Christine has always favored Ben & Jerry’s over all other ice creams, and even though I must admit to being much more of a Baskin Robbins man myself, I do love me some sweet, socially-conscious Ben & Jerry’s sometimes too.
Their Chunky Monkey kind of slays me…it’s amazing. And Christine actually fought a woman to the death for the last pint of Cherry Garcia at Vons one time. Yeah, um…we don’t talk about that much…
The thing I dig most about Ben & Jerry’s is that they make great gourmet ice cream for a cause, several of them in fact, and yet despite the often serious nature of the causes they morph into flavors, the company maintains a cool, cheeky sense of humor. Who else but those crazy hippies from Vermont could take a cause as noble as ONE.org’s campaign to “make poverty history” and make it into ONE Cheesecake Brownie?
Haven’t tried that one yet, but man, that is just hilarious. So when we heard that Ben & Jerry’s were creating a new flavor to honor John Lennon’s lifelong commitment to the peace movement, we were all over that shit!
Launched in Times Square on May 27th, Imagine Whirled Peace is caramel and sweet cream ice cream swirled with fudge peace signs and toffee cookie pieces. And, man alive, is it delicious!
Even cooler than the ice cream is the way it was introduced to the world. Staging a recreation of Lennon and Yoko Ono’s famous “bed-ins for Peace” with super cool actress Maggie Gyllenhaal, B&J’s co-founder Jerry Greenfield and Jeremy Gilley, founder of Peace One Day, Imagine Whirled Peace was literally launched from bed. How cool is that?
As always, a portion of the profits go towards the Peace One Day foundation, which was started by Gilley to keep the peace movement alive in today’s crazy world. Peace One Day events are celebrated annually on September 21st.
And while she wasn’t there in person to launch the flavor, Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono did provide a statement for the event that supposedly brought down the house…er, bedroom. “Make peace — a dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.” Wow, almost me wanna run out and buy more some ice cream…nicely put Yoko!
And while I gotta admit that I was not initially turned on by the actual ingredients in the flavor, one bite of that toffee cookie dough goodness changed my mind immediately. Imagine Whirled Peace is straight-up fantastic! And though I usually find large chunks of chocolate in ice cream to be too hard, those tasty little peace signs literally melt in your mouth. Must be the fudge factor.
So even if you don’t eat it in bed, I urge you to check out the links above, help make a difference and most of all, as Lennon famously encouraged us to do with peace, give this flavor a change, baby. You’ll love it!
make. see. eat. do. 
Good to know! I’ve been thinking of trying this one, but I have the same issue with fudge chunks as you do…it’s kept me away from a few B & J flavors. I owe my body to those boys from Vermont, though–their creations flow through my veins. I’m a little concerned that you prefer Baskin Robbins, but we’ve been friends for a long time, I can turn a blind eye.
World Peace inspired ice cream, who would have thought?? I couldn’t believe it when I saw what effect honey bees were having on Haagen-Dazs’ branding, but this might be more socially conscious . . . Thanks for the great info, you should check out our link to your post at the NameWire blog.
Great Post!
Thanks, Josh. Your site is awesome, man, love the post about presidential names. I hope you’re wrong about the “a” in Obama though! 🙂
Thanks also for the linkage, dying to hear what you think of the ice cream when you try it yourself…
This post made me think of that Operation Desert Storm protester we encountered back in San Francisco in 1990 or 1991 whose words have amused us for years:
“Don’t fight for desert … fight for dessert!”
Ha! If I had a nickel for every time we chanted that before eating dessert, well, I would have a lot of nickels, amigo. Hilarious!
And what better chant to call out while enjoying John Lennon’s new “Peacenik” blend! Perfecto!
Oh yeah, and Melissa, I hear you on the “body by Ben & Jerry’s” front. Man, we all ate so much of that New York Super Fudge Chunk back in San Francisco, you’d think it was one of the major food groups or something!
You know, meat, fruit, dairy, vegetables, Pappadoro’s Pizza and Ben & Jerry’s…mmm…what else do you need?? 🙂
I have reread this post a few times for vicarious reasons. Since January 1st of this year I have lost nearly 60 pounds and sadly, this isn’t on the menu. 😦
Guess I better wipe the lick marks off my monitor now.
Sorry, Danielle! But if you’re on a diet, you’d better not read the next post either…:o
But hey, who cares about ice cream and Southern Style Chicken biscuits when you’ve lost 60 pounds?! Man, that is amazing! Congrats!!