Ben & Jerry's Boston Apologizes For 'Taste The Lin-Sanity' Ice Cream With Fortune Cookies And Lychee

On Friday, the Boston Globe reported that the Harvard Square location of Ben & Jerry's had begun to sell a limited-release ice cream flavor called "Taste The Lin-Sanity," honoring Harvard graduate and New York Knicks sensation Jeremy Lin. The flavor originally contained vanilla frozen yogurt, lychee honey swirls and fortune cookie pieces. The fortune cookies were replaced with a waffle cookie after some initial backlash -- apparently from people upset about Asian stereotypes associated with using a fortune cookie and because the cookie itself was soggy.

Deadspin cheekily points out that lychee is also native to Asia, yet the inclusion has not been as controversial as the fortune cookie:

Also, "Taste The Lin-Sanity" features lychee, which is a fruit native to Southeast Asia, which is not the part of Asia that Jeremy Lin comes from. (The part of Asia that Jeremy Lin comes from is Northern California.)

Deadspin also references the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) advisory on Jeremy Lin and food references. AAJA says, "Is there a compelling reason to draw a connection between Lin and fortune cookies, takeout boxes or similar imagery? In the majority of news coverage, the answer will be no."

The shop apologized Saturday, in a statement and via Twitter, to anyone who was offended.

Not everyone was bothered by the fortune cookies though, or the Lin-spired flavor altogther. The pints are now sold out.

Check out Ben & Jerry's Boston Twitter apology:

@BenJerryBoston
Ben & Jerry's Boston

On behalf of Ben & Jerry's Boston Scoop Shops we offer a heartfelt apology if anyone was offended by our handmade Linsanity flavor that...

February 25, 2012 11:23 pm via HootSuite Reply Retweet Favorite

@BenJerryBoston
Ben & Jerry's Boston

we offered at our Harvard Square location. We are proud and honored to have Jeremy Lin hail from one of our fine, local universities and...

February 25, 2012 11:25 pm via HootSuite Reply Retweet Favorite

@BenJerryBoston
Ben & Jerry's Boston

we are huge sports fans. We were swept up in the nationwide Linsanity momentum. Our intention was to create a flavor to honor Jeremy...

February 25, 2012 11:26 pm via HootSuite Reply Retweet Favorite

@BenJerryBoston
Ben & Jerry's Boston

Lin's accomplishments and his meteoric rise in the NBA, and recognize that he was a local Harvard graduate. We try demonstrate our...

February 25, 2012 11:26 pm via HootSuite Reply Retweet Favorite

@BenJerryBoston
Ben & Jerry's Boston

commitment as a Boston-based, valued-led business & if we failed in this instance we offer our sincere apologies. -Boston Ben & Jerry's Team

February 25, 2012 11:27 pm via HootSuite Reply Retweet Favorite

Comments

[Alex Smith-Fernstrom]

12:41 PM on 11/20/2012

Oh for frack's sake, who cares????? People need to STOP taking stuff so seriously. I have no doubt that no offense was intended and frankly, it sounds really damn tasty. Get over yourselves, people, not everything is a personal attack.

[summer261987]

04:37 AM on 03/21/2012

Lychee is not a fruit native to southeast asia = =; the climate is too hot!

moreover, Taiwan's lychee taste very good! so it's appropriate IMO

[ladymulti]

02:05 PM on 02/29/2012

But fortune cookies didn't come from Asia; they were invented in California. Really; people need to research stuff before they get upset over stupid little things. So how does a cookie invented in California imbues a stereotype? So you're stereotyping what? Californians or Asians?

[whoknew---]

02:21 PM on 02/29/2012

Actually fortune cookies are a Japanese invention that American Chinese restaurants embraced.

I was reading another post regarding someone taking offense to "chitlins ice cream" as being racist. I actually could see that.

So maybe people who see a phony Chinese product attached to a person of Taiwanese decent in a state (California) that officially apologized to Chinese Americans back in July 22, 2009 for acts such as testifying against white people, marrying white people, and barring Chinese women from migrating here.

That history still pervades because I was looking at the site of the Southern Poverty Law Center. California as of 2010 has the most hate groups in any other state---

http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/case-docket

[mich3llem1989]

11:18 AM on 02/29/2012

LOL> okay, I don't mean to roll my eyes and chuckle. I believe in racial tolerance and am too (being hispanic: cuban) offended by stereo types but what happened to humor? and well, that icecream sounds awesome. The only thing is that Ben and Jerry's should have done their research: Lin is from California??? lol. No man... this would have been in good taste if Lin associates with asian culture and cuisine and was okay with this concoction himself. If that were the case... what is wrong with this pic? Damn... I wouldn't not be offended if Ben and Jerry's came out with a cuban themed ice cream filled with chunks of platanito maduros or mangos. LOL yay! I love cuban food. Go ahead!!! Stereotypes can suck but some are true... for some people. Okay not all cubans are loud, dramatic and tacky... but... damn, I know many who are. Not all cubans eat white rice, black beans and roast pork but... MOST DO!!! (dam near all cubans here in Hileah, FL.) .... SO I am sure not all you uptight protesters have a stick up your a**... but some, ... you know.

