Ben & Jerry's - Punch Line

Punch Line - A Comedic Duo of Brown Butter Bourbon & Almond Ice Creams with Roasted Almonds & Chuckles of Cherries

 

Ben & Jerry's has a new flavor!  This flavor is called Punch Line and I found it at the Target in the Midway neighborhood of Saint Paul.  Punch Line is another limited batch flavor in their "Netflix" line of flavors -- other flavors include the Netflix & Chilll'd, Chip Happens and Boots on the Moooo'n.  Each flavor in the Netflix line is either linked to the streaming service itself or one of the shows which is available on it.  Punch Line is a reference to their comedy program.  The lid has the phrase "NETFLIX IS A JOKE" on it which is the name of their comedy based social media feeds.  At first I thought this was going to be for their stand-up specials, but it might be more generic than that (sitcoms, etc).  

Anyhow, enough free advertising for Netflix!  This ice cream has a dual base -- brown butter bourbon and almond and it has roasted almond and cherries for mix-ins.  That's a lot of ingredients.  Let's see how it all comes together.

Removing the lid, I can actually see everything right away.  The brown butter bourbon and almond bases are similar in color, but are both distinctly visible if you look closely.  Even in mass production, Ben & Jerry's is able to finely marble their bases like this.  I see a couple of the cherries and I see hints of some of the almond pieces.  Digging in, I immediately taste the almond flavor of the the almond base.  The flavor of almond extract is quite strong, but it is not overdone.  I do not distinctly taste a lot of brown butter bourbon -- there is no bite, it is not at all boozy.  This particular base is very subtle and here it serves to cut the almond base a bit.  The almond mix-ins are small, but crunchy.  Flavor-wise it does not compete with the almond base, but I like the crunchy texture.  The cherry mix-ins are quite good.  The pieces are of a good size and the flavor goes well with the almonds.  This is delicious.

I liked this flavor from Ben & Jerry's quite a bit.  It is a very good almond-and-cherries flavor.  You have to like the flavor of almond extract to enjoy this pint, but if you do, then this is quite enjoyable.  The flavor it reminds me the most of is one of Ben & Jerry's cookie dough core flavors called Sweet Like Sugar.  That flavor also had almonds and cherries but also had a lot of sugar cookie dough.