How Ben & Jerry's make a pint of ice cream

Screen_shot_2010-07-27_at_7.49.jpg — Gordon Miller/Ben & Jerry's

Every day, more than 250,000 pints of ice cream come streaming off the production line of the Ben & Jerry's plant in this tiny town in the middle of seemingly endless forest.

CNET reporter Daniel Terdiman made a point of ensuring that he would stop through this dessert mecca.

At this plant - which is open to the public for daily tours - Ben & Jerry's produces 20 flavors, all of which come off the line in pints. The company has another plant in St. Albans, Vt., that produces other flavors and different size containers.

The production room

A view of the production room at the Ben & Jerry's factory. On the left side of the room is where the base ingredients are mixed. On the right side, toward the front is where chunks and swirls are added. And the pumping of the final mix into the pint containers happens in the middle.

Big tanks

Outside the plant, these tanks store huge amounts of liquified sugar, milk, and cream. The ingredients are pumped into the tanks directly from trucks and stored in the tanks until needed in the plant. The tanks are about two stories high.

The floor

Another look through a window down onto the production plant floor. On the floor, two flavors at a time can be made. About two pints come off the production lines per second. The flavors will generally be made for as much as 48 hours, or as little as 16 hours, depending on market demand. The production schedule is set weeks in advance.

Two pints

Two pints at a time come off the production line. They are then funneled into a single pint column. Again, this archival image shows the production of organic vanilla, a flavor Ben & Jerry's no longer makes.

QA Door

The door to the quality assurance lab, where the company is constantly testing for impurities, proper mixing, and other factors.

Testing in the lab

Inside the quality assurance lab, which is constantly running, the company conducts random tests and scheduled tests, and looks for things like milk quality, whether new ingredients can go in the ice cream, chunk distribution, and more.

Gate

Over the years, Ben & Jerry's has retired more than 300 flavors of ice cream, most because of poor sales. At the Waterbury facility, the company maintains a "flavor graveyard," where some of those flavors are memorialized.

Inside the graveyard

A view inside the graveyard, which is a popular stop for anyone visiting the plant.

Rainforest Crunch

This is the "gravestone" for Rainforest Crunch, one of more than 300 flavors Ben & Jerry's has retired over the years. Only a few of those are memorialized in the graveyard.

Treatment lagoon sign

Because much of the waste water that comes out of the plant contains high levels of fat, Ben & Jerry's pumps it into a large lagoon in order to treat it. The idea is to separate out the fat so that the water itself can be sent on to the Waterbury town waste water system. Without being treated, the water would not be suitable for being sent on to the town's system.

The lagoon

A look at the treatment lagoon at Ben & Jerry's Waterbury plant. There are a small flock of happy ducks that feed off the fat that can float on the surface of the lagoon.

Cowmobile

This is the cowmobile, a popular place for a photo opportunity for visitors.

Diorama

There are more than 500,000 visitors to the Waterbury plant each year, and Ben & Jerry's maintains lots of little attractions for them, including this diorama of a large "pint."

Posing

Ice cream fans can pose with their faces replacing those of Ben & Jerry's founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield on a large reproduction of a pint of their famous ice cream.

The globe

Since the opening of the Waterbury plant, there has always been a large globe hung from the side of the factory, perhaps signifying the fact that the Earth is important and that it is important to take care of it. Ben & Jerry's is well known for its philosophies on being as green as possible and treating its people well.

The loos

A Ben & Jerry's themed set of restrooms at the Waterbury, Vt., facility.

Many flavors

Inside the plant, this wall shows many rows of Ben & Jerry's pint containers.

Here come the pints

In this archival photo, dual rows of ice cream pints come off the production line.