Ben & Jerry’s Explains Why Grape Ice Cream Isn’t A Thing

Chances are you’ve never tasted grape ice cream. It’s just not something you see on the shelves of the freezer section or behind the counter at an ice cream shop. But why is that? Grape is a popular flavor for so many other food products, so why don’t we ever see it in our favorite frozen treat? In a recent article from Thrillist, reporter Will Fulton tackles this question. Ben & Jerry’s’ head of public relations, Sean Greenwood, told Thrillist that because grapes have a high water content (about 81-84%), they’re extremely difficult to incorporate into large batches of ice cream. "Making ice cream at home, you can get fruit like grapes pretty close to a puree, but when you are using fruit as a base on a large scale, that's when you run into problems," said Greenwood. The high water content of grapes would cause the ice cream to be quite icy, which is not what you want. Aside from the water-content hurdle, B&J’s doesn’t really bother with grape ice cream because people simply aren’t looking for it — it's a flavor that has never been in demand. Or as Greenwood cleverly put it, “Grape has not broken through the creme-de-glace ceiling, if you will.” When asked if he thinks the ice cream team will ever do a grape flavor, he responds, "I've got to be honest...probably not."