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Ben & Jerry's
Discontinued: 2011
What happens when Saturday Night Live meets ice cream? Pure controversy.
This vanilla ice cream was loaded with fudge-covered rum and malt balls. It was inspired by Alec Baldwin’s hilarious 1998 SNL sketch. For 13 years, Ben & Jerry’s had dreamed of turning Pete Schweddy’s “balls” into reality.
When they finally did, conservative group One Million Moms called it “vulgar” and “repulsive.” Some supermarket chains refused to stock it. But the controversy only made it more popular.
Schweddy Balls became Ben & Jerry’s most successful limited-edition flavor ever.
Discontinued: 1987
Ice cream tailor-made for Wall Street tears.
When Black Monday hit in October 1987, Ben & Jerry’s responded with vanilla ice cream packed with chocolate-covered nuts. They even loaded a truck and drove straight to Wall Street.
Imagine devastated traders and bankers getting free scoops of “Economic Crunch” right on the street. When police told them to move the illegally parked truck, they just drove around the block and came right back.
Discontinued: 1999
Rainforest Crunch taught Ben & Jerry’s about the perils of good intentions.
Launched with the noble goal of saving the Amazon rainforest. This ice cream featured cashew and Brazil nut butter crunch. It seemed perfect for the socially conscious brand. The packaging promised that buying the ice cream would help indigenous peoples establish nut-shelling cooperatives.
The reality was messier. Only 5% of the nuts actually came from those cooperatives. The rest came from Brazilian agribusinesses. Some with questionable labor practices.
Ben & Jerry’s called themselves out in their own annual report and discontinued the controversial ice cream flavor soon after.
Discontinued: 2007 (Resurrected 2022)
Irish cream ice cream with chocolate chip cookies and coffee fudge swirls. It sounds perfect, right? Fans certainly thought so. When it disappeared in 2007, they demanded its return.
For 15 years, thousands of petitions poured in. Ben & Jerry’s listened.
The company finally acted in 2022 by partnering with Wheyward Spirit, a company that turns cheese-making waste into alcohol. Same great taste, less environmental waste.
Discontinued: 1990
The sandwich combination that just didn’t work in ice cream.
On paper, it was foolproof. Peanut butter ice cream with peanut butter bits and strawberry jelly swirl. The most iconic American sandwich combo now available in frozen form.
In reality? The peanut butter completely overwhelmed the strawberry jelly. Plus, they used strawberry instead of grape (a cardinal PB&J sin for traditionalists).
Ben & Jerry’s said it best: “An unbeatable duo! Yet somehow it managed to flop in a cone, so we stuck to the sammich.”
Discontinued: 2001
The only sorbet flavor to make this list.
This dairy-free blend of raspberry-blackberry and passion fruit sorbet was ahead of its time. The flavor catered to vegans and lactose-intolerant consumers.
For a company that normally nails branding. “Purple Passion Fruit” suggested it was all about passion fruit, but half the flavor was raspberry-blackberry. The mysterious “other natural flavors” didn’t help customer confusion.
The name misled this sorbet to its doom.
Discontinued: 2012
When elegance meets ice cream... and loses.
This French-inspired ice cream combined sweet custard ice cream with a caramelized sugar swirl. The taste was spot-on. People loved the contrast between creamy custard and crunchy burnt sugar.
But it looked boring. Plain, off-white ice cream doesn’t catch the eye in a freezer full of colorful, chunky competitors.
In Ben & Jerry’s world, you need to look as wild as you taste.
Discontinued: 1991
One of the original four residents of the Ben & Jerry’s Flavor Graveyard.
Chocolate ice cream loaded with pecans, almonds, raisins, and chocolate chips. Chunky chaos at its finest. This flavor lasted 12 years, making it through the company’s scrappy early days.
When the physical Flavor Graveyard opened in 1997, Dastardly Mash earned one of the original four headstones. The company blamed raisins for its demise.
Discontinued: 2010
Fossil Fuel was a flavor that died for a cause.
