The kings of ice cream, Ben & Jerry’s have been campaigning for the environment all along. Their Lick Global Warming campaign has been around for years. The company buys carbon credits and led a charge to get the EPA to allow for hydro-carbon refrigeration, which doesn’t use ozone-depleting hydro-fluorocarbons and uses 10% less energy. Last year, Ben & Jerry’s introduced the new hyrdrocarbon freezer technology with the help of Greenpeace.

Now, Unilever has bigger and better freezer dreams for Ben & Jerry’s and their other ice cream mega-brand, the UK’s Magnum. The company wants to develop a low-carbon dessert that can be shipped and sold at room temperature and later frozen at home before it’s served. Unilever, which is also responsible for big brands like Dove, Surf and Vaseline, says ice cream is one of the more energy-intensive products because it needs to be frozen during storage and transport. So when looking for ways to be more eco-friendly company-wide, room temperature ice cream stood out.

The challenge? How can food scientists ensure that the ice cream will freeze into a satisfying consistency at home? Would our Americone Dreams be shattered? Will Half Baked end up half soupy? Or could they really perfect a liquid to solid Everything But The… that maintains the perfect vanilla to chocolate swirl and chunks and almonds sprinkled evenly throughout?

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