The History of Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia

In 1986, an anonymous fan left a note on a community bulletin board at a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream parlor in Maine. She then followed up with a postcard to the company’s main office in Burlington, Vermont, suggesting a cherry flavor named Cherry Garcia in honor of Jerry Garcia, the lead guitarist of the Grateful Dead. The Ben & Jerry’s team liked the idea and originally planned to duplicate the flavor of cherry-covered cordials, but then decided they wanted something more impressive, eventually settling on whole Bing cherries and small chocolate chunks mixed into vanilla ice cream. (The vanilla ice cream in the recipe was later replaced with cherry ice cream.) Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia debuted on February 15, 1987 and was an immediate success. The first 8 pints were sent to Jerry Garcia himself and his wife and publicist confirmed he was a fan. Shortly after the flavor’s debut, Jane Williamson, the fan who suggested the flavor, got in touch with Ben & Jerry’s to say she was glad they’d made it. (Ben & Jerry’s honored her at their next shareholders’ meeting and gifted her a year’s supply of ice cream.) Today, Cherry Garcia remains one of Ben & Jerry’s top flavors and the company even makes a non-dairy version now, too!