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Ben & Jerry's...This Rock is For You
I came to horror movies late. Not like adult late, but high school late.
As a younger kid wandering the aisles of what was first some rando video rental shop that eventually became a Blockbuster, I loved to look at the VHS covers in the horror section; but could not bear the thought of actually watching any of those titles. Freddy Krueger in particular used to spring to the front of my mind when the lights would go out in my childhood bedroom even though all I had ever seen of A Nightmare on Elm St was a trailer on TV. But there was always something about those rental covers that made me walk through the horror section every time we would go to rent movies (usually walking out with Spaceballs... again).
Finally in high school my friend Barry got me to sit down and watch scary movies with him. He eased my fears by doing two things:
He broke the tension of the scariest parts with dumb jokes and reminding me that none of this was real.
He insisted we get pints of ice cream every time we'd watch a scary movie (further proof that ice cream makes everything better). And of course the reigning flavor of the day was:
Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.
If there was only one pint of cookie dough available at the shop we'd get it, along with another flavor, and go halfsies on each so we'd get to share the cookie dough. And because of this ritual the memory of Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough is burned into taste buds the same way most memorable foods from our youth are. I can recall the flavor of that ice cream at any moment just like I can recall the taste of Bazooka Joe's bubble gum, Tang or the milk soaked sugar at the bottom of a bowl of Cheerios.
Now I don't eat sweets all that much anymore but the other night my daughter offered to drive to the store and get ice cream before we watched the Golden Globes. The prospect of a movie influenced evening on the couch made me want to have some cookie dough ice cream and of course only Ben & Jerry's would work. I've since learned there are much better cookie dough ice creams out there, but nostalgia is often it's own flavor and it just felt like a night to indulge in a bowl of memories.
But upon my first bite I knew I had been duped. Ben & Jerry's changed my beloved cookie dough. The chocolate chips are pretty much the same but the ice cream is different and the cookie dough chunks have most certainly been reformulated. I ate three bites and then I threw the rest away, ate a bowl of Life cereal and tried to enjoy the Golden Globes (which admittedly was a little like trying to enjoy the ice cream I had just dumped in the trash).
Shame on you, Ben & Jerry's. I don't know where Barry is in the world right now, but I know he's just as disappointed in you as I am.
Colin True
January 15, 2024
(If you, like me are someone who has had this experience with Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream just know there are options. Including a version of cookie dough by Tillamook which is pretty close to the original B&J.)
Drips & Dregs is the weekly column from Rock Fight Founder Colin True.
Sometimes outdoorsy and always outdoor adjacent, check in weekly to see what is on his mind.
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