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.