B.B. King gave him his “Wavy Gravy” moniker at a concert in Lewisville, Texas in 1970. No real explanation as to why B.B. named Hugh Romney Wavy Gravy other than some presumptions: his wavy hair tumbling over a bowl of a man filled with the gravy of human kindness. Gravy’s been riding a wild wave all his life. His boyhood neighbor and sometime strolling companion was Albert Einstein. He served in the U.S. Navy. He spent time as a poet and stand-up comic in New York City and for a while had the legendary Lenny Bruce as a manager. Speaking of legends, a brief roommate of Gravy was a fella by the name of Bob Dylan who just happened to bang out a song titled “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall” on Wavy’s typewriter. Wavy was part of author Ken Kesey’s Merry Pranksters and started the infamous Hog Farm Commune in Mendocino County, California where the Pranksters hung their hats for a bit.
Wavy’s connection with Ben & Jerry’s came out of conversations about California culture during interviews for a new marketing director. That prompted Ben to give Wavy a call and find out what the old Woodstock emcee was up to these days. Impressed, Ben pursued things and before you could say, “cross-country bus trip with the clowned prince of camp counselors,” an idea for a new flavor with benefits to Wavy’s charitable causes was under way.
Wavy Gravy - the flavor - is a euphoric blend of caramel-cashew-Brazil-nut ice cream with a chocolate hazelnut fudge swirl and roasted almonds. Our Primal Ice Cream Therapists (the folks who develop our flavors in Ben & Jerry’s Alchemy Lab) can tell you some unbelievable tales about how many Wavy Gravy recipe variations they had to eat before we found the perfect combination of wavy- and gravy-like ingredients. It still stands out as one of our most complex adventures into the collective flavor unconsciousness (that’s where a lot of our ideas come from..).
In return for using the Wavy name, a portion of the sales of his namesake flavor benefits one of Wavy Gravy’s many charitable efforts: Camp Winnarainbow, a performing arts (including clown training, of course) camp for underprivileged kids in northern California.