Ben & Jerry's - Chocolate Shake It

Chocolate Shake It - Chocolate Malt Milkshake Ice Cream with Chocolate Cookie-Covered Fudge Truffles & Marshmallow Swirls  

Today we return to the brand that started it all, Ben & Jerry's.  I review all sorts of brands now, but the original inspiration was to see if I could try all of the Ben & Jerry's flavors.  And I did -- at least all of the flavors that have been around since 2015.  It is always exciting when they come out with new flavors because that means I get to have their ice cream again.  For 2018, they've released a new line of "Truffles" flavors.  These flavors feature large, filled mix-ins.  They do not appear to have made it into the full rotation as yet, but after some searching, I finally found two of the three pints at a local scoop shop.  Today's flavor is called Chocolate Shake It.  The truffle mix-in here is cookie-covered fudge and the base ice cream is chocolate malt with a marshmallow swirl.  Should be fun.

Removing the lid, the chocolate malt base is brown, but perhaps slightly lighter in color than I expected.  One of the marshmallow swirls is visible right away as well one a peek at one of the truffles.  The chocolate ice cream is decent.  The malt flavor is noticeable if you look for it, but it is not overpowering.  Soon, I encounter the truffle mix-ins.  These are quite good.  They are each about the size of a marble.  Bigger than a pea, but smaller than a gumball.  I don't really notice that the coating of the truffle is made out of cookies, but I do notice all the fudge that squirts out when you bite into it.  Yum!  These reminded me of a fudge version of the filled mix-ins in my recent Graeter's pint of Chunky Chunky Hippo.  I liked them there, too.  The marshmallow swirl was decent, but not totally vital to the pint.  I suppose it plays a similar role to the swirl in Phish Food in that it makes for a softer pint that feels like it melting faster.  I like that effect.

This was a very good pint of ice cream.  These truffles are a great way to deliver rich and creamy mix-ins in a very natural way.  It will be interesting to see what effect this new line has on their core flavors.  As much as I enjoy the core line, it can be a bit awkward eating those pints.  Truffles can be dispersed much more evenly.  Or maybe they'll keep both lines, who knows?  I am looking forward to the other truffles flavors.

  

Graeter's - Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip - Peanut Butter Ice Cream with Chocolate Chips 

Today we discuss the penultimate pint of my six-pint Graeter's shipment, Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip.  I don't have to explain to even the newest readers that peanut butter and chocolate is a classic flavor combination.  Graeter's is an old-school nineteenth century brand with a whole line of flavors based on their amazing signature chocolate chips.  I have been looking forward to this flavor since last fall when I had their Buckeye Chocolate Chip which is a similar flavor with more complex mix-ins.  I'm looking to this pint.

The top of the pint is golden in color with several chocolate chips visible right away.  The peanut butter flavor is quite strong.  It is impressive how much thick peanut butter flavor they could get into the ice cream while still having it be soft and creamy.  Only when actual peanut butter is used as a mix-in have I seen a more potent peanut butter flavor.  The chips, of course, are classic Graeter's.  Large, chewy and variable-sized.  They went well with the ice cream.

This is a great pint of ice cream.  It is the simple and classic peanut-butter-and-chocolate combination and both the peanut butter and chocolate are done really well.  There are so many different ways to combine those two flavors but for the simple combination of peanut butter base and chocolate mix-in, it is hard to top this pint.

  

Sweet Science - Blackberry Sorbet

Blackberry Sorbet - Blackberry Sorbet with a hint of Lime

Today we move on to a new seasonal flavor from the most recent Sweet Science ice cream tasting.  This is a blackberry sorbet.  As a reminder, a sorbet is dairy-free by definition.  It is flavoring (usually fruit juice but can be other flavors such as chocolate) and ice which is churned up in an ice cream maker.  Here they flavoring is blackberries and they mention that some lime is used to balance the flavor.


