President Joe Biden's love of ice cream is no state secret. Biden has gone public with this
information many times — so often, in fact, that the usually somber-and-serious network
CNN made a short video poking a little fun at how often the leader of the free
world has licked an ice cream cone while cameras were rolling. In 2016,
when he was vice president, Biden opened a press conference by saying,
"My name is Joe Biden, and I love ice cream."
This introduction wasn't as random as it might sound. Biden was holding the press
conference at Jeni's ice cream headquarters in Columbus, Ohio.
He went on to tell the audience just how much he loves ice cream:
"You all think I'm kidding, I'm not. I eat more ice cream than
any three other people you'd like to be with — all at once."
During the 2020 presidential election campaign, after Donald Trump accused Biden of using
performance-enhancing drugs during debates, Biden jokingly responded by revealing his performance
enhancer in an Instagram post: a pint of Jeni's Salted Peanut Butter With Chocolate Flecks.
It turns out that Biden's been a fan of the brand for a long time, too.
Jeni Britton Bauer, founder of Jeni's ice cream, jumped onto her blog in January 2012,
mere hours after Joe Biden made his first-ever visit to her Columbus scoop shop.
Britton Bauer served then-Vice President Biden herself, and she quickly learned he wasn't at
all interested in some of Jeni's fancier flavors. He even turned down her personal
recommendation to try Salty Caramel. Biden may love ice cream, but caramel ... not so much.
What he really wanted that day at Jeni's was a double scoop of chocolate chip ice cream — a
flavor Jeni's didn't have. As Britton Bauer suggested in her blog post, chocolate chip was
a little too basic for her artisanal brand. So, like any good politician, Biden found
a compromise. He ordered a combo double scoop with Dark Chocolate and Ugandan Vanilla Bean.
But Jeni Britton Bauer would remember the future president's request for chocolate chip.
When Biden made that first visit to Jeni's scoop shop nearly a decade ago,
no one could have predicted that Jeni's would go on to create a special flavor for Biden to honor
his inauguration as president of the United States. The Joe Biden ice cream, called White
House Chocolate Chip, crams the president's regular ice cream cone order into a pint:
vanilla ice cream with crunchy chocolate flakes and chocolate-covered waffle cone pieces.
When The New York Times did a deep dive to get the inside story on new president Joe Biden,
the newspaper left no stone unturned. It even reported on the foods you could always find in
his kitchen during his days as vice president: Biden had to have grapes and apples on hand,
and his drink of choice was orange Gatorade — and never alcohol.
It should be no surprise that Biden's list of must-have foods also included
ice cream — specifically, Häagen-Dazs vanilla chocolate chip. But that list of Biden foods is
more than a few years old now, dating back to the days he worked under Barack Obama.
If The New York Times would have dug just a little deeper, it might have gotten the latest scoop.
Biden has left a paper trail showing that he buys Jeni's in quantity.
Columbus Monthly looked at Biden's campaign finance records and found evidence that his
campaign spent more than $12,000 on Jeni's pints in the year leading up to the 2020 election.
Even Joe Biden can't eat that much ice cream in a year; these were purchased as gifts.
"The trouble with ice cream is that it melts. "
"I like it when it melts."
"What do you mean, you like it when it melts? Nobody likes ice cream when it melts."
"It's like soup."
"You hate soup!"
While Joe Biden clearly loves Jeni's ice cream, the president who said he wants to
reunite a divided nation surely has enough room in the presidential freezer for a diversity of
ice cream brands. In October 2020, when he was running for president, Biden gathered
the leaders of small ice cream companies at an "Ice Cream for Joe" summit to discuss issues
important to small businesses. The event attracted Jerry Greenfield, co-founder of Ben & Jerry's,
along with the top brass from Salt & Straw, Ice Cream Jubilee, and Frio Mexican Treats.
Numerous ice-cream companies big and small have released special flavors in honor of the
president, and it's a safe bet you can always find some in the freezer at the White House.
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