Who knew ice cream could be such a touchy subject? Schweddy Balls, a newly released Ben & Jerry's flavor that pays homage to a Saturday Night Live sketch, has drawn criticism on everything from its tasteless name to its unappealing taste.

The conservative group One Million Moms has been leading a campaign against the new flavor, urging people to write Ben & Jerry's letters asking the ice cream company to stop distributing Schweddy Balls. In a message posted on its Web site, the organization also pointed to Ben & Jerry's last year celebrating gay marriage with a flavor called Hubby Hubby -- a play on the popular Chubby Hubby variety -- to charge that offending customers has become an annual tradition.

The vulgar new flavor has turned something as innocent as ice cream into something repulsive, the message reads. Not exactly what you want a child asking for at the supermarket.

Ben & Jerry's spokesman Sean Greenwood told NPR that the company had received about 500 to 600 e-mails and communications, the majority of them encouraging.

Having a sense of humor is one the things we do, Greenwood told NPR. 'Schweddy Balls' wasn't named for shock value. It was named after a popular Saturday Night skit.

The widespread outrage anticipated by One Million Moms may have failed to materialize, but critics have been decidely harsher about how Schweddy Balls tastes. Ben & Jerry's describes the flavor as Fair Trade vanilla ice cream with a hint of rum and is loaded with fudge covered rum and milk chocolate malt balls, but taste testers recruited by the Huffington Post registered a decidedly lukewarm reaction.

Disappointed for all the hype, one taster said.

Disappointing, another taster opined. Essentially just vanilla ice cream with some Whoppers in it. Not the flavor explosion I would expect out of Schweddy Balls.