Opening the pint, the sorbet is quite soft!  I wonder if I took too long to get home from the tasting?   It has been in my freezer for over a week since the tasting though, so you think that if it melted that it would refreeze too icy.  Here, it is just a bit soft.  I'll just make sure I have extra napkins around while I eat as it has a very strong and dark purplish-red wine color.  It is a beautiful color, but I don't want to get it on my shirt.  Digging in, the blackberry flavor is quite delicious.  I also notice the lime flavoring right away.  The side of the carton mentions that a 'hint' of lime is used but it is noticeable enough that I think it almost deserves a co-billing.  No complaints as I love lime flavoring too.  The texture is very soft and creamy.  Even as I got to the bottom of the pint, it was never runny.  It was about the texture of a soft gelato.


This was a very fun pint.  Very fruity.  The blackberry and lime are blended well.  It is a bit potent, though.  You might not want to eat the whole pint in one sitting.  The side of the carton suggests having a scoop of this alongside a scoop of vanilla.  That sounds good.

 

Graeter's - Chocolate Coconut Almond Chocolate Chip

Chocolate Coconut Almond Chocolate Chip - Chocolate Ice Cream with Grated Coconut Pieces, Almonds and Chocolate Chips

We move on to the fourth pint in my recent Graeter's shipment.  This is their seasonal flavor for January and February:  Chocolate Coconut Almond Chip.  Many of their flavors leverage their signature chocolate chips (if you do not know how they make these chips yet, see videos in this review) but this flavor looks extra packed.  Coconut and almonds are in here as well as the chocolate chips.

Opening the pint, there is a mild abnormality from the hand-packing process.  It did not affect the flavor one bit, but it makes the picture below look a bit different.  In addition to having chocolate chips, the base is chocolate as well.  As I eat my way into the pint, I notice the grated coconut right away.  The texture of the pieces is unmistakable and just a bit of grated coconut goes a long way flavor-wise as well.  Then there are the almonds.  Whole almonds!  Excellent.  The amazing Graeter's chocolate chips almost take third billing here.  Due to the presence of the other mix-ins the density of the chips is not quite as high as usual, but you certainly need to make room for the almonds and coconut.

This is an amazing pint of ice cream.  Its loaded with high-quality mix-ins.  This is probably my favorite pint yet which uses the classic flavor combination of coconut-chocolate-and-almond.  The chocolate base makes it a bit more chocolatey than other pints with this combination but there was still plenty of coconut for me.  If its not too late, check out this seasonal flavor.  I'd argue that this flavor should be available year round.

  

Sweet Science - Coffee Toffee

Coffee Toffee - Coffee Ice Cream with Almond Toffee Pieces

At the latest Sweet Science tasting event, I picked up the usual seasonal pints but I decided to try another flavor from their core cycle of flavors, Coffee Toffee.  Not only do coffee and toffee rhyme, they are commonly combined in ice cream.  It will be fun to try this implementation.


Removing the lid shows the dark beige color typical of coffee bases.  Also visible right away are some off the toffee mix-ins.  With the first spoonful, the coffee flavoring is a bit of a dark roast.  This is my favorite type of coffee flavor.  It has a bit of an earthy flavor but without giving you too strong of a dose of caffeine.  The toffee pieces here are quite interesting.  They are not the solid crunchy heath-bar like pieces seen elsewhere.  These are more of a half-melted brittle with a little bit of almond in the middle  I have seen these types of brittle before from McConnell's and Jeni's with other non-coffee bases.  They are quite good.


I really enjoyed this pint.  It is an excellent implementation of the coffee and toffee flavor combination.  The coffee base is excellent and I liked the twist of using softer half-melted brittle pieces instead of the usually crunchy toffee as well.

  

Graeter's - Strawberry Cheesecake

Strawberry Cheesecake - Cream Cheese Ice Cream with Strawberries and Graham Cracker Pieces

Today we move on to the third pint in my recent Graeter's shipment, Strawberry Cheesecake.  I've never seen this one in my local grocery stores.  I love their signature chip line, but I've also been amazed at how they do their other flavors as well.  Strawberries are very strong-flavored and sweet so they are often blended with something that mutes theiir flavor a bit... sour cream, cream cheese and even balsamic vinegar.  That makes strawberry and cheesecake is a logical flavor combination.  Looking forward to checking this out.

