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.

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. 

Just click here to leave your comments. 

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.