept to a product that customers can purchase in-store.