Delicious Chills Await in This Vermont ‘Flavor Graveyard’

Call it the luck of the Irish: On St. Patrick’s Day 2022, the ubiquitous Vermont ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s announced that its Dublin Mudslide flavor had returned from the dead. The news not only delighted fans of the long-discontinued Irish-cream-based concoction, but also gave hope to others still pining for pints of flavors gone but not forgotten. 

Founded in Burlington in 1978, Ben & Jerry’s has debuted hundreds of flavors over the decades. And while some become staples — like Cherry Garcia, still going strong after nearly 40 years — the vast majority eventually melt away. Wavy Gravy. Dastardly Mash. Peanut Butter and Jelly.

Their memory lives on, however, at the company’s Flavor Graveyard. An actual fenced-in plot set on a hill overlooking Ben & Jerry’s original Waterbury factory, it offers ice cream fans the chance to pay tribute to more than 30 discontinued flavors. Opened in 1997, this bite-sized Boot Hill is lined with headstones made of real granite (since the original resin ones tended to “disappear”) and featuring epitaphs affectionately crafted by Ben & Jerry’s copywriters (Wild Maine Blueberry / From the land of the puffin, / Now when we crave you / We turn to the muffin).

A digital version of the Flavor Graveyard also lives on the Ben & Jerry’s website, along with articles like “The Five Stages of Flavor Grief” and a tongue-in-cheek video of a funeral — complete with hearse and mourners — for the flavor What a Cluster (2011-2014).

But nothing beats a pilgrimage to Waterbury for true die-hards. And who knows? Thanks to the guided factory tours that come complete with samples, anyone bereaved by the loss of a favorite ice cream might just discover a new flavor to fill that hole in their heart, and of course, their stomach.