Ben & Jerry's - Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough - Vanilla Ice Cream with Gobs of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

Another old flavor reviewed to make up for the noted biased towards new or rare flavors in the reviews.  This week it is Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough which dates all the way back to 1984 and is still one of Ben & Jerry's most popular flavors.

I notice that Ben & Jerry's has recently temporarily renamed the flavor "I Dough, I Dough" in scoop shops in order to celebrate recent Supreme Court rulings supporting marriage equality:

http://www.benjerry.com/values/issues-we-care-about/marriage-equality/i-dough-i-dough

This was pure coincidence.  I had already purchased and eaten the pint before I noticed the link above, but I pass it along for your information.

Opening the pint, you see the white vanilla base on the top with a couple of hints of the cookie dough below.  Eating into the pint, you do indeed taste a strong vanilla flavor in the base.  Then you encounter the gobs of cookie dough.  They are soft and sugary.  The chocolate chips are flavorful as well and I note that several of the chocolate chips seem to have escaped the gobs of dough and were immersed alone in the vanilla.  I did not mind.  I wonder, has anyone ever tried to back the cookie dough that is used in these ice creams?

By modern standards, there did not seem to be quite as much dough as I expected but I think that might be due to the fact that its such an old flavor.  So many of the newer flavors are super-stuffed with mix-ins.  But a recent article by buzz-feed has found that Ben & Jerry's uses more dough than other popular cookie dough flavors:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/maitlandquitmeyer/which-ice-cream-brand-actually-has-the-most-cookie-dough#.sleK8OQElz

So I was wrong.  It is a very doughy pint which cookie dough lovers continue to love, but I guess I have graduated towards even more stuffed pints like The Tonight Dough or Half Baked or one of the cookie core flavors.

Ben & Jerry's - Chocolate Fudge Brownie

Chocolate Fudge Brownie - Chocolate Ice Cream with Fudge Brownies

Often the priority in selecting flavors to review is novelty or rarity.  There is an urgency there as either its a flavor I've never had or a flavor that's hard to find and I fear may be discontinued.  Because of this, I may have been neglecting some of the most popular and well-loved flavors.  Chocolate Fudge Brownie is one of those cases.  Introduced way back in 1986, it is in almost every store freezer case -- even in the UK.

The ingredient list is very short: a chocolate ice cream base with fudge brownies mixed in.  Putting brownies in ice cream might have been quite a novelty back in the 80s but by today's standards it is a simple flavor.    Opening the pint, you see primarily chocolate base with some hints of the brownies immersed below.  Eating the pint you the encounter quite a bit of brownie chunks.  These brownie chunks provide a second dose of chocolate flavor.  The brownie mix-ins have been supplied by the Greyston Bakery in Riverdale, New York since the flavor's inception and these brownies are excellent.  They manage to stay soft and chewy despite being stored in a freezer and surrounded by ice cream.  So good are these brownies that they are often included in other flavors, but this is the original brownie mix-in flavor.

Quite a successful flavor and I can see why it is so popular.  If you are in the mood for chocolate and brownies are a form of chocolate that you like then you probably already know this flavor.  If not, you should check it out.

Ben & Jerry's - Banana Split

Banana Split - Banana & Strawberry Ice Creams with Walnuts, Fudge Chunks & a Fudge Swirl

Growing up, I always liked to get a banana split at either Dairy Queen or Bridgeman's so I was excited to see what Ben & Jerry's would do with this flavor combination.  It has most of the ingredients that I remember.  Instead of a split banana, they put banana in the base ice cream.  And in addition to chocolate and strawberry, sometimes the sundae would have a third topping (often pineapple) but since everything here is swirled together perhaps chocolate and strawberry is enough.

Opening the lid I see the yellow and pink flavor of the banana and strawberry base ice cream.  Looking very close, I see the two flavors are very tightly swirled but not quite completely mixed into a strawberry-banana base.  There are still noticeably distinct yellow and pink sections.  Also visible are some of the fudge chunks.  Eating into the pint, the strawberry and banana flavors in the base are very flavorful.  Strawberry-banana is a favorite shake flavor of mine and it reminded me a bit of that.  The rest of the fill-ins were good for the most part.  The fudge chunks were small and thin -- they could almost be called fudge flakes -- but they were flavorful.  The fudge swirl was small so as not to dominate the pint but it provided additional chocolatey flavor when it was there. The walnuts were peeled so they gave a crunchy texture without the strong bitterness of a walnut peel.  One thing that surprised me was the occasional presence of a small strawberry slice.  In theory this is a welcome addition but the slices were frozen.  Frozen strawberries are not that pleasant to bit into.  If I saw one I my spoon I could such on that spoonful a bit to warm it up and then the strawberry piece was delicious, but I often wouldn't see it ahead of time and I'd bit into a frozen piece.  Perhaps a minor quibble but it is worth noting.

