Ben & Jerry’s Couch Potato flavour is the ice cream maker’s latest flavour that is currently in stores here in Singapore! Featuring creamy vanilla ice cream swirled with salty caramel and infused with crunchy-salty potato chips bits, the new creation is set to be the latest, wackiest flavour on shelves.
With his jovial and friendly demeanour, Ben and Jerry’s flavour guru Peter Lind certainly seems to be having a whale of a time at his job. He had even appeared on Oprah Winfrey’s best-jobs-in-the-world show. Part of an exclusive team of five Flavour Gurus who are responsible for the conceptualisation of ice cream flavours at Ben and Jerry’s, Peter is the man behind Singapore’s favourite such as Chocolate Fudge Brownie and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. During a recent visit to Singapore, Peter shares some interesting insights about the research and development that goes into the creation of winning flavours like the new Couch Potato ice cream.
Ben & Jerry’s fun facts
- Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield founded Ben and Jerry’s with an initial US$12,000 investment in 1978
- Ben and Jerry’s started with a bagel company concept that did not materialise
- Ben and Jerry’s operated the first ice cream shop in Vermont out of a gas station
- Today, the company has factories with machines that make a tub of ice-cream in 25 seconds
Couch Potato
The concept behind Couch Potato started when Peter wanted to create ice-cream incorporating sweet and salty flavours. He started experimenting with potato chips and vanilla ice-cream over a decade ago but was unable to retain the crisp of chips in ice cream – who would have thought that was possible?
Behind every chunky crunch ball in Couch Potato is a long process of research and experiment. It was only in recent years that a breakthrough was made.
Or in Peter’s own words: “Then we had a revolution-DAIRY idea!”
Peter and his team of flavour gurus discovered that grounding up the chips and coating them with a layer of rice syrup and milk chocolate retains that crunch even when the chips are soaked up in ice cream. The Ben and Jerry’s team brought in barbeque chips, salted chips and later original potato chips in the quest to find the best combination of flavours. And so history is made and Couch Potato was created. Kudos to Ben and Jerry’s, the ingredients used in the making of Couch Potato are from Fairtrade farmers who received a fair price for their harvest.
The new flavour, Couch Potato has landed on our shores and is available at major supermarkets, convenience stalls and scoop shops at a recommended retail price of S$13.90.
