Ben & Jerry's Release Bernie Sanders Ice Cream For 2020

When it comes to Ben & Jerry's, half the fun of the ice cream brand is waiting to see what wacky flavor combos they're going to come up with next. Their latest release, though, is extremely limited — so much so that it will not be available in stores. Nope, the only way to get your paws on one of just 40 pints of "Bernie's Back!" is to win it in a contest — and, incidentally, sign up for Bernie Sanders' campaign mailing list for the chance to do so.

This newest flavor, which was of course named after Bernie Sanders, the senator and presidential hopeful from Ben & Jerry's home state of Vermont, is described as "hot cinnamon ice cream with one very large chocolate disc on top and a (very stiff) butter toffee backbone going down the middle." Hmmm, a slightly odd (and oddly specific) flavor combo. But wait, it's got a back story too — the ice cream symbolizes a Bernie-led political revolution: The spicy cinnamon signifies the need to hold politicians' feet to the fire, the chocolate disc represents all of the wealth that's risen to the top 1 percent that needs to be broken up and redistributed (into the ice cream, of course), and the toffee backbone is Sanders' determination to fix our nation's economic woes. A bit of a stretch? Maybe. But it does sound pretty yummy.

Now, technically this ice cream isn't exactly Ben & Jerry's-branded, as the Unilever-owned company isn't in the business of endorsing political candidates these days. Instead, "Bernie's Back!" is part of the private, Ben Cohen-founded "Ben's Best" line that he created in 2016 to market a previous Sanders-themed ice cream. This flavor, called "Bernie's Yearning," consisted of plain mint covered with a chocolate disc meant to symbolize, yes, wealth at the top — and, as with the "Bernie's Back!" the suggested way to eat it was to break up the chocolate and mix it in for a more equitable distribution of wealth, er, chocolatey goodness.

According to Cohen, who's been aided in his private venture by — you guessed it, Jerry Greenfield (but remember, this is definitely not a Ben & Jerry's ice cream) — "Bernie's Back!" is just the first of an entire line of Bernie 2020 flavors, although there's no word on whether each one of them will contain the signature chocolate wealth disc. Cohen does note, however, that should his man be elected, he expects to be named Minister of Ice Cream. His own campaign promise? "A pint in every freezer, a sundae in every bowl." Now there's an idea sure to gain bipartisan support.

Visit JusticeInAllItsFlavors.com to enter to win a pint of Bernie's Back! through August 9.