A must do on a trip to Burlington, VT is to head over to Waterbury and tour the Ben & Jerry’s factory. It’s only about 30 minutes east of Burlington. The tour lasts about 30 minutes and each tour leaves about every half hour. We had some time to kill before our tour left, so we visited the gift shop and bought some Ben & Jerry’s t-shirts and a water bottle. Burlington didn’t seem to have a good souvenir shop, other than the Vermont Gift Barn, so we made sure to get a few things here.
The tour starts off with a little video about the history of Ben & Jerry’s. After that the tour takes you to a room which overlooks the processing area. No pictures can be taken here. It was cool to see the large equipment and conveyor belts filled with pints of ice cream. The tour ended with a free sample. Everyone gets the same sample and is whatever they choose for that day. We had sweet cookies and cream, which I couldn’t eat since I’m gluten free. They did offer an alternative for dietary restrictions, so I had a berry sorbet, which was really good. Samples were pretty generous portions too.
The ice cream line was pretty long, so we skipped that, which was ok since the sample was pretty filling.
After the tour, we visited the flavor graveyard. That was pretty cool. There are headstones for each flavor that is no longer made. Some of them were a little gross sounding and didn’t last too long. Others were retired after several years.
The option of making your own tie dye t-shirt is also available in a tent set up outside the factory. We didn’t do it, but probably should have. Shirts were only $13. Vermont is a great place to wear tie dye. You’re definitely not out of place, unlike other states. I wished I had dug out the tie dye Ben & Jerry’s shirt I bought there years ago.
The tour isn’t the most exciting, but the ice cream sample definitely makes it worth it. It’s great activity for kids and it’s reasonably priced.
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