A fairly successful flavor.  It would be a winner even if it was just a strawberry banana swirl and the chocolate and nuts provide a bit of accent without distracting too much from the base flavors.  The frozen pieces are a minor issue but not a dealbreaker.

Ben & Jerry's - Triple Caramel Chunk

Triple Caramel Chunk - Caramel Ice Cream with a Swirl of Caramel and Fudge Covered Caramel Chunks.

One of the things I noticed on my trip to London ice-cream-wise was the popularity in the UK of a flavour called Caramel Chew Chew.  Checking the ingredients list, I noticed that this flavor exists in the United States as Triple Caramel Chunk.  It also appears to be very popular in Canada as well, where it goes by Caramel Hat Trick.  Three names for the same flavor is quite curious.  I guess the Canadian name has a hockey appeal, but I don't know why it doesn't go by Caramel Chew Chew in the US.  That's a much more clever name in my opinion.  Anyhow, I had other UK-only flavours to review while I was over there so I waited until I got back states-side to review this one.  Funny thing is that over here the flavor is relatively obscure.  Do the Brits enjoy caramel better than the Yanks?

Opening the pint, you see all the ingredients right away.  The very light brown color of the caramel base with the swirl visible right away as well as signs of a couple of the chocolate-covered caramel chunks.  Digging into the pint, the caramel base does not have a strong flavor.  You could definitely tell it is not vanilla, but its purpose is to hold the fillins.  The caramel swirl was tasty when I got a bit of it on my spoon but there was not as much of this swirl as I was expecting.   But that did not matter because the star of the pint was the chocolate-covered caramel chunks.  These were large and fairly numerous.  I thought they'd be the shape of peanut-butter cups but they were 'dot'-candy-shaped.  About half or two-thirds the size of the dot.  They chocolate covering was firm at first, but when you bit into one you get a squirt of caramel which is inside.  It was a like a chocolate and caramel version of Freshen-Up gum.  With that, there was no shortage of caramel in this pint.

A successful flavor in my opinion.  I wonder why this is not more popular in the US?  Americans prefer caramel as an accent for chocolate and not as a flavor in itself?  If you're a caramel fan, check this flavor out and let me know.

Ben & Jerry's UK - Baked Alaska

Baked Alaska - Vanilla Ice Cream with Marshmallow Swirls and White Chocolatey Polar Bears

I was still in London and after writing the Satisfy My Bowl review, I thought I was done with ice cream for the trip.  Freezer cases here are so small and there is usually room for only three flavours.  Everyone seems to have Phish Food, Half Baked and Chocolate Fudge Brownie and nothing else.  But, I was wondering around the Marylebone neighborhood one day and found myself inspecting a freezer case in a random convenience store (it is hard to turn off the freezer-case inspection instinct) and lo and behold I found a different flavour!  And not just a renamed American flavor either.  I had never seen this combination of ingredients in a Ben & Jerry's flavor before.  So, I scooped it up.  I begged the clerk for a plastic spoon and he obliged.  I ended up eating the pint in the lovely nearby Regents Park which explains the non-standard photos which are attached.  

Baked Alaska is an all-white pint -- a vanilla base with marshmallow and white chocolate fill-ins.  So, opening the pint, it came as no surprise that all I saw was white.  Digging into the pint, you primarily taste vanilla.  Marshmallow swirls have been seen to have two types of effects in ice cream flavors.  It can make a pint gooier as with Phish Food or S'mores flavors, or it can give a pint a taffy-like consistency as the Save Our Swirled flavor.  Here, it did the taffy thing.  Looking at the side of the pint, you see overheated polar bears which matches the climate-change awareness theme of the Save Our Swirled flavor.  At first, I thought this might be the British summer flavour for climate change but checking the internet when I got home I found that Baked Alaska has been around in the UK since 2012.  Dispersed throughout the pint were white chocolatey polar bears.  They were very cute (see attached photo) and provided a crunchy texture, but as mentioned in previous reviews, white chocolate does not have a very strong flavor.

All in all, this is really just a slight twist on vanilla ice cream.  Ben & Jerry's does have a Vanilla flavor but I never think of plain flavors when I think of Ben & Jerry's -- it is all about the interesting combinations of fill-ins for me.  So if you like vanilla but don't just want a plain ice cream -- and you are in the UK -- then give this pint a try.

Ben & Jerry's UK - Satisfy My Bowl

Satisfy My Bowl - Banana Ice Cream with Caramel & Cookie Swirls & Chocolatey Peace Signs

So, I am in London, this beautiful historic city on the other side of the planet filled with centuries-old landmarks and the thought comes to my mind - where do I get ice cream?  And not just any ice cream?  Ice cream made by a company based in Vermont.  I suppose British companies could make good ice cream as well, but I seem committed to trying as many different Ben & Jerry's flavors as possible so it would be interesting to see if they do anything special for British taste buds.

