Tales of the Flowers: Fall Foliage in Vermont - Ben & Jerry's Factory Tour

Visiting Vermont, one of the must do stops is the Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Factory!

I was online at midnight, 2 weeks prior to make sure we could get reservations for a factory tour. With 10 people, we'll be taking up quite a bit of the tour group!

Having just finished our picnic on the Ben & Jerry's factory grounds, it was time to head inside for our 1pm Factory Tour!

Hanging out in the lobby while we waited for our tour guide to arrive.

Gram is just over 15 pints tall!

While Ian is about 14.5 pints tall.

Alli is almost hitting that 15 pint line. She's catching up to you Gram!

As it got closer and closer to 1pm, the lobby started to fill up. We all started squeezing to the door marked Tour.

Meet our Tour Guide Britney.

I asked and was allowed to ring the large cow bell to bring everyone in!

Britney told us about how the tank room is the start and where all the milk from local Vermont farmers comes and gets stored while waiting to be turned into delicious ice cream.

Next we would head through the tour room door. I love that the handle is an ice cream scoop.

Then it's upstairs to the theater. Some of the party took the Vanillavator instead.

Welcome to the Moovie theater.

The kids and I grabbed a seat right up front.

While the rest of the crew chose the last row, which was the only row with an actual seat back.

Next, we walked to the production area where no photos or videos are allowed. But we lucked out and happened to be here during an ice cream production run. It's not a guarantee that they'll actually be making ice cream when you do the tour. It all depends on the timing. The factory floor can only run 1 flavor at a time here. They run for 24-48 hours, then are required to take apart EVERYTHING and clean, which takes anywhere from 12-24 hours, depending on if they've used any products that are allergens.

While watching the ice cream being made, we got to nibble on some cookie dough chunks. We learned that by themselves they are a little dry and crumbly, so that when they go into the ice cream they won't turn to mush and be frozen rock solid.

It's at this point that we got to ask any questions we wanted.

Ian asked if the cows that produce the milk for the ice cream ever got to taste it afterwards. Actually, in a way, yes! Any discarded product and mixins are given to livestock as feed!

We were also told that you can submit your own flavor ideas on their website and if chosen, you win free ice cream for life! Good luck though because they get about 2000 submissions per day.

Next we head down to the tasting room where the flavor gurus come up with all the delicious flavors of ice cream. Or they would if they had any flavor gurus here. That position was let go a few months ago, before April Fools Day. I'm still a little bitter about that, coming to Vermont specifically for the April Fools day flavor and not getting it. All the flavor gurus are just up the street about an hour north at the St. Albans Ben & Jerry's Factory. They've got 4 ice cream production lines there, and between this factory and that one, they supply all the ice cream to the USA, Asia, and Australia. Crazy to think that a pint of ice cream made here can be picked up 10,000 miles away in Sydney Australia!

Britney told us that today we'd be trying Broccoli Cheddar Chunk Ice Cream! Ian was super excited!

Ian - That means kids can eat more of it!

Our super scooper Drew was there scooping out our real flavor today, Milk & Cookies, their #10 best seller. For those with dietary restrictions, there was also Strawberry Swirl, made from Oat Milk.

Tasty, but I would have preferred something more unique.

Thanks for the tour Britney! I think everyone had a fun time!

Walking outside, there was a huge line of people for the Scoop Shop. I've had plenty of ice cream already though, so I don't need anymore. Instead, we'll look around the grounds for a little bit.

Seeing all the cow theming.

And you've got to get a picture by the bus.

Alli and Ian really wanted to play on the playground. We've got some time. Let's burn some energy.

Their favorite merry-go-round was closed.

But they've still got spinning rides.

Oh I remember when they were so little, jumping off this spiral swirl. Of course they recreated it for me.

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No trip to Ben & Jerry's is complete without a visit to the Flavor Graveyard. Here you can see gravestones of flavors that didn't quite make the cut.

There is voting however to bring back flavor, and they do sometimes, for a limited time. Those flavors then become Zombie Flavors because they've come back from the dead.