Ben & Jerry - Cold Brew Caramel Latte (7-11 Exclusive)

Cold Brew Caramel Latte - Cold Brew & Sweet Cream Ice Creams with Salted Caramel Swirls 

Editors Note:  This flavor has since been renamed Go-To Cold Brew.  It is still a 7-11 exclusive flavor.
 

I have traveled to New York City to visit my sister for the Thanksgiving holiday.  Part of my trip will involve eating a bunch of ice cream I can't find back home in Minnesota.  The first pint is notably from Ben & Jerry's.  Last year, they released a flavor called Cold Brew Caramel Latte and made it available only at 7-11 convenience stores.  They had a 7-11 partnership before with their Nutty Caramel Swirl flavor.  Well, I don't live near 7-11 stores anymore, so I had to wait until I traveled somewhere where there was a 7-11 in order to get it.  They do have 7-11's in Manhattan and I found this pint on the Upper East Side on the corner of 84th and York.  The flavor itself looks interesting.  It is a cold brew coffee with a caramel swirl.  Coffee with caramel is not a super common flavor combination but I have seen it a couple of times before -- once from Häagen-Dazs (Sweet Cream Coffee Caramel) and once from Ben & Jerry's (Coffee Caramel Buzz).  Both flavors are slightly different than this flavor and both flavors are no longer in each brand's rotation.  It will be fun to see what today's re-imagining of a coffee-and-caramel flavor looks like.

Removing the lid, I see a marbling of the cold brew coffee and sweet cream bases.  I can see some mild speckling of the coffee beans in the coffee sections.  In the first spoonful, the coffee flavoring has the distinct 'cold-brew'-like flavor.  It is a bit less better, a bit less 'roasted'.  It tastes good.  The marbling with sweet cream dilutes the flavor a bit and keeps it from getting to be too strong.  As I dig down into the pint, I start to pick up the caramel swirl.  It tastes quite good.  As I keep eating there is more and more caramel.  Perhaps this means there is a slight mixing issue, but to be honest, the caramel was so good that I didn't mind.  Plus, it wasn't like the caramel was all on the bottom -- it was just that probably two-thirds of it was in the bottom half.

This is a pretty good implementation of a coffee-caramel ice cream.  The use of a cold-brew and sweet cream base made it feel fresh because cold-brew ice creams are getting more popular these days.  I really enjoyed the caramel swirl.  As far as coffee-caramel blends go, I think I still prefer the Häagen-Dazs (Sweet Cream Coffee Caramel) but as I mentioned before that flavor is no longer available.  If you like coffee and caramel together and you live near a 7-11 convenience store, check this flavor out.

Ben & Jerry's - Nutty Caramel Swirl (7-11 Exclusive)

Nutty Caramel Swirl - Nougat Ice Cream with Peanuts, Fudge Flakes & a Salty Caramel Swirl

This is a 7-11 exclusive flavor which appears to be Ben & Jerry's implementation of a "Snickers Bar" flavored ice cream as its based on the combination of chocolate, caramel, peanuts and nougat.  Its interesting to contrast this flavor with the Candy Bar Pie ice cream that I reviewed earlier.  Here, the nougat is in the base ice cream whereas in CBP the nougat is in a swirl.  Here the nuts are included direction as a fill-in while in CDP they are worked in to the peanut butter ice cream base.  Two twists on the same idea.

Opening the pint, you notice the beige color of the nougat ice cream base and lots of fudge flakes are visible right away as well.  You even see a little hint of the caramel swirl right on top.  I was curious as to how they would pull off the nougat flavor of the base.  Its not a strong flavor, but it really does taste like the inside of a Three Musketeers bar.  As mentioned in previous reviews, the fudge flakes are just the right size and thickness as to mimic a crumbled coating of a nougat-filled chocolate bar.  The peanut halves were generously dispersed throughout the pint.  Although the caramel was visible and noticeable, I think there could have been more.  I've had this flavor before and I seem to remember more caramel last time so it might be something that varies from pint to pint.

I did enjoy this flavor.  As a matter of fact, I enjoyed it more than I did Candy Bar Pie, but if you prefer peanut butter and pretzels to peanuts and caramel you may disagree.  The main problem here is the 7-11 exclusivity.  I have one two blocks from me, but my home state of Minnesota does not have any 7-11's.  Also, the fact that its available only at 7-11 means that you have to pay convenience store prices which is typically a buck or two more than the supermarket.