11 Facts You Didn’t Know About Cherry Garcia

November 15, 2016

Almost three decades into our love affair with Cherry Garcia and the story of this fan favorite is still unfolding. Come with us as we shine a spotlight on the past, present, and future of one of Ben & Jerry’s headlining flavors.

Item number 1
Chocolate Cherry Garcia? Chocolate Cherry Garcia!

We know that a lot of you have been asking for this for a lot of years. So clear some space in your freezers: Chocolate Cherry Garcia has landed! Don’t worry, the Cherry Garcia you’ve loved forever isn’t going anywhere. It just has a cool new friend to share the freezer — and bowl! — with.
Item number 2
Endless Variety

Most of you know that this isn’t the first time that we’ve had some fun with Cherry Garcia. In fact, over the years it’s been available in more varieties than any other Ben & Jerry’s flavor: Frozen yogurt, Greek frozen yogurt, ice cream bars, mini cups, and quart tubs.
Item number 3
No One-Hit Wonder

Cherry Garcia was launched on February 15, 1987, and has remained at the top of the charts ever since. It ranks as one of our longest-serving flavors.
Item number 4
Pop Star

Cherry Garcia was our best-selling flavor for ten years before being dethroned in 2013 by Half Baked.
Item number 5
We Love Our Fans

Where did the idea for Cherry Garcia come from? One of our fans! In 1986, a fan anonymously posted the idea for the flavor at her local Scoop Shop in Maine and then followed up with a postcard to our main office in Burlington.
Item number 6
A Standing Ovation

Our flavor hero remained anonymous for a while, but we finally found her. Jane Williamson was invited to our next shareholders’ meeting as the guest of honor. She received a standing ovation along with a year’s supply of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.
Item number 7
Friend of the Cordial

So we had a great flavor name. But what about the flavor itself? Our original idea was to duplicate the flavor of chocolate-covered cherry cordials, but it wasn’t quite amazing enough. Eventually we got it just right: whole Bing cherries and small chocolate chunks in vanilla ice cream. (Today we use cherry ice cream rather than vanilla.)
Item number 8
Dear Mr. Garcia…

We sent the first 8 pints we made straight to Jerry Garcia, the man who inspired it all. To our immense relief, he gave it a thumbs-up. According to his publicist, he said, “As long as they don’t name a motor oil after me, it’s fine with me.”
Item number 9
We Thought We Were the First!

We were pretty sure that before Cherry Garcia, there’d never been an ice cream named after a musical legend. As it turns out, we were wrong. Anybody out there a fan of Bing Crosby ice cream from the 1950s?
Item number 10
Location, Location, Location

Our hometown Scoop Shop is located on the corner of Church Street and Cherry Street or, as we prefer to call it, Cherry Garcia Street.
Item number 11
Cherry Garcia Hot Air Balloon

It’s true: love can take you higher than you ever thought you’d go. Way higher, actually. We have two hot air balloons, and one of them, the one shaped like a giant Cherry Garcia ice cream cone, is 100 feet tall. That’s a lot of love.