Ben and Jerry’s is back to blessing our taste buds with four new delicious flavors. Of course, we looked all over Waltham to hunt them all down.
Topped: Dirt Cake
Dirt Cake is described as “Vanilla Pudding Ice Cream with Chocolate Sandwich Cookies & Chocolate Cookie Swirls Topped with Milk Chocolatey Ganache & Chocolate Cookie,” on the Ben & Jerry’s website.
Sasha
I’m not a huge cookies and cream fan, so I didn’t have super high expectations for this flavor. The vanilla ice cream tasted a little weird to me, it was almost chalky which I find so weird because Ben & Jerry’s ice cream itself is usually great. The cookie crumbs, although they give the ice cream a fun texture, I didn’t really taste them. I expected there to be some flavor coming from them, but I just couldn’t find it. The whole cookies (apparently I got all of them, since John didn’t get any) were alright. I think the fact that they were whole was a little much? They literally had whole Oreo sized cookies in there (which didn’t taste anywhere near as good as regular Oreos). As always, the topped part was good, but too much all at once. I would much rather have it more evenly dispersed. Overall, I would rate it a seven.
John
I am a huge cookies and cream fan, so needless to say I was really excited for this ice cream flavor and had incredibly high expectations. In particular, I loved the ganache on top and the chocolate was very rich. One of my issues with it though is that the crumbles on top of the ganache were kind of messy and were very easy to spill, but delicious nonetheless. The vanilla pudding ice cream itself was okay. Apparently, there were cookies which I am sure were great but my half of the ice cream did not have any! In general, I wish the ice cream was more heterogeneous: after getting through the ganache on top, the ice cream itself was quite homogenous and was a bit boring after a while. However, I would give this flavor a 7.5/10.
Topped: Chocolate Milk & Cookies
“Chocolate Milk & Cookies” is described as “Chocolate Ice Cream with Chocolate Chip Cookies & Chocolate Cookie Swirls Topped with Milk Chocolatey,” on the Ben & Jerry’s website.
Sasha
This was an underwhelming flavor. When I first read the description, I was super excited to try it: chocolate ice cream, a chocolate cookie swirl (my favorite swirl) and cookie dough? Sign me up. Well, after finishing half a pint of this flavor, I have one pressing question: Where are the cookies? Chocolate ice cream was great, as always, as was the cookie swirl. But all in all, this flavor could’ve been great but it wasn’t. Overall, I would rate it a seven as well, but I definitely expected more from it.
John
Like Sasha, I was so excited to try this flavor. Personally, Milk & Cookies is one of my favorite flavors, and adding a topped on it with “chocolate” in the title can only make it better, right? Like most of the topped ice cream flavors, I found that the topped itself was very rich and tasted fantastic. However, when you get to the actual ice cream part I find myself quite disappointed. The rest of the ice cream tasted essentially like chocolate ice cream with fudge flakes. Overall, I would give this a 6.5/10, and I do think that it needed more toppings within it (more fudge flakes maybe?)
Chewy Gooey Cookie
Chewy Gooey Cookie is described as “Milk Chocolate & Coconut Ice Creams with Fudge Flakes, Shortbread Cookies & Caramel Swirls,” on the Ben & Jerry’s website.
Sasha
Okay first and foremost, let’s address the elephant in the room: why is this flavor called chewy gooey cookie if it barely has anything to do with cookies? Its only cookie connection is the shortbread cookies, which is a stretch at best. Next, let’s talk about the weird combination of flavors here: milk chocolate, coconut, caramel and shortbread cookies. Definitely sounds like everything you have in the kitchen. But let me tell you that this flavor was very good. Ironically, the thing that I liked the least was the shortbread cookies, they were chalky and just not great overall. The coconut ice cream was delicious and definitely the dominant flavor in the mix; but the rest of the elements weren’t lost either. Overall, I would rate it an 8.5 out of 10 and will definitely be looking for it in stores!
John
I have to agree with Sasha on this one. This milk chocolate and coconut ice cream tasted amazing and was hands-down the best part of the flavor. With that being said, the coconut ice cream definitely stood out amongst the rest of the flavors, which is not something that I would have assumed based on the description or the name of the flavor. I have always found the shortbread cookies to be a disappointing addition to the Ben & Jerry flavors, and that is the same case here. They almost just taste like bland and chewy pieces of bread within ice cream, which is not the flavor I am looking for in most ice creams. However, I think that the coconut ice cream tasted incredible, though the title really does not give an accurate description of the dominant coconut flavor. Overall, I would give this ice cream an eight out of 10, and would definitely buy it again even if the title and description is a bit misleading!
Mint Chocolate Chance
Mint Chocolate Chance, a collaboration with Chance, is described as “Mint Ice Cream Loaded with Fudge Brownies,” on the Ben & Jerry’s website.
Sasha
I love mint. And I love brownies, so when I saw that Ben & Jerry’s came out with a mint ice cream with brownie pieces, I was ecstatic. The mint ice cream is perfect: it was not too minty but also not too creamy where it tasted like someone added peppermint syrup to vanilla ice cream (I find that this is a common issue with mint ice creams). The brownies were good, as always, though it was kind of hard to taste them in all the mint. There were lots of brownies in the ice cream, which I really appreciate. Here’s a take I don’t know if John will agree with—usually all of these ice creams we try, we eat a pint in one sitting (between the two of us), but I don’t think this is a flavor you can do that with. By the time I finished my half, I was quite sick of it. But overall, I think this was a great flavor, I would give it an eight out of 10 and would definitely buy it again. I don’t know who Chance the Rapper is, but that man has great taste in ice cream.
PS- I am still waiting for some company to make plain mint gelato. My life will then be complete.
John
I will admit, I am not as big on mint as Sasha is, but I can appreciate a good mint chocolate (or in this case, mint brownie) ice cream. The mint ice cream itself was great. Most of the time, when eating mint ice cream in large quantities like I love to, the mint flavor can get overwhelming and ruin the rest of the ice cream. But I feel like Ben & Jerry’s knows their audience: The ice cream was not incredibly minty to the point where we could not finish the pint, but it was just minty enough so that I could enjoy it. However, with that being said, I think that the ice cream had too many brownies in it! I would have appreciated to taste more of the ice cream and less of the brownies. It was a great addition, but maybe less of it in the future?
