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What first excited you about becoming a Ben & Jerry's Flavour Guru?
I had grown up eating Ben & Jerry's as a kid and was excited to be part of such a fun, joyful, high-quality company. Then I learned more about the social mission and became even more excited to be able to contribute to something so meaningful.
What is your favorite type of flavour to work on?
I'm a chocolate girl ... as long as there are some salty crunchy chunks or swirls involved. My favourite projects involve trying to replicate the experience of a favourite dessert. A few years ago, we launched dirt cake (in the US) and got to spend a lot of time making and tasting different versions of dirt cake. There were a lot of debates over what kind of pudding should be used, what the crumble should be like, and whether or not to include gummy worms.
How do you incorporate fan suggestions and feedback into your work?
We are always trying to create experiences which will delight our fans, so we listen to our Scoop Shop teams about what guests have been asking for, and we collect ideas from our Consumer Affairs team to get input directly from our fans. We also work with a wonderful Consumer Insights Team which tracks trends and consumer behaviors to help us understand what fans might not even know they want yet.
Do you spend all day eating ice cream?
Yes. It's a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it.
What's your favourite chunk?
Chocolate covered almonds. I can't stop myself from snacking on them.
How do you find inspiration for new flavours?
The Flavour Gurus are always searching for new foods and flavours and sharing our experiences with each other. We eat a lot of sweets but also find inspiration from savory foods, beverages, and general food experiences. When we share these discoveries, we often find inspiration from each other.
What's an ingredient you've always wanted to incorporate into a new flavour, but haven't been able to yet?
Gummies have been a tough one to crack. As they are now, most gummies get really really hard when frozen. We'd love to be able to achieve the chewy, gummy texture in frozen ice cream.
If you had to make either a flavour with all chunks or all swirls, which would you pick and why?
That's a tough call, I'm glad this is just theoretical. I would choose swirls. We have some amazing crunchy swirls (pretzel, graham, chocolate cookie), our fluffy marshmallow, and indulgent brownie batter. With swirls like that, you can make a chunk-less flavour with dynamic textures and flavours.
What's the hardest part of making new ice cream flavours?
Finding the balance between exciting and approachable can be challenging. Our team is always excited to make super wacky, out there flavours, but we want to make sure our fans will be equally excited to try anything we make.
What's the most fun part of making a new flavour?
Working as a team to unlock the fan experience. Figuring out how to re-create the s'mores experience in a frozen product or how to make a vegan ice cream taste like strawberry cheesecake is so satisfying and fun.
