Ben & Jerry's delivers Homerific ice cream
Toolbox
By Gordon Dritschilo Rutland Herald - Published: July 19, 2007
SPRINGFIELD — Ever wondered what beer-and-doughnut ice cream might taste like?
No?
Well, despite that grimace, you're probably wondering a little right now, and Saturday will be your chance to taste the unlikely blend of flavors as Ben & Jerry's unveils a special, one-time-only Homer Simpson-inspired ice cream flavor during the celebration of the Simpsons movie premier.
The flavor, called Duff & D'oh-Nuts, is described by the company as a combination of chocolate and cream stout ice creams with glazed chocolate doughnuts. Homer Simpson, the overweight, dopey father in the longstanding popular Fox cartoon, has a penchant for beer and doughnuts.
The reactions Wednesday to the flavor by a handful of Springfieldians ranged from bemused to frightened.
"Wow," said Lois Smith, a bookkeeper at the town office. "Nasty. Chocolate with cream stout beer? No. That's just wrong."
Normally, Smith said, she likes Ben & Jerry's.
"I just don't like beer in ice cream," she said. "And doughnuts?"
However, Smith admitted she probably would try the flavor.
"I'd try anything," she said.
Ron Hoffman, produce buyer at the Springfield Co-op, started laughing as the flavor was described to him. "I should have known," he chuckled after hearing the word "doughnuts." "It's nothing I'd be interested in."Hoffman, too, said he was a fan of the Vermont-based ice cream-maker.
"Generally, I like stuff like their coffee ice cream," he said. "I'm not a fan of the chunky stuff — too much candy."
Sean Greenwood, a Ben & Jerry's spokesman, said he had just tried a sample on Wednesday afternoon — and, aye carumba, he enjoyed it.
"We definitely have some folks here who have some experience in combining flavor," he said. "It's got kind of a grainy chocolate taste, a little wheaty. Then you get this blast of doughnut that comes through with every bite. The doughnut is sweeter than the ice cream."
Greenwood said the company will have people who want more familiar ice cream flavors covered, with plenty of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream — renamed "Chocolate Chip Cookie D'oh" in honor of one of the show's catchphrases.
"It's part of the top all-time line-up," Greenwood said of the cookie dough ice cream. "We think we're going to hit people plenty with that."
Greenwood also said the beer-and-doughnut ice cream was far from the most unusual one-day-only offering produced at Ben & Jerry's.
"We've done some pretty wacky flavors in the past," he said. "We've done hot chocolate, which was chocolate with chili powder, jalapeno lime. … We've had chips 'n' dip that was an onion ice cream flavor. We thought this was an event that justified another crazy concoction."
D'oh!
Contact Gordon Dritschilo at gordon.dritschilo@rutlandherald.com.
42