Despite rising commodity, packaging and energy costs, spice manufacturer and distributor McCormick & Company (NYSE: MKC) posted good 4Q and FY2007 earnings results reported last week. Fourth sales increased 7%, with the bulk of that coming from international markets, especially China which posted 20% increase in sales. EPS increased 12% to $1.92, beyond the high end of the previous forecast, and the company raised its dividend 10%.

McCormick & Company is doing all it can to improve and solidify its financial position. Several years ago, the company instituted a restructuring and cost cutting initiative that has resulted in annual savings approaching $50 million. McCormick is simplifying its supply lines, reducing inventories and introducing a new gravity-fed merchandising systems for grocery store shelves.

McCormick is discontinuing lower profit margin products and making acquisitions with high margin potential. Recent acquisitions include Simply Asia Food and Lawry's. MicCormick is also growing its Hispanic spices product line and preparing to introduce a line of health and wellness products.

The only fly in the ointment is that McCormick increased tis debt level to buy back $157 million worth of stock and pay out $104 million individends. Given the slowdown in consumer spending, its unknown severity and duration, it makes little sense for a company to take on more debt. The stock currently trades in the mid-$30s.

Right this moment (I imagine), a flavor expert somewhere deep in the Vermont offices of Unilever ADR (NYSE:UL) unit Ben & Jerry's is asking a very, very difficult question: What does a celebrity taste like? And which celebrities do we even want to associate with vanilla ice cream, raspberry swirl and brownie bits (that would be Dave Matthews) or fudge-covered waffle cone pieces, ripples of caramel, and the patriotic vanilla ice cream (yep, Stephen Colbert).

BloggingStocks may be the only organization brave enough to wonder, should Jerry Garcia really taste like cherries and fudge? and which celebrities are the ice-creamiest? Does anyone buy the ice cream just because they like the celebrity, and, isn't that a bit weird? Do you want to taste the people you most admire? And is this all a liberal hippy conspiracy to keep ice cream Democratic?

Let's begin by exploring where this whole celebrity-ice cream flavor thing started: Jerry Garcia. He and his band the Grateful Dead, well, let's just say that may have been where the term "groupie" started. People who love the Grateful Dead, they love the Grateful Dead. Oh, my, lord. So for the liberal (and then independent) company to name a flavor after the hippiest of all hippy icons, well, totally made sense. Are you familiar with the history of celebrities and ice cream? If you do, you know that Cherry Garcia was the first ice cream ever named for a rock star, and appeared in 1987 at the suggestion of two deadheads from Portland, Maine.

Because I'm very serious about my work, I sent my husband out in the dark of night for a quart of Cherry Garcia, the flavor that started it all, and the number one flavor on Ben & Jerry's flavor roster. Cherries and "fudge flakes" (which seem very much like "pieces of chocolate" to me, but I'm not the one describing the flavors on the package) are mixed into cherry ice cream. Does Cherry Garcia deserve its place on the top of the roster? And is it because of the taste of the ice cream, or the connection with the band?