Ben & Jerry's - Whiskey Biz

Whiskey Biz - Brown Butter Bourbon Ice Cream with Blonde Brownies & Whiskey Caramel Swirls Topped with White Chocolatey Ganache & White Fudge Chunks

 

Last week, I tried my first pint (Thick Mint) from Ben & Jerry's new line of Topped flavors.  Topped flavors have an extra hard-yet-still-spoonable layer of something (usually chocolate) on top.  Plus, there are still plenty of mix-ins included in the ice cream below as well.  Today's flavor is called Whiskey Biz.  I bought it at the Ben & Jerry's scoop shop on Excelsior Boulevard in Minneapolis (just north of Bde Maka Ska).  The flavor name is a pun on the classic Tom Cruise movie Risky Business.  The 'whiskey' refers to the whiskey caramel swirls and perhaps also to the brown butter bourbon base.  The 'topping' is white chocolate ganache and white fudge and there are also blonde brownie pieces below.  A lot of ingredients!  It will be interesting to see how this all comes together.

Opening the pint, the top layer of white chocolate is quite white with chunks of white in it.  I have not seen this much white chocolate in one place since the last time I bought an entire bar of white chocolate which was when I was a kid.  As mentioned in previous reviews, white chocolate does not contain and of the cocoa solids (which are brown).  White chocolate is made from cocoa butter and sugar.  It still comes from the same cacao bean, but it has a totally different flavor.  I used a small knife to cut through the top.  These top layers are not too tough.  They are actually soft and chewy once you get into it, but last time I found that it was not super-easy to make the initial dig with a dull and round spoon.  Anyhow, once I broke through I could see the beige color of the brown butter bourbon base and some of the blondie and caramel mix-ins.  In that first spoonful, the white chocolate is actually incredibly sweet.  In the past, I have noted that white chocolate is often a neutral flavor for me and can be used to mute other flavors, but here there is so much of it on top that I got a large dose of sweetness all at once.  Eating my way down the brown butter bourbon base is mild and serves here as a vehicle for the other mix-ins.  The blondie brownies are soft and chewy and the whiskey caramel is sweet and gooey.  There is a moderate kick of whisky aftertaste in this caramel but nothing too intense.

This flavor is a bit of an adventure.  There is a lot going on.  Down below, the brown butter bourbon, caramel and blonde brownies reminded me a bit of an old retired flavor of theirs called Blondie Ambition but with a whiskey caramel swirl added.  That old flavor was OK, but Ben & Jerry's does not do blonde brownies as well as they do the chocolate ones.  Here the whiskey caramel swirl does improve things.  The top layer here of white chocolate is a bit too sweet and does not match what is below.  I think a top layer of caramel (or something caramel-like) would have worked better.  Perhaps that is not logistically possible?  As you can tell I did not like this pint as much I would have hoped.  I think you have to love white chocolate more than me to get into this one.