Ben & Jerry's - Coconuts for Caramel Core

Coconuts for Caramel Core - Caramel & Sweet Cream Coconut Ice Creams with Fudge Flakes & a Caramel Core

When I was searching for the Cookies & Cream Cheesecake flavor, I stumbled upon another core flavor: Coconuts for Carmel.  I did not know that this flavor was coming either.  I guess good things come in threes.   A quick check of the Ben & Jerry's website shows that they have not updated to account for these new core flavors.  I wonder if there will be any more.  This is the first time I've had coconut in a Ben & Jerry's flavor.  I think they've had coconut flavors before but those flavors had all been retired.

This is a core flavor and as mentioned before, a core flavor is one that features a cylindrical section of a goopy non-ice cream mix-in in the center of the pint.  Here the core is caramel.  Caramel has been used as the core twice before, in the Karamel Sutra and Salted Caramel Core flavors.  Interestingly one of the two base flavors is listed as "sweet cream coconut".  I'll have to see what that means.  I thought sweet cream meant the absence of other flavors.

Removing the lid reveals the classic 'core top'.  You see the split base, caramel ice on one side and the sweet cream on the other.  Some fudge flakes are visible on the sweet cream side and the top of the caramel core is visible in the middle.  Digging in, I found out what was meant by "sweet cream coconut".  It turns out that its a sweet cream ice cream with lots of shredded coconut mixed in.  So the coconut is a mix-in and not part of the ice cream itself.  It was a lot of coconut.  It was tasty but I was thankful for the caramel ice cream on the other side to prevent overload.  The fudge flakes provided the occasional kick of chocolate.  For the caramel core, I ate around it -- trying to get a little bit of the core into every spoonful.  The coconut, caramel chocolate combination reminded me of samoa cookies.  Its girl scout cookie season right now, so maybe I have that taste in my brain right now.

I did enjoy this pint.  You do have to like coconut to enjoy this as its quite a bit of coconut, but if you do like coconut, this is currently the only flavor to feature coconut in the ben & jerry's line.  I'm not sure why this had to be a core flavor -- its funny when the core plays a supporting role -- but caramel lovers will appreciate it.  I think you do get more caramel when its in the core than when added as a swirl.

Ben & Jerry's - Cookies & Cream Cheesecake Core

Cookies & Cream Cheesecake Core - Chocolate & Cheesecake Ice Creams with Chocolate Cookies & a Cheesecake Core

After the pleasant surprise of finding the new  Brownie Batter Core flavor on a random trip to the supermarket, I of course went home and checked the google to see if there were more flavors coming.  The official Ben & Jerry's website had not been yet updated but I did see reports of a new Cookies & Cream Cheesecake Core flavor.  After some searching, I found a store which had it in stock and scooped it up.  As mentioned in previous reviews, a 'core' flavor where there has a inner cylindrical core of a non-ice cream mix-in with ice cream surrounding the inner core.  Other core flavors have had a thick and goopy mix-in such as fudge, caramel, jam, brownie batter or cookie butter.  Here the core is cheesecake!  You don't get much thicker than that.  I can't wait to see how this is done.

Opening the pint, the top shows the two base flavors are split -- chocolate on one side and cheesecake ice cream on the other.  Most of the core flavors feature split base ice creams likes.  A couple of the chocolate cookie pieces are visible right away on top but I do not see the cheesecake core as yet.  Digging in, the cheesecake core reveals itself quite quickly.  There is a big block of cheesecake in my ice cream!  Its actually quite a sight to see.  As cores go, it's a fairly solid block, but as cheesecakes go, its a bit softer than the cheesecake you get for dessert at a restaurant.  I found that to be a good thing because I want my spoonful to be able to deform in my mouth as I'm eating it.  The chocolate base on the one side was a very good contrast to the cheesecake.  The cheesecake base on the other side was not as noticeable.  Ben & Jerry's has used cheesecake bases before -- often to mute a very sweet flavor such as strawberry and I often side a bit of a cheesecake aftertaste but not much more.  Here the cheesecake base is no match for the cheesecake core.  The chocolate cookie mix-ins are very good as usual.  One thing worth noting is that it is not really a 'cookies & cream' implementation where the cookies are blended into the base.  They're yummy, but they're just mixed in here.

All in all, it was a surprisingly enjoyable pint.  I'm not a super connoisseur of cheesecake so I admit I was at first intimidated by having a big block of cheesecake in my pint, but it was quite good.  It is similar to the Cheesecake Brownie  flavor with its mixture of chocolate and cheesecake flavors but I think it is a bolder and more successful implementation.  Cheesecake lovers will at least have to try this.

