The ice cream gurus screaming for justice
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by Caroline Stern
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Mart 12, 2009 00:00
ISTANBUL - Ben & Jerry’s ’Flavor Fathers’ are in Istanbul seeking inspiration for new ice cream concotions. Speaking of their love for Baklava and spices, they travel the world in search of the perfect combination, as well as the most ethical way of producing it
It is just as important to make products with "great value in terms of justice" as it is to turn a profit, said representatives of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream company on Monday, in Istanbul on a search for new varieties of the dessert.
Peter Lind and Arnold Carbone are the flavor directors of Ben and Jerry’s, the famous north American ice cream company, and have been working together for over 20 years. They travel the world and ask local customers for inspiration, inventing over a hundred tastes each year, only to have a final handful translated into mass production.
Flavor gurus
The "flavor gurus" are on the first part of their world tour organized around the "do the world a flavor" competition in which participants from 25 countries are tasked with creating a new flavor for the popular company.
With famously irreverent names such as "peace of cake" and "yes Pecan!", a reference to Obama, aspiring flavor creators were also asked to name their concoctions. "A little known secret of success is too make sure your product name begins with ’Ch,’", Lind joked, referring to the flavors ’Cherry Garcia’ and ’Chunky Monkey’ two popular varieties created by consumers via competitions such as this one. Participants were presented with a long table of ingredients, vanilla and chocolate ice cream and told to create a taste, as well as an accompanying name and packaging design.
Recipes can be posted on line as well as on Facebook, and anyone can submit an idea. Users of the social networking site can vote on the most creative combination (without actually trying them).
The winner in each country will be flown to the Dominican Republic for a week to experience a cocoa cooperative on which some of Ben and Jerry’s chocolate is made.
Fair trade is an essential part of Ben and Jerry’s philosophy, whose mission statement has centered itself in equal parts on product quality, economic competitiveness and social awareness, since its inception in a renovated gas-station in small town Vermont in 1977.
Carbone explained that if the ideal of using only Fair Trade products was not possible due to a lack of supply, they would at the very least work with cooperatives which "aim to cut out the middle man as much as possible".
In cases when such cooperatives do not already exist, the company will work with the processing plants and facilitate the initial alliance with cooperatives.
A search for quality all-natural products produced in socially acceptable environments has led to establishing supply lines with countries from Indonesia to the Ivory Coast, Panama and the Dominican Republic. Although this often leads to a price increase in the final product, Arnold said the company was happy to absorb the cost because it was "worth it to give the producers the fair wage they deserve".
The company prides itself on its hippie origins, and seeks to perpetuate the tradition by becoming involved with projects as diverse as supporting education, fighting global warming and campaigning for animal rights through partnerships with international NGOs, other businesses, and even The Dave Mathews Band.
The flavor gurus spoke enthusiastically about their gastronomical tourism in Turkey, where they were impressed by the quality and variety of fresh and dried foods, and blown away by the vast quantity of spices. The company has been in Turkey a year and a half, with four newly opened stores throughout Istanbul, but the representatives have high hopes for its speedy growth in such a "taste rich" country.
Peter Lind and Arnold Carbone are the flavor directors of Ben and Jerry’s, the famous north American ice cream company, and have been working together for over 20 years. They travel the world and ask local customers for inspiration, inventing over a hundred tastes each year, only to have a final handful translated into mass production.
Flavor gurus
The "flavor gurus" are on the first part of their world tour organized around the "do the world a flavor" competition in which participants from 25 countries are tasked with creating a new flavor for the popular company.
With famously irreverent names such as "peace of cake" and "yes Pecan!", a reference to Obama, aspiring flavor creators were also asked to name their concoctions. "A little known secret of success is too make sure your product name begins with ’Ch,’", Lind joked, referring to the flavors ’Cherry Garcia’ and ’Chunky Monkey’ two popular varieties created by consumers via competitions such as this one. Participants were presented with a long table of ingredients, vanilla and chocolate ice cream and told to create a taste, as well as an accompanying name and packaging design.
Recipes can be posted on line as well as on Facebook, and anyone can submit an idea. Users of the social networking site can vote on the most creative combination (without actually trying them).
The winner in each country will be flown to the Dominican Republic for a week to experience a cocoa cooperative on which some of Ben and Jerry’s chocolate is made.
Fair trade is an essential part of Ben and Jerry’s philosophy, whose mission statement has centered itself in equal parts on product quality, economic competitiveness and social awareness, since its inception in a renovated gas-station in small town Vermont in 1977.
Carbone explained that if the ideal of using only Fair Trade products was not possible due to a lack of supply, they would at the very least work with cooperatives which "aim to cut out the middle man as much as possible".
In cases when such cooperatives do not already exist, the company will work with the processing plants and facilitate the initial alliance with cooperatives.
A search for quality all-natural products produced in socially acceptable environments has led to establishing supply lines with countries from Indonesia to the Ivory Coast, Panama and the Dominican Republic. Although this often leads to a price increase in the final product, Arnold said the company was happy to absorb the cost because it was "worth it to give the producers the fair wage they deserve".
The company prides itself on its hippie origins, and seeks to perpetuate the tradition by becoming involved with projects as diverse as supporting education, fighting global warming and campaigning for animal rights through partnerships with international NGOs, other businesses, and even The Dave Mathews Band.
The flavor gurus spoke enthusiastically about their gastronomical tourism in Turkey, where they were impressed by the quality and variety of fresh and dried foods, and blown away by the vast quantity of spices. The company has been in Turkey a year and a half, with four newly opened stores throughout Istanbul, but the representatives have high hopes for its speedy growth in such a "taste rich" country.