Ben & Jerry's - Brewed to Matter (Target Exclusive)

Brewed to Matter - Coffee Ice Cream with Fudge Chunks & a Brownie Batter Swirl

Brewed to Matter is a brand new flavor exclusive to Target.  It is the replacement for Volun-Tiramisu which has been retired.  The four flavors exclusive to Target are now Brewed to Matter, Peanut Butter World, Blondie Ambition (renamed from Rockin Blondies) and A Swirled of Difference (renamed from Peanut Butter Jam Session).

Brewed to Matter is the classic mixture of coffee and chocolate flavors.  Chocolate and coffee have more in common than one might guess.  Everyone knows that coffee contains caffeine, but chocolate contains a stimulant in the same family called theobromine.  Theobromine only differs from caffeine by a single methyl group.  The difference makes it a bit milder and less addictive than caffeine but it still has similar effects.  So the tendency of people to mix coffee and chocolate together is no accident.

Opening the pint, you see a medium brown coffee ice cream which is darker than the mocha base seen in previous pints.  The fudge chunks on the top appear to be quite sizeable.  Eating into the pint, the coffee flavor was quite noticeable but not so overpowering as to give me a headache.  The fudge chunks were much larger and chunkier than normal.  I think many of the recent pints I've eaten contains fudge flakes.  The brownie batter was much more subtle than I expected.  It was a bit of a chocolate syrup which surrounded the fudge chunks.

I did enjoy this flavor.  Brewed to Matter is fairly similar to the Coffee Coffee Buzz Buzz Buzz flavor in its mixture of coffee and chocolate but the Buzz Buzz Buzz flavor contains espresso beans so it packs such a strong kick that it is really only for coffee junkies who are looking to go overboard.  I love caffeine, but that flavor gave me a bit of a headache.  Brewed to Matter was much more my style.