Ben & Jerry’s Is Planning To Make CBD-Infused Ice Cream

Digging into a pint of ice cream is about to get way more chill.

cbd-ben-jerrys
Ben & Jerry's

With legal cannabis and cannabis-related products spreading throughout the northern hemisphere, this was inevitable: Ben & Jerry’s, the Vermont-based ice cream brand long identified with hippie-era stoner culture, is making its own brand of CBD-infused ice cream.

CBD (cannabidiol) is a chemical component found in the cannabis plant which is related to THC but doesn’t get you high. It’s supposedly got a number of therapeutic applications anyway and has been used for a variety of issues, including chronic pain, anxiety, inflammation, and depression. 

So Ben & Jerry’s wants to enhance ice cream’s already well-known therapeutic ability—previously rooted solely in its calorie-dense deliciousness.

Here’s a portion of Ben & Jerry’s statement about their new ingredient:

You probably already know that we’re fans of all things groovy — think: Half Baked and Dave Matthews Band Magic Brownies.

So it’s no surprise that we can’t wait to get into the latest food trend: cannabidiol, or CBD. We are open to bringing CBD-infused ice cream to your freezer as soon as it’s legalized at the federal level.

Notice that qualification, “as soon as it’s legalized?” Yeah, there’s one little hitch, as Ben & Jerry’s admits: “Currently, the FDA prohibits adding CBD to food and beverages.”

Once it’s legal, though, Ben & Jerry’s will have you and their associates and contractors in Vermont covered:

We want to use sustainably-sourced CBD from our home state of Vermont. After all, values-led sourcing is an important part of our process when we churn up new ice cream innovations. By using high-quality, sustainably-sourced ingredients, we support our linked prosperity model, ensuring that everyone involved with making our flavors — from the cocoa farmers to the Scoop Shop scoopers — is positively impacted.

We source our brownies from Greyston Bakery, which has an innovative open-door hiring policy, and our cookie dough comes from Rhino Foods, which employs refugees and sources its dairy locally from the St. Albans Co-op.

How soon might we see that happy-looking little green tub in the freezer section? That isn’t clear, but you can tell the FDA how you feel about it between now and July 2, 2019. 

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Let’s admit it, this is a match made in chilled-out ice cream heaven, and the government needs to know if you’re into it. 

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