It turns out that they do.  I am sure we are all familiar with the website listing the flavors available in the US:

http://www.benjerry.com/flavors

It turns out that there is a different website for "flavours" in the UK:

http://www.benjerry.co.uk/flavours 

Some of the flavours are just renames because the American pun might be lost on British audiences (e.g. "Boom Chocolatta" becomes "What-alotta Chocolate") So I was on a quest.  At some point in my trip, I was going to find a flavour that was not also a flavor.  This actually proved to be quite difficult.  Central London is not filled with grocery stores and what few stores they have tend to be quite small with small freezer cases.  If they carried Ben & Jerry's, they'd only carry 2-3 flavors.  Several places would carry Phish Food, Half Baked, Chocolate Fudge Brownie... and nothing else.   I can eat those at home.  So, I tried looking for larger stores.  It turns out there was a larger Tesco market across the Vauxhall Bridge from my hotel.  In there, I found a flavour not available in the US:  "Satisfy My Bowl".

"Satisfy My Bowl" is was released in the UK last year to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Bob Marley's compilation album "Legend" on which there is a song named "Satisfy My Soul".  Its not the most British of flavour themes -- I thought maybe there would a tart-based ice cream with a crumpet swirl or something but it is a flavour unique to the UK market.  Jamaica as a former colony who gained independence from the Britain in 1962 is a member of the Commonwealth Realm and still recognizes Elizabeth II as their monarch.  So with that logic we proceed with the review.  For listening pleasure here is a recording of "Satisfy My Soul" to listen to while reading the rest of the review:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8GCc8OhTz8

As mentioned before, I had to walk to a Tesco on the other side of the bridge to get this pint.  Being on foot, and knowing that there was no freezer in my hotel room, I decided I needed to eat the ice cream right away.  So I ducked into a Pret-a-Manger on the way home and grabbed a plastic spoon and ate the pint on a sidewalk table.  That explains the different look and feel to the photos.

Opening the pint, you see the the yellow banana base and a couple of the chocolate peace signs.  Digging into the pint, the base ice cream is both thick and soft.  I don't know if that was due to the eating conditions where I had walked a few blocks and was using a flimsy plastic spoon.  Its possible that it would be the familiar texture I was normally accustomed to had I been using a metal spoon which was cutting into cold ice cream which had come right out of the freezer.  It was good though.  Like Chunky Monkey the base has a richer banana flavor more like that of banana bread than of the sweeter banana flavoring used in things like gummi candies.  The caramel swirl provided a nice accent to the banana.  It sort of gave the pint a bit of a bananas foster feel.  The peace signs are basically fudge chunks.  The chunks in Chunky Monkey were rectangular shaped while these were pill-shaped.  The effect of adding a chocolatey kick to the pint was the same.  The peace sign embossed on the pill was purely decorative but was a nice touch.  What was hard to notice was the cookie swirl.  I had to look to make sure they were there.  I think they may have added to the texture of the pint but their flavor did not stick out.  Interestingly, in the UK, they provide provide percentages for their fill-ins on the side of the pint, the caramel swirl is 9%, the cookie swirl is 6% and the peace signs were 4%.

I liked this pint.  I might not fly to the UK just for this, but as long as I'm here I'm glad I had it.    It is basically Chunky Monkey with caramel instead of nuts but thats a good variation because as I said before it gives it a bananas foster feel to it.  Add some rum & spice flavoring to the cookie swirl here and that's we'd have here.  I wonder why this was not released in the US?

Ben & Jerry's - Red Velvet Cake

Red Velvet Cake - Red Velvet Cake Ice Cream with Red Velvet Cake Pieces & a Cream Cheese Frosting Swirl

Red Velvet Cake has been around since at least World War II but it has received a resurgenge in popularity in recent years due to the cupcake craze of the mid-2000s.  This 2012 flavor from Ben & Jerry's is intended to capitalize on that craze.  Here we have red velvet in the base as well as red velvet cake pieces.

Opening the lid, I see a pink color of the base.  Its a lighter color than red velvet cake would normally be, but that makes sense because its mixed with the milk and cream and the cream cheese swirl.  Digging into the pint, its a sweet and cool flavor.  The coolness I think is the effect of the frosting swirl.  The cake pieces reveal themselves deeper into the pint and they are a darker pink and are relatively numerous.  They were soft and cakey, not frozen.  Something was missing though.  I don't taste any cocoa!  I checked the ingredient list and I see buttermilk, but no cocoa.  I see some fruit juice down below but I think that's Ben & Jerry's not wanting to use artificial coloring.  They're a bit of a hippie company and avoid artificial ingredients.  Normally that's good, but here I think the red fruit coloring created an odd aftertaste in my mouth.  Not at first, but definitely as I got to the bottom of the pint.  It wasn't terrible, but it was a bit odd.

So, I think the idea of Red Velvet Cake Ice Cream may be a good concept but there were some missteps in this execution.  I think cocoa is a key ingredient and good old fashioned artifical red food coloring is the most efficient way to turn it red.  So perhaps a non-hippie ice cream company could give it a try?