Häagen-Dazs - Caramel Cone

Caramel Cone - Caramel Ice Cream with Chocolate Covered Cone Pieces and a Caramel Swirl

Today we try one from Häagen-Dazs' regular line up: Caramel Cone.  My sister requested this flavor.  She was telling me "Ben & Jerry's Americone Dream is pretty good, but Häagen-Dazs' Caramel Cone is actually better!"  Could it be?  My hero, the great Stephen Colbert is outdone by Häagen-Dazs?  The challenge is accepted. 

Showdown!

It had been been over a year since I reviewed Americone Dream, so I snuck in a pint a couple of days ago to refresh my memory.  Reading the labels, I see one significant difference.  Americone Dream uses a vanilla base while Caramel Cone uses a caramel base.  Otherwise, the both have chocolate-covered cone pieces and a caramel swirl so its still a good match for a head-to-head comparison.

Focusing now on Caramel Cone.  Removing the lid shows the distinctive beige color of the caramel base.  There's also quite a bit of chocolate pieces and caramel swirl visible on the very top as well.  Digging in, the cone pieces are quite numerous and provide quite a bit of chocolate flavor.  These cone pieces are a bit different than those in Americone Dream.  Americone Dream had crunchy sugar cone pieces covered in chocolate so they had a bit of a bright airy crunch to them.  Caramel Cone's pieces were more like those from a dark-colored waffle cone.  A bit softer but still good.  The caramel base here is good but the star of the pint is the caramel swirl.  It is quite flavorful and there is quite a bit of it.  Caramel Cone is indeed very caramel-ly!

I really enjoyed this pint.  I hate to say it, but I think my sister is right!  Caramel Cone does beat Americone Dream in the head-to-head showdown!  Individually, I did prefer Americone's crunchier sugar cone pieces, but Caramel Cone's pieces were still good and its pieces were quite a bit more numerous.  Most importantly, while Americone had a lot of vanilla ice cream and just a tease of caramel from time to time, Caramel Cone had so much caramel in both the base and the swirl and it was really good.  So, that's that.  If you like Americone Dream and wish it had more caramel, then you need to check out Caramel Cone.  Don't worry, Stephen.  You're still my favorite late night talk show host and I still watch you every night.