2024 Summer Trip - Vermont and Enticement Alley - 2024/08/03

Our Summer Travels have taken us to Vermont where we're visiting our friends with a maple farm. But, just an hour south of their home in a town called Waterbury is a strip of road called Enticement Alley. All around this area you're sure to find lots of tasty treats. Let's go for a visit! 

Our first stop is the Cold Hollow Cider Mill. 

The kids said they remembered it from visiting last time. Really? That was 3 years ago. 

Being early August, it's not quite apple season yet, so I don't know what exactly to expect here. 

We know exactly where we're going though. The kids knew too. 

Ian - Just around the corner and then to the back, right? 

You got it buddy. 

Because here is the Tasting Tank! Free samples of apple cider that was pressed earlier in the day! And even though we arrived at 12:30pm this time, we have never made it here early enough to see them actually pressing apples to make cider.  

But we're all happy to get a taste of the delicious cider they make here. 

Ian - They have bees here too, right? 

You are correct. They do! We went to go find them and see how busy they were. 

We can't leave here without treats, right? But what to get? 

Those fresh apple cider donuts look pretty good... But we remembered from last time that they don't dip them in cinnamon sugar, so we were all a little disappointed in them last time. We'll pass on that today. 

Instead, it's frozen apple slushies for both kids and we're on our way to the next spot. 

But not before saying hi to a cow in the lobby. Which is appropriate, because our next stop is all about cows. 

The Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream factory just down the road! 

Here, they need a whole lot of milk, along with giant containers of sugar and cream. 

Someone here has a sense of humor. The Pokemon Go stop at Ben & Jerry's has a blue cow in it. 

Our last visit here was in October 2021 and things were still shut down for Covid. There were no factory tours, samples, and even the gift shop was closed. Today though, everything is back to being open and we're excited to go inside! 

Think you could eat as many pints as you are tall? 

Alli gets an extra pint for her hair. 

Today, instead of just looking around the grounds though, we have a special treat. We're going on a factory tour! 

Every day, from 10:15am to 6pm, every 15 minutes, groups of 30ish are led through the factory on a tour! Adults are $6 each, while kids are just $1. 

After checking in with our tour guide, we were ushered up a set of stairs. 

To the Ben & Jerry's Moovie Theater. 

Here, we watched a history of the Ben & Jerry's company. How they got their start, and what their mission is going forward. 

I thought the chicken-cow on the wall was cute. 

Next, we'll head over to the actual factory to see the ice cream being made! 

Except, it wasn't being made. The factory of course goes through production cycles where they make a giant batch of a particular flavor of ice cream, then the line gets shut down for 20ish hours to give everything a deep cleaning before the next flavor of ice cream is started. The tours run no matter where they are in production, so we just got to see people cleaning things. And no photos were allowed either, so we don't even have that. They did give us a sample of some of their Cookie Dough mixins while our guide told us what the machines would be doing. 

Luckily, there is a YouTube video about the whole process. 

The final part of our 30 minute tour is the tasting lab. I wonder what crazy ideas they come up with in here. 

That's an interesting "need" list. 

Here we heard a few bad cow jokes. 

And learned what interesting flavor we'd get to try! Today we're sampling... Broccoli Cheddar Chunk! Broccoli Ice Cream with Kidney Bean Chunks and a Cheddar Cheese Swirl. Well now! That certain is interesting!

Actually that's just a joke. Today we're really trying Marshmallow Sky. A new flavor with Marshmallow Ice Cream with gobs of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough plus Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough and a swirl of Marshmallow. 

That Broccoli Ice Cream was just a joke, BUT on one day a year, April 1st, they actually do make a crazy ice cream flavor for people to sample. Theresa, can we come back on April 1st? 

There's a large tray of ice cream prepared for everyone to get a taste. 

It looks good!

And it tastes good! We do wish maybe it was a little harder frozen, we do like our ice cream solid, but overall, a very good treat. 

Thanks for the ice cream! 

A look at some of the newest flavors to come from the tasting room. That Impreztively Fudged ice cream and the PB S'more ice cream look delicious too!  

There's more samples than guests on this tour, so anyone who wanted one was allowed to go back up and grab another sample. 

Yum! 

As we left, the hallway is lined with all their top selling flavors. My favorite (Karamel Sutra) didn't make the list, but maybe yours did. In order it's Half Baked, Cherry Garcia, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Strawberry Cheesecake, Chocolate Fudge Brownie, The Tonight Dough, Phish Food, Americone Dream, Chunky Monkey, and Milk & Cookies. 

We waved to the testing lab people as we went by. 

They are cutting open multiple pints to make sure that you always get a chunk inside every bite of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream. 

I had to have the kids recreate their photo from 2021.

(taken 2021)

(taken 2024)

Thanks Ben & Jerry's! 

Theresa - That is a lot of ice cream... Are we going to do a taste test someday? 

Joe - Wow, there's even more flavors. Well, I'm not going to say no. 

Afterwards, we headed up the hill towards the parking lot to the playground. 

Theresa and I relaxed in the shade. 

While the kids burned some ice cream energy running around. 

And again, recreated jumping off the equipment like they did when we were little. 

Our last stop here is the Flavor Graveyard where we pay homage to our favorite flavors that are no longer produced. 

Poor Oatmeal Cookie Dough. 

There's just one more stop we have to make before we head back to the Couture's Maple Shop. 

The Cabot Creamery! 

On the West Coast, you're more likely to find Tillamook Cheese, while on the East Coast, Cabot dominates the market. Let's go see what all they have here! On our last visit, the Cabot cheese shops weren't doing samples, but hopefully things have changed since then. 

Bummer, we're missing cheese week. 

Oh interesting, look at all the other Cabot Cheese products they have. Mac and Cheese and Popcorns. Hmm, I think we can do something with that. 

Hooray! Samples! 

This first one was a Habanero Cheddar Cheese and it definitely has a kick to it! I loved it!

Also out to sample was a Legacy Collection White Oak Cheddar Cheese. 

We've tried this one before. After they didn't have samples out to try last time, I bought 9 different blocks of Cabot Cheese, plus 4 other cheeses to have a 13 cheese taste test to find our favorite!

Ah, the Pepper Jack cheese is a little "gummy" to us, but has a good flavor with the peppers in it. 

And you don't have to have cheese just by itself. You can pair it with other things too! Ah, this Alpine Cheddar came in first place for our taste test. Mix that with some apricot jam and you have a very tasty salty and sweet combination! 

One of the things we really like tasting are the aged cheeses. Cheddars that have aged for 10, 12, even 15 years are something I love to try. We have found that we like our aged cheeses sharp, crumbly, with calcium crystals that have formed. 

Theresa was already thinking about a taste test we could do from here with all their aged cheeses. A pricy taste test, but it could be interesting. Well, they didn't have any aged cheeses sitting out to sample, but a worker was walking up to people asking if they'd like to try their 10 year cheddar. Perfect! 

Except, not perfect flavor. It's not crumbly, but creamy. And like we usually find with creamy aged cheeses, it's got a sour flavor to it. Not good. Glad we were able to sample it instead of buying it ourselves and being disappointed. 

Well, I did pick up something else for a later taste test which I sure will be delicious. For now, we've got to back to the Couture Farm for a tasty hamburger dinner!