Why Ben & Jerry’s Started Making All Those Special Celebrity Flavors
It was because of an anonymous postcard from an ice cream-loving Grateful Dead fan.
The exact date in 1986 that the company received it at their Burlington, Vermont headquarters isn’t recorded in any of the available retellings of the story, but the transcript of the short note survives:
‘We’re great fans of the Grateful Dead and we’re great fans of your ice cream. Why don’t you make a cherry flavor and call it Cherry Garcia? You know it will sell because Dead paraphernalia always sells. We are talking good business sense here, plus it will be a real hoot for the fans.’
After Jerry Garcia, of course, the Grateful Dead’s legendary front man.
‘A flavor celebrating Jerry Garcia? What a perfect idea,’ reads the official origin story of the flavor on the company website.
‘While our ice cream detectives began their hunt, Ben [Cohen] led the team of Flavor Gurus in creating a pint good enough to bear Jerry’s name. The original idea was to duplicate the flavor of cherry-covered cordials.’
Cordials, for those who aren’t familiar, are hollow little chocolate balls with gooey fruity filling inside.
‘It tasted good, but we wanted great. After more tinkering and toying and trial by freezer, the team decided to go with whole bing cherries and smaller than usual chocolate chunks in vanilla ice cream – just a pinch different from today’s Cherry Garcia, features cherry ice cream instead of vanilla.’
They’d created it without first getting his permission, though, so once they’d finished the first batch, the company sent over 8 pints of the stuff to Garcia along with a letter asking for approval. He gave it quickly and enthusiastically.
‘Mr. Garcia himself, and Jerry’s wife and publicist even called to say that he gave it the thumbs up!’
It was officially released on February 15, 1987, at the Burlington ‘scoop shop’ not far from their HQ. It sold out long before closing time.
Very soon after the launch, the anonymous sender behind the finally came forward to take credit, albeit very humbly.
During a standard run through the mass of fan mail the company had received over the previous few months, its namesake founders came across an envelope containing a Cherry Garcia pint lid with a note attached that read:
‘I’m glad you made the flavor.’
The handwriting was a perfect match to the postcard sent the previous year. It belonged to Jane Williamson, about whom just about nothing is publicly recorded. All we the people know about her is that she was from somewhere in Maine and really liked the Grateful Dead.
Anyway.
Ben & Jerry personally contacted her as soon as they were able to track her down, and invited her to the next shareholder’s meeting as the guest of honor. After recieving a standing ovation, she told the crowd:
‘I can’t think of a better company I would like to have sponsor something I thought of.’
Ben & Jerry’s has gone on to release quite a few more celebrity inspired flavors since, the majority of which were inspired by iconic musicians. Most notably:
Goodbye Yellow Brickle Road: Elton John
Country Peach Cobbler: Willie Nelson
Whirled Peace: John Lennon
Bohemian Raspberry: Queen
Phish Food: Phish, obviously
Band Magic Brownies: Dave Matthews
The bestselling celebrity brand nevertheless remains Cherry Garcia, though. It’s been one of their top 3 selling brands overall every year since its original 1987 launch…
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