The base ice cream is a very faint pink and some of the graham cracker pieces can be seen as soon as you open the lid.  With the first spoonful, I can taste the cream cheese right away.  It tastes like cheesecake.  It is good.  The strawberries are mildly blended into the background here.  They are quite good as well.  The pieces were well blended and not frozen -- I've had issues biting into frozen strawberries before.  I did not have to worry about that here.  The graham cracker pieces were soft and provided good textural variation.  As with other cheesecake and pie flavors, they act to simulate the 'crust'.

I liked this pint.  The strawberry flavor was quite good, though not too strong.  I did notice the cream cheese flavor a bit more than in other implementations of this flavor.  The picture on the carton of a large slice of cheesecake next to a strawberry is an accurate picture of the balance.  It's good, though.

  

Graeter's - Cheese Crown

Cheese Crown - Cheesecake Ice Cream with Cinnamon Sugar Pastry Pieces and Fondant Icing Flakes

The first saturday in February is Ice Cream for Breakfast Day!  What better way to celebrate than to eat ice cream in the morning.  So, I went through my latest Graeter's shipment and looked to see if any of the flavors looked appropriate for a breakfast meal.  Lo and behold, I found this pint of Cheese Crown, an ice cream based on a cheesecake danish.  Perfect.  A 'cheese crown' is a specific type of danish pastry common to the Cincinnati area (Graeter's home city) which looks like a cross between a filled pastry and a cupcake/popover.  Greater's introduced this flavor based on these pastries in 2016.  I can't wait to try it out.


Removing the lid, the top of the pint looks almost bubbling.  Looks like it is a minor quirk of the hand packing.  It doesn't affect the flavor even on the very top.  The color pretty white.  Digging in, there, the base is thick and creamy.  I can definitely notice the flavor of the cheesecake.  As I continue eating, I encountered the cinnamon pastry pieces.  These are quite tasty and provide a bit of cinnamon flavor to offset the cream cheese.  Blended into the base ice cream are little pieces of fondant icing.  These are like the white drizzle on top of a breakfast danish pastry.  They're very hard to see against the white ice cream base.  What you notice is the occasional extra sugary flavor in your mouth.

A breakfast danish in ice cream form is the perfect way to spend Ice Cream for Breakfast Day.  Plus, I learned a new type of pastry.

 

Graeter's - Chunky Chunky Hippo

Chunky Chunky Hippo - Toffee Ice Cream with Peanuts and Milk Chocolate Caramel Truffles

I ordered a six-pint shipment from Graeter's!  My local supermarkets do stock Graeter's flavors but only a few pints here and there.  I decided to do an online order of flavors which look good but I am not likely to find.  The first flavor of my six-pack is Chunky Chunky Hippo.  This is a fun flavor they do in limited batches from time to time to help benefit the Cincinnati Zoo.  It has a unique flavor combination.  It has a toffee-flavored base instead having toffee pieces.  Then, the mix-ins are peanuts and milk chocolate caramel truffles.  Sounds good!  Actually this pint was unique and fun enough that it is at least half of my motivation for ordering the shipment.  I can't wait to try this out.

Removing the lid, the top of the pint is a very light cream color -- almost white.  Some of the peanut and chocolate mix-ins are visible right away.  Digging in the toffee-flavored base was quite interesting.  I am used to toffee being hard and crunchy so I was curious as to how it would taste.  It had a buttery flavor with a bit of salt too.  It was pretty good.  The peanut mix-ins were peanut halves.  They were pretty good as well.  I like crunchy nuts in ice cream.  The star of the pint though were these chocolate caramel truffles!  They were not all that large -- perhaps a little larger than a pea but when you bit into them there seemed to be a ton of caramel inside each one.  They reminded me a little bit of Rolo candies but in a smaller size that fits inside spoonfuls of ice cream.  I would buy of bag of these truffles just to eat themselves.

I really enjoyed this pint of ice cream.  These chocolate caramel truffles are amazing.  It is a great flavor -- not just fun name with cool artwork on the carton.