Ben & Jerry's - Coffee, Coffee BuzzBuzzBuzz!

Coffee, Coffee BuzzBuzzBuzz! - Coffee Ice Cream with Espresso Bean Fudge Chunks

The Coffee, Coffee BuzzBuzzBuzz! flavor in has been a favorite of coffee lovers for almost twenty years.  Originally a mistake in a scoop shop where too much coffee flavoring was added accidently to a batch, the result turned out to be successful and it was promoted to a full-time flavor in 1996.  The repeated coffee's and buzz's in the flavor name appropriately warn of the extra strong coffee flavor.

I had a bad experience with this flavor last year.  The coffee flavoring ended up being too powerful and gave me a headache.  That is funny because people know me as a caffeine addict but my vehicle for the drug is Diet Coke which has about a third of the caffeine content of a cup of coffee.  I drink Diet Coke because I'm not a fan of hot liquids (I don't drink hot chocolate or even eat soup for similar reasons).  The few times I have tried iced coffee to get my caffeine more efficiently and without artificial sweeteners has produced similar headaches.  I have more appreciation for people that drink three cups of coffee every morning after these experiments.

It is with these reservations that I open this pint.  The coffee ice cream base has a dark beige or light brown color and a couple of the espresso bean fudge chunks is visible on the very top.  Eating into the pint, the coffee flavoring is indeed stronger than normal.  As mentioned in previous reviews, chocolate makes an excellent complement to coffee partly because its similar effects.  The active ingredient in chocolate (theobromine) and the active ingredient in coffee (caffeine) differ only by a single methyl group.  Here, the fudge chunks are mostly the rectangular chips which are used in other flavors.  I did not specifically notice the extra espresso bean flavoring in these chunks but every spoonful had so much coffee flavoring that I could have lost track of which coffee flavoring came from where.

I did make it through the entire pint without getting a headache, although I had mentally prepared myself and I had abstained from caffeine for a few hours beforehand.  It was tasty -- coffee and chocolate is a winning combination -- though perhaps on the strong side.  I felt like I was eating it on a dare.  But, if you a serious coffee drinker who enjoys loading up with 3-4 cups of strong coffee each morning, then this may the ice cream for you.  For the rest of us, I would recommend the previously-reviewed Target-exclusive "Brewed to Matter" flavor which delivers its coffee and chocolate flavors in more reasonable doses.