Ben & Jerry's - Brownie Batter Core

Brownie Batter Core - Chocolate & Vanilla Ice Creams with Fudge Brownies & a Brownie Batter Core

I always find myself surveying the Ben & Jerry's section every time I'm at the grocery store.  I know I've had all the flavors, heck I was probably just there a couple of days ago, but I still have to check it out every time.  I never expect to find anything.  Usually a hear about new flavors ahead of time but last week, I actually stumbled upon a new core flavor!  Brownie Batter Core.

As mentioned in previous reviews, a "core" flavor pint has a central cylindrical core of a some sort of goopy mix-in.  Previous cores have featured fudge, caramel, jam and cookie butter.  Here, the goopy core is brownie batter.

Ben & Jerry's has had a Brownie Batter flavor before, but in a non-core form but they retired it in 2011.  The old Brownie Batter flavor is on their list of most missed flavors.  Encouraging to see something from the Flavor Graveyard resurrected -- if you see an old favorite of yours on the list there may still be hope.

Enough chatter, on to the ice cream.  Removing the lid, I see that like many of the core flavors that this pint has a split base.  The chocolate is on one side and the vanilla is on the other.  Already on top you can see the top of the cylinder of brownie batter.  Digging in, the chocolate and vanilla bases taste as you would expect them too.  Occasionally on the vanilla side there was a small brownie piece but there were not as many actually brownie pieces as I was expected.  No matter, as there is a lot of brownie batter in the core and it is very good.  It is soft and chocolatey and easier to eat than a fudge core.  As much as I enjoy the fudge-core flavors, you can get too much fudge in one spoonful.  Part of the fun of eating a fudge-core flavor is trying to incorporate just the right amount of fudge into each scoop.  None of this is an issue with brownie batter.  I think if the whole pint was just brownie batter, it would still be delicious.  Of course, I was glad the ice cream was there, though.  I actually enjoyed the vanilla contrast to the brownie batter.  If it was just a chocolate base, it would be just the uncooked version of Chocolate Fudge Brownie.

Indeed, I did enjoy this pint.  As I ate the pint, I found myself wondering "why didn't they think this before".  Obviously, it is for chocolate lovers and brownie fans, so if you're one of those, then check this out.
 

Häagen-Dazs Artisan - Tres Leches Brigadeiro

Tres Leches Brigadeiro -
Tres Leches Ice Cream with a Brigadiero Swirl

Today is another Artisan review: Tres Leches Brigadeiro  As a reminder, for Artisan flavors, Häagen-Dazs commissions a specialty bakery to concoct their own ice cream flavor.  The result is usually an eclectic mixture of ingredients which seems fitting for the types of ice cream reviewed here.  Today's flavor is crafted by Paula Barbosa of the My Sweet Brigadeiro bakery in Brooklyn and she has worked her specialty, the brigadeiro, into the flavor.

A brigadeiro is a Brazilian dessert made with cocoa and condensed milk which was invented during World War II -- possibly due to shortages of regular milk during the war period but the creamy sweetness of condensed milk helped make a tasty dessert which survives to this day.  They are small golfball shaped confections which are often individually wrapped and frosted.

The base ice cream derives from the popular Latin American Tres Leches cake.  I took French in high school so I want to pronounce it <tray lesh> but it is Spanish, so it is pronounced <trace lay-chase>.  It means "three milks", usually condensed milk, evaporated milk and heavy cream.  With Tres Leches cake, you bake a regular cake and then a half an hour after it comes out of the oven you poke holes in the top of the cake and pour the three milks over it so that cake absorbs it and becomes moist with the three-milk mixture.  Here the three milks are just incorporated into the base ice cream.  Note that both the base and the swirl of this pint have condensed milk.

Popping off the lid, the brigadeiro swirl is quite evident on top and creates a very marbled appearance.  Eating into the pint, the base was very sweet and creamy.  I definitely noted the absence of vanilla and it was a bit sweeter and heavier than sweet cream.  The brigadeiro swirls added chocolate flavor.  The chocolate had a bit of a kick to it, not unlike chocolate syrup.

A fairly interesting pint.  It was fairly good, but I did not love it.  It was quite educational reading about the ingredients, it really made me want to go out and have some tres leches cake and brigadeiros!  I think some of the unique texture is lost when swirled up into an ice cream.  The result is a condensed milk base with a chocolate swirl.  That said, those ingredients are certainly tasty enough for what they are. 

