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There are some ice cream flavors that strike us as weird and others we cannot imagine not existing. The latter is certainly true with chocolate chip cookie dough: the beloved ice cream flavor you can actually thank Ben & Jerry’s for inventing.
Although other ice cream brands have since produced their own takes of the flavor, Ben & Jerry’s was the first to manufacture chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. This was due to an imaginative hero whose name is sadly unknown. In 1984, Ben & Jerry’s founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield were operating their first Scoop Shop in a renovated gas station in Burlington, Vermont. One day, a patron made a suggestion: Why not mix hunks of cookie dough into vanilla ice cream? Intrigued, the shop gave it a go, and that year produced their first batch of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. It was a hit with customers. By 1991, the new flavor had become so successful that Ben & Jerry’s began selling it in grocery stores.
Today, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough remains one of Ben & Jerry’s most popular products and can be enjoyed in either pint cartons, mini cups, ice cream bars, or from Ben & Jerry’s locations. It wouldn’t be the last time an iconic flavor would be created thanks to a customer suggestion. In 1987, another fan sent in an idea on a postcard. This would become Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia, named for legendary Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia.
Ben and Jerry’s chocolate-chip cookie dough ice cream is our favorite
Ben & Jerry’s innovation would soon inspire imitators. A year after their chocolate chip cookie dough’s release, rival companies like Friendly’s, Dreyer’s, Mrs. Fields, and Pierre’s French Ice Cream were working on their own versions, with even more to follow.
So what accounts for chocolate chip cookie dough’s popularity? Part of the credit should probably go to many people’s pre-existing fondness for cookie dough itself. Anyone who’s ever licked the spoon while making cookies knows how delicious it can be. Unfortunately, anyone who was ever told off as a child for doing so knows raw cookie dough carries health risks due to the raw flour and eggs. By making a version that was safe to eat, Ben & Jerry’s paved the way for edible cookie dough, which has become an industry in itself.
It’s no mystery to Tasting Table why Ben & Jerry’s creation remains a widespread favorite. When our team ranked popular brands of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, Ben & Jerry’s emerged as the clear winner. Our taster wrote, “This ice cream is dense, sticks to your teeth and your ribs, and has one of the best distributions of cookie dough to base. The chunks are soft, and textured and have the perfect consistency for our dream cookie dough ice cream.” If you think you have an idea for a new ice cream that could be the next big success, you can suggest a flavor via Ben & Jerry’s official website.
