Ben & Jerry’s has an actual cemetery. Sort of. The company’s Flavor Graveyard is dedicated to ice cream flavors that have disappeared from store shelves over the years. Instead of people, the headstones commemorate what Ben & Jerry’s calls its “dearly de-pinted” flavors.
There is an online version of the Flavor Graveyard, but there is also a physical one at the company’s factory in Waterbury, Vermont. The real graveyard opened in 1997 and includes granite headstones with epitaphs for discontinued flavors. So if your favorite pint vanished years ago, there is a decent chance Ben & Jerry’s has already written its obituary.
Where Is Ben & Jerry’s Flavor Graveyard?
Ben & Jerry’s Flavor Graveyard is located on the grounds of the company’s factory in Waterbury, Vermont. Ben & Jerry’s places it at the top of the property near the upper parking lots, past the playground area.
The graveyard is part of the outdoor factory grounds, but there is one seasonal catch. Ben & Jerry’s closes it during the winter because its location and terrain can become hazardous.
Can You Visit?
Yes. You do not even need a factory-tour ticket just to visit the Flavor Graveyard. Ben & Jerry’s says visitors who are not taking the guided tour can still visit the Scoop Shop, playground, outdoor areas, and Flavor Graveyard. The graveyard is closed during the winter, so it is worth checking the factory’s current visitor information before making a special trip.
What’s in the Flavor Graveyard?
Beloved ice creams can have their own graveyards too.
This is not a cemetery in the traditional sense. The graveyard is a tongue-in-cheek memorial to discontinued Ben & Jerry’s products, with granite headstones representing flavors that disappeared from the company’s lineup.
Each headstone includes the name of a retired flavor and a short epitaph, usually written with the same sense of humor Ben & Jerry’s uses everywhere else. There are no old pints buried underneath. The company describes what is beneath the stones as little more than memories of flavors that did not survive.
Flavors can disappear for different reasons. Ben & Jerry’s has said that many simply were not strong enough sellers to justify keeping them around, even if the people who loved them really loved them. Retiring one also makes room in the lineup for something new.
Other flavors have disappeared because of ingredient or supplier problems rather than weak demand. Oatmeal Cookie Chunk is a good example. Ben & Jerry’s said its cookie supplier stopped making the oatmeal-cookie pieces used in the flavor, and the company could not find a replacement that met its standards. Rather than change the flavor with an inferior cookie, it retired it.
Do Ice Creams in the Graveyard Ever Come Back?
When Ben & Jerry’s wrote about the physical graveyard in 2015, it contained 35 flavors. That was a pretty substantial expansion from the four flavors memorialized when the graveyard opened in 1997: Dastardly Mash, Economic Crunch, Ethan Almond, and Tuskegee Chunk.
A headstone does not necessarily mean a flavor is gone forever. Ben & Jerry’s has brought retired flavors back before, and the company still lets fans submit requests asking it to resurrect a favorite.
Dublin Mudslide is one of the clearest examples. The Irish cream ice cream with chocolate chocolate-chip cookies and a coffee-fudge swirl originally ran from 2005 to 2007 before landing in the Flavor Graveyard. Ben & Jerry’s revived it in 2022 with a new version made using Wheyward Spirit, which is produced from whey left over from dairy processing. The resurrected Dublin Mudslide remains listed among Ben & Jerry’s current pint flavors.
So there is at least some hope when a favorite disappears. Ben & Jerry’s has been pretty clear that flavors occasionally make it back from the grave, and its current website still invites customers to nominate the one they want resurrected next. Apparently, in this cemetery, the dead do occasionally rise.