Whats the scoop on Ben & Jerry's? (Burlington, Waterbury: agriculture, trip)

[Sporin]

Originally Posted by OhBeeHave

I am not certain how close in miles/minutes to Windsor this would be, but it is a couple of miles off I-91 exit 8. It's NH on 103 about halfway between 91 & 120. It'll be on your right as you head toward Claremont.

There's picnic tables outside by the river.

The 'tot' size cone is fairly large. My son had ordered a large and was given something totally insane. *NOTE: We think the waitress thought he was cute -- lol

Sounds like you are talking about Wade's, red buildings, right? Didn't know if they have "real creemees" but they are a very good ice cream stand (soft and hard serve)

[OhBeeHave]

Yes, I believe it is Wade's. As an import, I might very well have confused soft serve with creemees. My humble apologies.

[68vette]

Do the tour just to say you did it, but do yourself a favor and get some creemee's. In my opinion and in most others, they beat B&J's hands down. People who live in Vermont eat creemee's while the tourists eat Ben and Jerry's.

[pabear]

You guys are great! I've been reading the VT forum for over a year and I have to say...Triple A doesn't have a thing over all of you for traveling info. Locating a creemee stand is now on our "to do list", along with B&J's. Any other suggestions for family style restuarants in the WRJ/Windsor area? Would you find a creemee in Woodstock at the Mountain Creamery? I see they make "homemade icecream". So much for the diet next week

[pabear]

Where would we find a creemee in Bennington? We decided to come up a day early and landed in Bennington for the evening. I see there is an "icecream" stand across from the Best Western but haven't had a chance to investigate yet.

[vter]

IN Bennington? The Tastee-Freeze. It's on Route 7, just about a mile north of the main downtown intersectoin.

[Adream]

Originally Posted by harry chickpea

Arrrrrrgh! Ben $ Js use gums in their iteration of "ice cream" clones. NO self respecting dairy person would dream of using such adulterants.

Unfortunately, since the corporate giant, Unilever, purchased Ben & Jerry's it's not been the same high-quality ice cream that it was.

Unilever also owns Good Humor Ice Cream and Breyer's Ice Cream (as well as such familiar names as SlimFast, Lipton, Knorr, Wishbone dressings, Hellmann's Mayonaisse, Country Crock, Bertolli, Dove Soap, Ponds, and Vaseline, which I think they add to some of their ice creams.)

I used to love Breyer's (and Ben & Jerry's) ice cream, but since they sold to Unilever it's pumped with air and/or additives and just not as good. The only ice cream I buy now is Haagen Daaz, which is still pretty good. I am determined to find a Creemee stand while in Vermont this summer!

As far as the Ben & Jerry's factory tour - absolutely GO! We have spent most of August in Vermont since the kids were little, and we have taken them on that tour many times. They loved it - still do and they're now in their teens and 20's!
Also recommended: the Vermont Teddy Bear factory tour in Shelburne (near Burlington). One of the top Vermont activities: Vermont Teddy Bear Factory & Bear Shop
There's even a $5 coupon online.

[MRVphotog]

All I know is Ben & Jerry's ice cream still tastes great.

Vter - are you sure the Taste Freeze in Bennington serves real creamees? Last time I was there is was ice cream and your regular soft serve. Course, that was a few years ago.

[vter]

Re: Tastee-Freeze I havent been in a while either so I don't know!

[MRVphotog]

B & J is making a new flavor in honor of Elton John's concert next week It's called Goodbye Yellow Brickle Road. It contains EJ's favorite things. ALL the proceeds from this flavor will bedonated to the Elton John AIDS Foundation.
Yup, B&J is definately an evil company.....

After I wrote a post last night about creamees I decided to check and see if what I have been told about the diference between a creamee and regular soft serve many years ago is true.

From my longtime friend who owns the Village Creamee shop in Waitsfield, talk about a small world we met in 1974 when we were students at the U. of Wyoming, he says like many things the diference between a creamee and soft serve has become very convoluted in the past few years.

A real creamee is made from a dispenser that takes ice cream and creams it, just like some of us do when we put ice cream in a bowl and stir it around for a few minutes. I was looking at the Vermont Milk Co website, a new milk processor formed by Anthony Polina, former director of VPIRG and current candidate for gov and a coop of Vermont dairy farmers. They sell a creamee dispenser and the info states that it takes ice cream in the dispenser.

Soft serve is made of a concoction of sugar, a pre-mix of either powdered milk where you add water or a pre-mix with the water already added and air is pumped in. Some as much as 60% of volume. . Some soft serve is made with skim milk.

As a result soft serve generally is around 3% milkfat while a real creamee is around 15% milkfat depending on what kind of ice cream is put in the dispenser. To some Vermonters the only real creamee is a maple creamee but that's very debatable IMHO.

A real creamee will melt slower than soft serve as the creamee has more solids in it plus as the air is released from soft serve it will actually shrink.

Bottomline, some creamees are not creamees but regular soft serve. The problem is that they all taste great.