Jimmy Fallon has joined the esteemed ranks of Willie Nelson, Elton John and the guitarist of the Grateful Dead in having a Ben & Jerry's ice cream flavor named after him, in celebration of his show's second anniversary. The salty-sweet "Late Night Snack," which Fallon eagerly introduced at his studio in 30 Rockefeller last night with company founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, is comprised of "rich vanilla bean ice cream with a salty caramel swirl and crunchy fudge covered potato chips."
Ben & Jerry's originally approached Fallon after his unprompted tribute to the ice cream company in the "Ladysmith Snack Mambazo" skit last year, but it took a while to figure out how to incorporate the potato chips that Fallon requested into the ice cream. Chips + ice cream = soggy mess, as most people who've been through a bad break-up know all too well. But we had a taste, and have to say that condensing the kettle chips into clusters and coating them in fudge was a revelation.
Fallon isn't the first late night show host to get his own Ben & Jerry's flavor. Of Stephen Colbert, Fallon joked, "I hope I never see that man's ice cream next to mine. In fact, I've asked it be separated on the shelves from his 'Americone Dream' -- ice cream cones in ice cream? Oh my gosh, what a genius idea!"
On a more serious note, Fallon, Cohen and Greenfield made it a point to promote the Fair Trade aspect of the cocoa and vanilla beans that go into the ice cream. Fallon is even donating his percentage of the profits to help educate people on the importance of buying Fair Trade, so when you pick up a 1080 calorie pint of his ice cream you can feel a little less guilty.
