Ben & Jerry's ice cream has large chunks of toppings because Ben Cohen had a reduced ability to smell. He charactized quality heavily towards texture of the ice cream resulting in what Ben & Jerry's is know for today.
There’s a good story in the Ben & Jerry’s cookbook about how Ben and Jerry argued about which size chunks of Heath bar to use in their ice cream.
They ended up with the perfect mix of little shards and big chunks by freezing a case of Heath bars and throwing it onto the concrete floor from the top of a ladder.
Making your own isn’t hard at all if you have the kitchen space to store a machine. The cheaper ($50-70) ones where you pre-freeze an ice pack are plenty to get started. It really isn’t much more than stirring and then waiting.
They ended up with the perfect mix of little shards and big chunks by freezing a case of Heath bars and throwing it onto the concrete floor from the top of a ladder.