In case you've been losing sleep wondering about this, Ben & Jerry's "flavor gurus" come up with a list of more than 100 concepts for new flavors every year.:
Then, he says, marketing whittles it down to about 60, which is when consumer polling steps in to knock it down to about 20 flavors. "We'll actually make those 20, real time, in the kitchen," Fredette says. "We have a little ice cream machine that makes six pints of ice cream, and you can stir in whatever you want. So we make some batches, and we feed it to marketing. You gain a few pounds that time of year — we sometimes have tastings twice a day, a couple of times a week."
In case this gig falls apart, at least I know what I want my next job to be. The B&J website, by the way, has a "Resurrect My Favorite Flavor" feature. Please go there and vote to bring back Chocolate Orange Fudge. Maybe my cat Maggie would like it. She likes to clean up the ice cream dish after I'm done, but she tends to favor vanilla, turning up her nose at coffee, butter pecan and even chocolate.
