Season Liberally

Everyone who knows me knows I can't resist the combination of coffee and chocolate, so when I saw Ben & Jerry's new summer flavor, I had to get some. It's called Vermonty Python, and according to the description on the package, it's "Coffee Liqueur Ice Cream with a Chocolate Cookie Crumb Swirl & Fudge Cows" (Fudge Cows...the next best thing to Anthrax Ripple). The name "Vermonty Python" took me right back to that day in 1973-ish when I first heard this: "We use only the finest baby frogs, dew-picked and flown from Iraq, cleansed in finest-quality spring water, lightly killed, and then sealed in a succulent Swiss quintuple smooth treble cream milk chocolate envelope and lovingly frosted with glucose." Mmmmmm. But despite the associations with Crunchy Frog, Anthrax Ripple, and Cockroach Clusters, it still tastes mighty fine (albeit a tad sweeter than I would like it), and it almost makes up for not being able to get One Sweet Whirled anymore. Almost.