Talenti - Mediterranean Mint

Medterranean Mint - Mint Gelato with Flecks of Bittersweet Chocolate

Switching it up today as we do a gelato review. Several grocery stores here stock large selections of Talenti gelato in the ice cream section.  I've gotten recommendations for Talenti from multiple friends.  Recently, even a cashier brought up Talenti when ringing up my ice cream.  So, I give this brand a shot.  Out of all of the flavors available, I figured I'd start with their version of my favorite mint chip flavor -- Mediterranean Mint.

I found myself asking the question, what exactly is gelato and what makes it different from ice cream?  Googling around I found several opinions but the common thread they all had was the gelato is churned slower at a warmer temperature with less fat, eggs, cream and air than American ice cream.  How they get gelato to thicken up at all without all those thickening agents is a bit of a mystery to me, but I found the result to be more "gelatinous" than ice cream.  Still, technically "gelato" is just the Italian word for ice cream, so the two desserts are close enough that I don't feel a gelato review is out of place here.

The first thing I noticed with Talenti is that the gelato comes in this lovely reusable jar rather than a throwaway carton.  It's a pint size jar, so you could probably even use it as a cup for drinks.  The lid of the jar actually unscrews off which is a nice twist on what I am used to.  The top of the pint is pale green in color with the specks of chocolate visible on top.  If it wasn't for those chocolate specks, I might think that I'm looking at a jar of face cream.  I resist the temptation to apply the contents liberally to my face and instead dig in with my spoon.  The texture of the gelato is indeed softer than ice cream yet holds its shape after each dig with the spoon.  Even on the attached spoon shot, you can see the remnants of previous scoops that are rarely evident in a scoop of ice cream.

Enough with the texture, how did it taste?  Its was quite minty as expected. The 'mediterranean' adjective I think is just for a nice alliterative title.  Mint is a relatively common ingredient in Italian cuisine, but its not like this was a different kind of mint.  I enjoy the flecks of chocolate here.  They reminded me of the the chocolate bits in the mint chip ice cream that I had growing up (called "Peppermint Bon Bon" in the upper midwest).  They were small little flakes that crumbled a bit when you chewed them.

I did enjoy this pint.  It did not unseat McConnell's Mint Chip as my favorite rendition of my favorite flavor, but its a cheaper and perhaps more readily available alternative.  What does everyone think, should I do more gelato reviews?

Ben & Jerrys - Peanut Butter & Cookies (Walmart Exclusive)

Peanut Butter & Cookies - Sweet Cream Ice Cream with Chocolate Sandwich Cookies & a Crunchy Peanut Butter Swirl

After finishing all of the extant Ben & Jerry flavor reviews last fall, it is so exciting to get two new flavors in one week!  Today's review is for a new Walmart-exclusive flavor.   Walmart has retired the Strawberry Not So Shortcake flavor and replace it with Peanut Butter & Cookies.  The only reason I go to Walmart is for the exclusive Ben & Jerry's flavors and since Walmart cycles their exclusive flavors more than other vendors, I end up making the trek across town a few times a year.  Peanut Butter & Cookies appears to be the classic "cookies and cream" with a peanut butter twist. Interestingly, Ben & Jerry's does not have a straight "cookies and cream" flavor.  They have two which are relatively close - Milk & Cookies alters the formula by using chocolate chip cookies instead of sandwich cookies (generic Oreos) while Mint Chocolate Cookie uses sandwich cookies but with a mint base instead of vanilla or sweet cream.

Removing the lid reveals a pint which looks like "cookies and cream" as one would expect.  Already on top you can see some orange coloration from the additional peanut butter swirl.    As I ate my way into the pint, it tasted much closer to a straight cookies and cream implementation than either of the variants above.  If Ben & Jerry's wanted to do a simple implementation of cookies and cream, it would be quite successful.  Of course, this particular pint is not without its own twist.  The peanut butter swirl is not ubiquitous -- not every spoonful has some of it -- but its flavor is sticks out when it is encountered.  So even though there is not a lot of orange in the pictures, it does appear to be the right balance between the peanut butter and the cookies.  The fact that sweet cream is used instead of vanilla as a base is a bit curious.  For some reason, Ben & Jerry's usually avoids mixing peanut butter and vanilla.  I didn't miss the vanilla, though.  As the name of the flavor suggests, its all about the peanut butter and the cookies.

Adding peanut butter to cookies and cream is a very interesting idea.  I don't know if I would have thought to do that, but it turned out pretty well.  I just checked and found that there are actually two peanut butter variants of Oreos themselves (peanut butter filling and peanut butter creme filling).  I knew there were a lot of Oreo variants, but I hadn't thought of that combination either.  Anyhow, if you like cookies and cream and peanut butter then check this out before Walmart cycles its exclusive flavor again.