Thanks to modern culinary innovations, ice cream is one of the most versatile desserts and beloved worldwide and the market for it continues to evolve. For most of us, a scoop of ice cream can be an explosion of flavor-- rocky road, rainbow sorbet, and even an ice cream sundae topped with hot fudge. while we find that these flavors are distinctly and harmoniously tasteful, the core experience of eating flavors like these rely in their texture. This is especially true for individuals with anosmia, who experience the loss of the sense of smell, which, as we've learned, significantly impacts their taste as well. While the book "See What I'm Saying" discusses Karl Wuensch's experience with anosmia and how it changed his relationship with food, another famous case reveals how this condition can inadvertently lead to culinary innovation: Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry's.
Just like Wuensch finds his satisfaction in hot peppers, Ben Cohen needed to find satisfaction in food in texture. Cohen has had anosmia since he was young, and describes crushing up cookies and candies into his ice cream as "second-nature" (Sullivan & Cohen, 2021). As mentioned in the text by Rosenblum, "anosmics often enhance their remaining 20 percent of
flavor by adding spices as well as experimenting with a food’s texture," (Rosenblum, 2010). While Cohen cannot experience the distinct sweetness of ice cream as well as some of us can, he finds that ice cream is all about texture, which is what Ben and Jerry's flavors have been all about since its development in the 70s.
"When Jerry and I first started creating the flavors [in the 1970s], he'd give me something to taste. He'd say, “Well, how do you like it?” I said, “It's good. But I can't tell what flavor it is.” So he would just keep on adding more flavoring until I could guess. (Ben Cohen speaking about their development in an interview with Delish)(Cohen & Sullivan, 2021)
Due to Ben's anosmia, Ben and Jerry's ice cream flavors were made specifically with texture in mind to enhance the eating experience, especially for people with Anosmia. In an interview with Delish, Cohen says that his favorite Ben and Jerry's ice cream flavors include the Heath Bars one and the Rainforest Crunch as the inclusion of chunks in frozen food induce a unique phenomenon called "moisture migration" where, despite a product being frozen, the little amount of water actually migrates to different parts of the inclusion.
Ben and Jerry's Coffee Heath Bar Crunch
As Cohen describes "when that moisture migrates and the butter crunch starts to melt, it creates a caramel-y, liquid-y, buttery, and crunchy part of the ice cream. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's a swirl, but it's similar to that. A lot of it stays crunchy, though, especially with Heath bars. The chocolate coating acts as a moisture barrier." While moisture migration can be a huge problem in product development for some frozen food companies, Ben and Jerry's ice cream is made with this phenomenon in mind, which helps enhance its unique flavors and textures, for both people with and without Anosmia.
In the interview, Ben Cohen also describes how he and Jerry Greenfield actually disputed over the size of the chunks and inclusions in the ice cream, and ultimately compromised on "a whole lot of big chunks" in sacrifice of more profit they would've gotten for the feasibility of smaller chunks (Cohen & Sullivan, 2021). Let this be a reason for you to grab a pint of Ben and Jerry's (for science of course) and pay extra special attention to the textures and mouth feels of the bites you take.
References:
Rosenblum, L. D. (2010). See what I’m saying: The extraordinary powers of our five senses (1st ed.). Northon & Company.
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