Sweet cream ice cream with chocolate cookies, fudge dinosaurs, and fudge swirls. A kid’s dream can come true. But Ben & Jerry’s killed it intentionally to make a statement about climate change.
By removing “Fossil Fuels” from their lineup, they wanted to make a statement about moving away from non-renewable energy sources. The fudge dinosaurs became symbols of extinction. Both prehistoric and environmental.
Discontinued: 1989
When coffee meets whiskey, you know you are about to have a good day.
Tennessee Mud used coffee ice cream swirled with Amaretto and Jack Daniels, studded with roasted almonds. This flavor was tailor-made for dads everywhere. It lasted just one year, perhaps too intense for the late ’80s ice cream market.
But today’s craft cocktail culture might have embraced it.
Discontinued: 1996
Another cocktail that became ice cream.
Coffee ice cream infused with Kahlua coffee liqueur. You could buy a White Russian in your local grocery store for 10 years before it was discontinued. It captured the creamy, boozy essence of the classic cocktail that would later be immortalized in “The Big Lebowski.”
The company playfully commented on its death with, “in our scoop shops, please don’t forget, dead it’s not, oh no, not nyet.”
Discontinued: 2001
Named after a real person who’s very much alive.
This caramel and cashew Brazil nut ice cream with chocolate hazelnut fudge swirl honored Wavy Gravy, the famous peace activist and entertainer. The flavor’s epitaph clarified: “Wavy Gravy isn’t dead - he lives in California.”
The real Wavy Gravy, born Hugh Romney, was a fixture at Woodstock and a lifelong advocate for peace and social justice. The flavor captured his free-spirited nature.
Discontinued: 1991
Logistics killed this Southern belle.
This ice cream flavor featured fresh Georgia peaches trucked from the South with Ben & Jerry’s commitment to quality ingredients. The problem? Geography and transportation technology in the 1980s.
When they discontinued it, they said: “Fresh-picked peaches trucked from Georgia tasted great but couldn’t last 'cuz Georgia’s quite a-ways away & trucks don’t go that fast.”
Discontinued: 1998
When Italian dessert meets Vermont.
Creamy ricotta and pistachio ice cream loaded with chocolate-covered cannoli pieces and roasted pistachios. This ambitious flavor lasted just one year. Ben & Jerry’s blamed the pistachios for its downfall.
Italian-American dessert fusion was still finding its footing in the late ’90s. Today’s foodie culture might have embraced this cross-cultural creation.
Ahead of its time, behind in sales.
Discontinued: 1993
Southern comfort strikes again.
This ginger ice cream with a fudge swirl attempted to taste like sweet potato pie, but the execution didn’t match the ambition. The name honored someone special to Ben & Jerry’s, but customers couldn’t connect with the unusual combination.
Ben & Jerry’s was brutally honest: “No one could appreciate it, so we had to let it die.”
Discontinued: 2001
All In used milk chocolate and white chocolate ice creams swirled together, studded with white and dark fudge cows. It was like a painting of an edible pastoral scene. Each spoonful revealed tiny fudge cows “grazing” in chocolate and vanilla “pastures.”
Despite its visual charm and three-year run, customer demand wasn’t strong enough to keep this barnyard scene alive. The cows went to that great pasture in the sky.
Discontinued: 2010
Slow and steady... lost the race.
Vanilla ice cream with fudge-covered caramel cashews and caramel swirl ran for four years before Ben & Jerry’s decided it needed a rest. The turtle theme played on the classic candy combination of caramel, chocolate, and nuts.
The epitaph acknowledged its steady pace: “Slow and steady wins the race, Turtle Soup kept up the pace... Turtle Soup deserves a rest.”
Discontinued: 1993
From the land of the puffin to flavor extinction.
Blueberry ice cream made with Maine blueberry puree and wild Maine blueberries seemed like a natural winner. Fresh, local ingredients in a classic American flavor. What could go wrong?
Apparently, everything. Ben & Jerry’s came out and said: “Now when we crave you, we turn to the muffin.”
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