Häagen-Dazs - Cookies & Cream

Cookies & Cream - Vanilla Ice Cream with Chocolate Cookie Pieces 

I have been searching all spring and summer for the last of the three new flavors in Häagen-Dazs' decadent collection which is called Midnight Cookies & Cream.  I finally found it!  But it dawned on me that I have yet to review their standard Cookies & Cream flavor.  So, taking advantage of a BOGO sale at the local supermarket, I ran out and picked it up.  Vanilla ice cream with chocolate cookie mix-ins.  That's a winning combination anyways and it will give me a good baseline for my future review.

Opening the lid, I see the vanilla base is white with lots of small cookie piece mix-ins visible.  Some of the pieces are quite small, but you don't see the fine powdery crumbs that often color a cookies-and-cream base.  Digging in, you can really taste the vanilla in the base.  I have not reviewed either of Häagen-Dazs' two vanilla pints (Vanilla and Vanilla Bean) but I have enjoyed this base in Vanilla Swiss Almond.  It is good.  The cookie pieces are generously scattered throughout this base.  These are not Oreo-brand cookies, but are a chewier (Hydrox-like) versions of outer cookies with no cream filling.  These provide a lot of chocolate flavor without completely overpowering the vanilla base.

This is a simple and well done version of a cookies-and-cream flavor.  It is different from most cookies-and-cream's in that you can still taste the vanilla.  Many cookies-and-creams either use a sweet-cream or the cookie crumbs become so powdery that they blend into the base and overpower the cookies.  The cookies here are also a little softer as well.  This is vanilla-lover's pint of cookies and cream.