Ben & Jerry's - Americone Dream

Americone Dream - Vanilla Ice Cream with Fudge-Covered Waffle Cone Pieces & a Caramel Swirl

Stephen Colbert's Americone Dream was introduced back in 2007 with great fanfare on Stephen's TV show "The Colbert Report".  At the time, it was noted that "dessert had a well-known liberal agenda" and that Stephen was going to "bring some balance back to the freezer case".  Eight years have passed and the flavor is still going strong.  It is still one of B&J's top-ten-selling flavors and has outlasted the two flavors that Stephen "dueled against" on The Colbert Report -- both Willie Nelson's Peach Cobbler and Jimmy Fallon's Late Night Snack have since been retired.

Vanilla, caramel and fudge has always been a winning combination -- Ben & Jerry's even has a flavor called "Vanilla Caramel Fudge" -- but the variation here is the waffle-cone pieces.  It gives you the feeling that you are eating an ice cream cone out of a pint.

Opening the pint, you see vanilla ice cream with several fudge chunks sitting right on the top.  Even some of the caramel swirl is visible on the very top.  As you eat into the pint, the vanilla flavor of the base sticks out, of course, but there is quite a bit of caramel swirl to accompany it.  The fudge chunks were numerous and of healthy size but when you bit into them you got the surprise... each fudge chunk was covering a waffle cone piece!  The cone pieces were light and airy.  The fudge covering must keep them from getting stale.  :-)

A very successful flavor and it is not just the Colbert brand which makes it so popular.  The waffle cone pieces are a nice touch but you really cannot go wrong with vanilla, caramel and fudge.  It will be interesting to see what will happen when Stephen Colbert moves to network television this fall and changes his persona.  Will they give him a new flavor to compete with Jimmy Fallon's new "The Tonight Dough" flavor?  I think they will stick with Americone Dream as long as it remains popular.