Ben & Jerry's founder creates Bernie's Yearning flavour for Sanders

Special edition ice cream container says it should be opened joyfully, a political revolution inside

Image | Bernies-ice-cream

Caption: The co-founder of Ben & Jerry's ice cream made a special edition flavour for Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders called Bernie's Yearning. Fans can enter a contest to win one of 15 containers. (Berniesyearning.com)

What does victory taste like for Bernie Sanders? The co-founder of Ben & Jerry's ice cream, Ben Cohen, hopes it tastes like chocolate and mint.
Cohen made a special edition ice cream flavour for the Democratic presidential candidate who represents Cohen's home state of Vermont as a U.S. senator.
It's called Bernie's Yearning.
"Nothing is so unstoppable as a flavor whose time has finally come," Cohen wrote on a website(external link) he created for his homemade ice cream. He concocted it on his own in his kitchen, it's not a new product being offered by Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc. The company he founded with Jerry Greenfield, famous for its creative flavour names, was sold to Unilever in 2000.
The container resembles Ben & Jerry's products though and borrows from its "Vermont's Finest" slogan, calling Sanders "Vermont's Finest Senator."
It has a photo of the smiling politician known for his sometimes unkempt white hair, and underneath it reads: "Open Joyfully, Political Revolution Inside."
"We've seen him in action and we believe in him," Cohen wrote about Sanders on the website(external link). Sanders, who sat as an Independent in the Senate and describes himself as a democratic socialist, mounted a campaign that surprised many, including his main rival in the contest, Hillary Clinton.
Cohen said he volunteered his time to make the ice cream and all costs associated with making 40 pints of it were covered by the Sanders campaign.
The pint of mint ice cream is covered with a thick disc of solid chocolate. The container says the chocolate disc represents "the huge majority of economic gains that have gone to the top 1 per cent since the end of the recession. Beneath it, the rest of us."
There is a specific way to eat the ice cream, according to instructions printed on the container: take the back of a spoon and smash the chocolate disc to pieces, let the ice cream soften and mix them in, thereby spreading the symbolic chocolate wealth. Get it? That's Bernie's Yearning.
Twenty-five containers were given to the Sanders campaign and now Cohen is running a contest through the website for other fans to get a taste and win the remaining containers.
Cohen is often politically active, especially speaking out about the influence of big money in elections and on the need for campaign finance reform.
News of Bernie's Yearning prompted some amusing reactions online.