Source: Kevin Dietsch / Getty
Ben & Jerry’s might have the ice cream game in a chokehold these days, but that doesn’t mean they’re content with their success thus far. One of the freedom ice cream brand’s founders is looking to branch into other areas of the business world and the legalization of marijuana has just opened up a door to walk through and straight set up shop.
According to Fast Company, Ben & Jerry’s will be expanding their empire and delving into the legal marijuana game. Co-founder Ben Cohen has just launched his first Mary Jane-infused company, Ben’s Best Blnz aka B3. Hoping to re-create the same success that his ice cream has experienced over the decades, B3 will offer stoners low-THC pre-rolled joints and full-spectrum vapes that’s sure to get you high and give you the munchies.
“The idea came about when I was on a camping trip with a friend of mine, sitting around a fire, smoking a joint. And we were saying, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to have pot like the old days?’” Cohen said on a Zoom call, according to Fast Company.
The THC in the weed back when Ben was young was rather low, but still good enough to get the job done.
Aside from moving quality marijuana products, Ben’s vision for B3 also includes “social benefit.” His new endeavor has been registered as a non-profit; 100% of the money generated from Ben’s Best Blnz will be divided amongst three separate entities.
From Fast Company,
10% will go to the Last Prisoner Project, an organization dedicated to freeing individuals impacted by cannabis criminalization; another 10% will be donated to the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance, whose mission is to “secure sustainable power, ensure agency, and provide security for American Descendants of Slavery (ADOS)”; and the remaining 80% will be administered in partnership with NuProject as grants to Black cannabis entrepreneurs.
After giving Colin Kaepernick his own ice cream flavor at the height of MAGA hating on him to dropping a new flavor in support of Black Lives Matter, how can we not support Ben & Jerry’s these days? The only beef we have with them is that they didn’t release enough pairs of their Nike “Chunky Dunky” Dunks back in back in 2020. And that’s really on Nike if y’all think about it.
As for why he decided to go this route with his new marijuana brand, Ben Cohen says he’s doing what he can to help the Black community that have fallen victim to systematic oppression in America.
“The average Black family has 1/10th the wealth of a white family,” Cohen says. “I feel like business ownership is one of the best routes to generational wealth.”
Luckily, neither Ben & Jerry’s nor Ben’s Best Blnz is based in Florida because we all know MAGA Governor Ron DeSantis would’ve passed some legislation to take over the operation and prevent Cohen’s “woke” plan from playing out as he intends.
Looking to further send a message with his new brand, Cohen made sure the packaging for his product made a statement about the importance of Black culture and enlisted the talents of two well-renowned designers to do just that.
More from Fast Company:
Cohen worked with Pentagram’s Eddie Opara and Jack Collins to design the brand’s visual identity, which includes packaging, website, and merchandise. The brand is vibrantly designed and transparent in its celebration of Black designers and vendors, who are also listed on B3’s website. As a Black designer who is well aware of the industry’s whitewashed makeup, Opara was conscious of involving other Black creators in building the brand’s visual language.
That packaging do go hard though. Just sayin.’
What do y’all think of Ben Cohen’s plan for his Ben’s Best Blnz marijuana brand? Let us know in the comments section below.