Hello, Yellow Brickle Road

Cherry Garcia and Phish Food not quite glam enough for your tastes?

Next week, Elton John plays his first-ever concert in Vermont, the only U.S. state the rocker has yet to visit. The state's signature ice cream maker is releasing a limited-run flavor to celebrate: Goobye Yellow Brickle Road, a spin, of course, on Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.

Unfortunately, you'll have to make a prompt trek to the Green Mountain State to get it. The special flavor will be on sale only from July 18 through July 25 in Ben & Jerry's eight scoop shops in Vermont, and at the sold-out July 21 concert. Proceeds will go to the Elton John AIDS Foundation.

"We looked for flavor inspiration from Sir Elton, and he suggested chocolate and peanut butter," said Sean Greenwood, a spokesman for Ben & Jerry's.

After some tinkering from the ice cream R&D guys, the resulting flavor is made of chocolate ice cream, peanut butter cookie dough, butter "brickle," and white chocolate chunks.

"I'd say one of our chunkiest flavors is New York Super Fudge Chunk, and that doesn't hold a candle to this flavor," Greenwood says.

Sure, Ben & Jerry's is known for being a big-hearted organization, but introducing a whole new flavor seems like a lot of effort for a very fleeting production run.

It usually takes 12 to 18 months to do a nationwide retail roll-out of a new flavor, but Yellow Brickle Road went from concept to reality in a mere three weeks. The Burlington, Vermont-based ice cream maker managed the speedy turnaround by focusing on ingredients they already had in stock (though in the end, they had to specially source the "butter brickle") and avoiding the need for packaging and shipment by limiting it to scoops in its own, local stores.

Harry Balzer, a senior food and beverage analyst for NPD Research, believes that no matter how small the run, such impromptu novelty flavors are a wise move for Ben & Jerry's.

"Ice cream is a very big category but not necessarily growing, and we're always looking to try something new," Balzer says. "I'm sure Ben & Jerry's will like the response they get."

Balzer says that apart from the sales generated during its week-long run, Ben & Jerry's will see a halo-effect of Goodbye Yellow Brickle Road in helping to maintain overall brand awareness amongst consumers.

"It's another opportunity to show people something the company is doing that's fun. We do cool stuff with rock and roll artists, and I think that resonates with people," Greenwood says.

And there's always the chance that this is just the beginning of a larger life for Goodbye Yellow Brickle Road.

"Never say never about a national run or retail run," Greenwood notes. "We did a couple hundred servings of a beer and donut ice cream when Vermont hosted the premiere of The Simpsons Movie. The response was so good that we worked with 20th Century Fox to put it in 250 scoop shops to coincide with the DVD release of the movie."

Ben & Jerry's has made a name for itself in pop culture collaborations, with two of its top flavors, Cherry Garcia and Phish Food, named in honor of Grateful Dead front man Jerry Garcia and hippie jam band Phish. The company also sells ice cream in pints and by the scoop named for The Dave Matthews Band (Dave Matthews Band Magic Brownies), comedy troupe Monty Python (Vermonty Python), cult-movie Napoleon Dynamite (Neapolitan Dynamite), and funnyman Stephen Colbert (Americone Dream).

As for how Elton John's signature flavor got its name?

"Another contender was "Bad Side Of The Spoon," that was the closest runner up," says Greenwood. "But we thought it was a little dark. We thought Yellow Brickle Road was just so cute."

Not bad, but any other names you think should have made it on the short list?

Liz Gunnison