For some it’s Mecca, others St. Peter’s or Lourdes; for us, it’s the Ben and Jerry’s factory in Waterbury, Vermont.

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to drive 3 hours to Vermont and 3 hours back for my Memorial Day holiday, but it was the best decision of my life. That, and deciding to speak English when I was 5. Like a five-year-old, I was so overcome with alacrity about the trip once it was decided, that I was up at 5am mooing my excitement.

Four hours later, we (Jen, Christina, Rachele and I) left Boston heavily caffeinated and ready for the impending torrent of chocolate, caramel, and chunks of brownie that would come our way.

The drive to Vermont was stunningly beautiful: blindingly verdant forest stretching to the horizon with a gorgeous lake or stream around every bend. It was like driving through a painting and we regularly interupted our singing in the car with observations like, “Holy shit, that’s fucking amazing!”. Or maybe that was just me.

There wasn’t much getting lost and we remedied our one wrong turn with a stop at a local store where amunition and maple syrup were locked in a glass case (my kind of people).

Once arrived, we went past the crowd of sticky-faced children licking the sides of cones and bought tickets for the tour. Unfortunately, they weren’t in production on account of the holiday, but with the factory only in production Monday through Friday it’s not to easy for us working folk to experience the miracle in action.

The tour included a film about the founders and thier dream of socially responsible ice cream.

Then we were taken into a viewing room above the factory floor. We got to see all the crazy machines that make the ice cream: huge freezers, fudge pumps, and machines that make sure the mix of toppings to ice cream is just right.

On our way out of that room we got to see the quality assurance testing room. This is where they take core samples of randomly selected pints and make sure that everything is perfectly mixed. If not, they become seconds and are part of the 3 pints a day each employee gets to bring home.

Finally, we got to do some tasting! The strawberry cheesecake ice cream was delectable and made even better knowing it came from just a few feet away.

Then we got to do more tasting! We got more ice cream outside from their tireless scoopers. I capitalized on the opportunity to taste new flavors and had me some Baklava ice cream (with real chunks of baklava!!!). That’s some good shit.

We took our cups and cones over to the flavor graveyard and paid our respects to all the discontinued flavors. Every year they retire the worst sellers, but I was really suprised that so many were discontinued because of changes in supply. Georgia is just too far for peaches to arrive fresh enough to make ice cream and Kaluha jumped in price, so they had to stop making it.

Next we tracked down the cows. Without these guys we’d never even have ice cream, let alone chocolate milk. They work hard and they play harder because they know without their hard work, it just wouldn’t taste the same.

A last word of warning for those of you interested in making a pilgrimage to see the holy grounds of Ben and Jerry’s: know your limits. Pace yourself and don’t eat too much ice cream at once. Even the Festivus Gastronomicus crew, experienced experts at ice cream consumption, can let things get out of hand. And we did. Jen experienced a mild ice cream overdose and we nearly lost her on the way back from the cows.

For those truly commited to sticky faces, fingers, and anywhere else fudge ribbons melt off to: http://www.benjerry.com/scoop_shops/factory_tour/

• Festivus Gastronomicus Rating: Crapicus

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 31st, 2006 at 2:21 pm and is filed under Field Trip. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.