Ben & Jerry's Linsanity Flavor Leaves Bad Taste for Some

The world is not tiring of New York Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin. And why should it? 

Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the last month, you are likely aware that the 23-year-old Harvard grad, who happens to be the first American-born NBA player of Chinese or Taiwanese descent, surprisingly led the New York Knicks on a seven-game winning streak and has scored 17 0r more in nine out of the 11 games he’s started. His play has lifted the hopes of Knicks fans that their team can find some triumphs this season as well as in the playoffs.

With his success on the court has come a lot of off-the-court love and attention, of course, particularly from folks who’d like to stick his name on their products. Nike, not surprisingly, has stepped in to give him his own shoe deal. And now Ben & Jerry’s has released a limited-edition ice cream, according to the Boston Globe.

The new flavor, “Taste the Lin-Sanity,” is only being served at Ben & Jerry's Harvard Square "scoop shop" in Cambridge, Mass., which makes sense as Lin is an alum — although it would be a surefire hit in the NYC market, too. It was intended to be a fun tribute, although it proved uncool to a few who felt the ingredients were insulting. OK, racist.

Consisting of  vanilla frozen yogurt and lychee honey swirls, the limited-edition treat is now served with a “fresh waffle cookie on the side, which can be dipped into the container or crushed on top,” the company recommends, according to the Globe. Lin's waffle cookie wasn’t initially included with the ice cream, however; it replaces the “fortune cookie pieces” that were mixed into the early batches of the ice cream.

The company received complaints for the inclusion of fortune cookies, Ryan Midden, Ben & Jerry's general manager for Boston and Cambridge, told the Globe: "There seemed to be a bit of an initial backlash about it, but we obviously weren't looking to offend anybody and the majority of the feedback about it has been positive," he said. The change came, he said, because the “cookies got so soggy.”

The location apologized on Firday with a statement posted on Facebook, which noted:

“On behalf of Ben & Jerry’s Boston Scoop Shops we offer a heartfelt apology if anyone was offended by our handmade Linsanity flavor that 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 we are huge sports fans,” Ben & Jerry’s officials posted on the company’s local Twitter and Facebook pages. “We were swept up in the nationwide Linsanity momentum. Our intention was to create a flavor to honor Jeremy Lin’s accomplishments and his meteoric rise in the NBA, and recognize that he was a local Harvard graduate. We try demonstrate our commitment as a Boston-based, valued-led business and if we failed in this instance we offer our sincere apologies.”

Consumers can pick up some of the stuff till the end of the Harvard basketball season and get a discount on it by making a shot in the in-store basketball net, the Globe notes. However much money you pay for it, a buck will go to a Cambridge nonprofit. And let's face it: even Tom Brady didn't get his own local Ben & Jerry's flavor (Brady Crunch, anyone?)

So what’s next? A Jeremy Lin doll? Oh, wait, there's already one of those. As for Lin and the Knicks, it's business as usual, as they next take on the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday night.

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