[ctrlaltcap]

02:38 PM on 07/11/2012

Fortune cookie is not an Asian thing, it's an American thing, and assuming that has anything to do with Asian Americans, it's stereotyping.

PS. there are way too many "..." in your comment, they hurt my eyes.

[Luis Paulo Lohmann]

09:22 AM on 02/29/2012

Today, fortune cookies are popular in chinese restaurants here in Brazil too. I'm thinking of, next time I get some of these, accusing the chinese restaurant owner of being a racist!

[ctrlaltcap]

02:39 PM on 07/11/2012

They do it to please ignorant non-Asians customers.

[Atim-moot Tugayak]

01:25 AM on 02/29/2012

While I like ice cream I can't fathom paying $112 a gallon for the stuff. At our 7-11 BJ is sold for $7 for each 250 ml cup container. 4 of them is a litre and 16 of them a gallon which begs the question, who the hell so well off they can pay that much. ANy alternatives?

[Zaid Salman]

01:02 AM on 08/21/2012

Where do you live, in the middle of the sahara? I live in the UAE and BJ is imported here, so it's one of the more expensive ice creams. Even still it's about $5 for 500ml.

[whoknew---]

11:20 PM on 02/28/2012

Folks who are not of Asian heritage and say lighten up about something that could be construed as racially tinged considering the apology from the people who made this ice cream don't have a dog in this fight and have no business in saying to lighten up.

It's not about you, it's not your ethnicity, and you don't know how somebody who is would feel about it.

I personally don't think too much about this incident but I sure don't want to make assumptions about other folks who may be of Asian heritage. But I also happen to be half Filipino and Anglo so maybe I do know something about being made uncomfortable about my ethnicity in certain situations that maybe other people would have no clue about.

[maninaustin]

11:52 PM on 02/28/2012

Lighten up.

[IrishFast]

07:33 AM on 02/29/2012

I don't get fortune cookies when I eat Italian; I get them when I eat Chinese. If this American-invented food is so offensive, then stop putting eight of them in mt bag. Until then, LIGHTEN UP.

[whoknew---]

01:15 PM on 02/29/2012

BACK OFF---

Read my comment again.

Apparently Ben & Jerry thought there may be a problem and addressed it. I actually respect their decision because the potential of being pictured as insensitive is real. You obviously have no clue as to how that may feel to some Asian people.

[Food Review 101 Web-Site]

08:47 PM on 02/28/2012

This just looks like a fake pint with a fake story behind it for free publicity

[letronique]

05:26 PM on 02/28/2012

I'M HEAVILY OFFENDED THAT PEOPLE ARE OFFENDED BY THIS TASTY TREAT!!!!

[bull1701]

03:45 PM on 02/28/2012

People need to lighten up, they won't, but need to.

[jeffwei]

03:25 PM on 02/28/2012

Honestly I don't see why this was offensive. Jeremy Lin is an Asian American from the Bay Area who first played in the NBA for the Golden State Warriors. The fortune cookie was first popularized in America in San Francisco. If you ask me, it's absolutely appropriate.

[Jim DiGriz]

03:09 PM on 02/28/2012

You won't find fortune cookies in Asia. The fortune cookie debuted at the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. It was so popular the local Chinese restaurants started to serve them and so it spread across the nation.

Today the only restaurants in the Bay Area that serve fortune cookies bill themselves as Chinese-American.

And there is a history of crude racist taunts involving the fortune cookie. Fortunately this particular taunt is rare and mostly forgotten.

[whoknew---]

01:23 PM on 02/29/2012

True, and apparently the folks at Ben and Jerry's decided that potential was real.

I was looking at the Southern Poverty Law Center regarding active hate groups in the US (2010) and was actually surprised that California has the highest percentage of groups in the US

http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/hate-map

Something like 68 of them active in California---

[Peter Sharma III]

02:27 PM on 02/28/2012

...By the way, where's my fave occasional B&J flavour, "Holy Canolli"?? and did the Vatican have to approve that one?

[Kathy Wolosiewicz]

02:57 PM on 02/28/2012

Lol don't give anyone any ideas!

[Peter Sharma III]

02:22 PM on 02/28/2012

Everybody needs to get the #$%&* over themselves. There was naught about which SANE and reasonable folks would grouse. I am certain Jeremy Lin himself had ZERO problem with B&J about this product. We are a nation of crybabies at this point in history.

[ianthembd]

10:41 PM on 03/06/2012

Did you ask him? How are you so certain?

[Tracy Michelle Hargett]

01:35 PM on 02/28/2012

If they are going to make an ice-cream to honor a specific person, then here's an idea!! Why not ask the person DIRECTLY what THEIR perfect pint would be given the choice? I mean, duh! How do you know the guy would not like chocolate-cherry-oreo ice-cream? Get some sense, Ben and Jerry, geez!