By Kwamesha Joseph
Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield served 40 pints of “Bernie’s Yearning” at a rally in Union Square. (Courtesy of Flickr)
In a few months, the United States will bid goodbye to its 44th president, Barack Obama, and welcome the 45th. As of right now, each potential candidate (Donald Trump, John Kasich, Hillary Clinton, Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders) is campaigning for his or her respective parties in hopes of winning the nomination for the upcoming election.
For those who support Bernie Sanders and take pride in “Feeling the Bern,” Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, the names behind Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream, have recently come up with a delicious way to cool off and still remain supporters of the Vermont senator. They coined the flavor “Bernie’s Yearning” to represent the aspiring candidate.
Currently hopeful for the democratic nomination, Bernie Sanders has been gaining a lot of popularity among young adults. His background as a protester for civil rights and his determination to implement policies that include universal college education and eradicating tax cuts that only seem to benefit large corporations makes him appealing.
If free education is not enough to win over the crowd, maybe a pint of delicious ice cream will do the trick.
According to Jerry Greenfield, Sanders is “a politician who comes along once in a generation.”
“We’ve been constituents of Bernie for over 30 years,” Jerry Cohen says. This is the first time that either of the two co-founders have publicly supported any presidential candidate.
The ice cream made its tasty debut during a rally in support of Bernie Sanders at Union Square in New York City, where the founders handed out cups of the new flavor. The main goal behind Ben Cohen’s creation was to come up with something creative that embodied what Sanders stands for.
The limited edition flavor is mint chocolate chip. Seems simple, right? Wrong.
This particular pint of ice cream is created in a unique proportion: the limited edition flavor is composed of 99 percent plain mint ice cream base and one percent chocolate chip. More specifically, it is composed of a chocolate disc placed at the very top of the pint. According to the co-founders, the chocolate disc at the top of the pint is representative of the wealth that has been accumulated by the one percent, an issue that has been heavily addressed throughout Sanders’ campaign.
In order to properly enjoy the ice cream, individuals are supposed to break up the chocolatey goodness and mix it around in the mint ice cream. This is supposed to symbolize the wealth trickling down and spreading to the 99 percent, as opposed to being concentrated at the very top. The print on the pint describes the flavor as being representative of what is wrong with the United States.
Unfortunately, those who want to try the confectionery metaphor will be disappointed to find that “Bernie’s Yearning” is not a permanent feature in Ben and Jerry’s line of frozen flavors. The two co-founders are adamant that people understand that they are only supporting Bernie Sanders as private citizens.
Cohen stated that his own political beliefs are separate from the company. As a result, the duo only made 40 pints of the flavor in total, 25 of which were used to serve people at the rally in Union Square. The rest of the pints were given away in a friendly online competition.
For those who do not support Bernie Sanders, have no fear. Sharing Cohen and Greenfield’s political views is not a prerequisite to enjoying their ice cream. Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream company is free of politics and full of deliciousness.
So, as the pint says, open joyfully and share with all fellow Americans.
