Before buying a ticket, please read reviews and de...

Before buying a ticket, please read reviews and decide if this tour is really for you. On the tour, you will experience:

(1) A 7-minute film The first half of the film details the history of Ben & Jerry s, including the early friendship between the two men behind the brand; their foray into the ice cream business; their early experiences selling ice cream in Vermont; and the expansion of that business from a nascent into a thriving local business. The second half concerns the men s/company s engagement of the public in certain social campaigns through events and messaging.

(2) Brief tour you will stand in a corridor, flanked by panels of glass that enable you to observe certain ice cream making equipment one floor below (though partially concealed by the walkway upon which you are standing). To better display the machines and process perhaps more interesting than staring at stationary equipment, if there s no ice cream being made at the time of your arrival there are large screens in the corridor showing the equipment and processes as the guide describes them. That s it. One room. This tour lasts approx 10 minutes.

(3) Sampling ice cream in another room, which looks vaguely like a sweet shop, the tour guide will pull from a freezer and serve pre-scooped balls of ice cream. Contrary to other reviewers, we found the scoops to be fairly large.

This is the first opportunity for questions and the tour will leave you with SO many questions about basic things that really should be part of the introduction/overview. Like, anything about TODAY s operation (beyond the pieces of equipment displayed during the brief presentation). Globally, or even nationally - what is being made where? How vast is this operation? What is the interplay between B&J and Unilever? How are (even the fun) decisions made, like which flavors to launch, to retire, to relaunch. On the way out, we passed a Quality Control agent in his lab, standing over a bisected container of ice cream. He was clearly displayed behind a window for all to see, but no one stopped in front of the window (except us because this is a DREAM job!) and no one mentioned him or the quality control process. Come on!

In sum, the tour is very short and light on information, and seems determined to present B&J s as it appears to have been in its distant past before it became an international juggernaut. So one film, one room/hallway, one taste. 20 minutes (ish). Is this what you stood in line, jostled by crowds, and paid $4 for? Hmmm

With respect to the social justice messaging (focused on poverty [ poor people ] in America): How about charging less for your tour, or providing more of an experience? How about charging less for your ice cream? Or providing smaller, less expensive serving sizes? How about social messaging relating to another DIRE societal problem: OBESITY. Ben & Jerry s, Unilever we respect your passion for social engagement, but you seem to have a blind spot for your role in contributing to American obesity. Surely your social responsibility doesn t end with slightly lowering the fat content of premium ice creams and frozen yogurts still brimming with fat, calories, cookies and candy.

ALSO - the flavor graveyard is worth visiting. Clever, punny tributes to a handful of flavors retired over the years. (Not sure why they've chosen to feature these, or only these, given how many flavors must have been discontinued by now....?)