Ben & Jerry's Chunk Fest - 6 December 2008, Singapore

I'm a Ben & Jerry's fan so I was thrilled to be invited to Chunk Fest, Singapore's first ever ice cream festival hosted by Ben & Jerry's of course! It was held at Fort Canning Green and admission was free for all!

Seriously, which other ice cream company would think of holding an event filled with Moosic, fun activities, an ice cream eating contest and naturally, oodles of ice cream! Yep, 34 different flavours to be exact, 12 of which were sold exclusively during Chunk Fest.

Images in this montage are courtesy of Ben & Jerry's

Though, I'm generally not into sweet stuff, I can't resist the chunky ice creams with fun names that Ben & Jerry's offers. I've been a fan for a while and the ice creams were "instrumental" in my pain therapy for post wisdom teeth operations. I ate a pint everyday for 5 days at a time (twice over!) to kill the pain.

I love their concept because they're zany, innovative, with a huge dose of social consciousness and the cute packaging puts a silly grin on my face . The bright colours and fun design are so eye-catching!

Ben & Jerry's. Oh how do I love thee? Let me count the ways:

1) Chocolate Fudge Brownie
- Chunks of chewy, fudgy brownies baked by economically disadvantaged residents of Yonkers, N.Y.C. make this chocolate ice-cream combo irresistible.

2) New York Super Fudge Chunk
- White & Dark Fudge Chunks, Pecans, Walnuts & Fudge Covered Almonds makes this chocolate ice-cream interesting because you're never sure which ingredient you're going to get in the next mouthful.

3) Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
- Vanilla ice cream with blobs of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. If you grew up licking your mum's cookie dough bowl, you'll be pleased by the memories that this ice cream evokes. I never had the opportunity to do so because my mum doesn't bake (then again, neither do I so I guess a lack of interest/talent in baking runs in the family?). However, I can imagine how it must have felt like whenever I eat a mushy bit of cookie dough. It's awesome!

4) Chocolate Therapy
- Chocolate Ice Cream with Chocolate Cookies & Swirls of Chocolate Pudding Ice Cream. I got this chocolate fix at the event..."Om!"

5) Strawberry Cheesecake
- Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream with Strawberries & a Thick Graham Cracker Swirl. I love all of the components in this ice cream.

6) Phish Food
- Chocolate Ice Cream with Gooey Marshmallow, a Caramel Swirl & Fudge Fish. Named after the band, Phish, this is an interesting combo that marries the buttery flavour of caramel with chocolate and sweet, gooey marshmallow. The fish shaped chocolate chunks are cute and I loved digging into my pint for more.

7) Chunky Monkey
- Banana Ice Cream with Fudge Chunks & Walnuts. If you've ever wondered how this name came about, it was given by elementary school kids who had mashed their lunch remnants together in their trays. I love the natural flavour of bananas perked up with chocolate and walnut chunks.

These 7 are my favourite Ben & Jerry's flavours. As you can tell, I'm a MAJOR chocolate fan. If you want to try more flavours than those that are readily available in the supermarkets, visit the scoop shops for a wider range.

My friends and I had originally planned to head to Chunk Fest at 2.30pm (the event was slated to run from 2pm to 11pm). Unfortunately, it started raining cats and dogs just as we were finishing lunch. We were apprehensive about slipping on the muddy grass and decided to shop the afternoon away instead. When we finally dropped by close to 10pm, it was still pretty crowded but most of the exclusive flavours were already sold out! We were told that the die-hard fans had queued in the pouring rain with only their umbrellas for shelter. Man, that is devotion! Despite the muddy grass, the atmosphere was energetic due in large part to the pulsating music and the participation from the audience.

Tip: Definitely come early next year for this event (I hope this event will be run annually & I'm sure many ice cream fans out there feel the same way).

Here are some pictures that I took at the event. :)

Ice Cream is best when shared.

Till the next Chunk Fest, here's the album to reminisce over:

Ben & Jerry's Chunk Fest 2008, Singapore

Thanks for the wonderful memories, Ben & Jerry's and Bates 141!

*PS: If you're wondering why cows and "moos" appear so often in their branding, its partly because they adopt a sustainable agricultural approach in sourcing for their ingredients, a large part of which consists of milk and cream supplied by St. Albans Cooperative Creamery, Vermont.