Tuesday, May 12, 2009

New Flavors: Ben & Jerry’s Class of 2009

It’s that time again: new flavors for the summer months! After last year, which didn’t have a dud in the bunch, I was excited for the next batch. In summary, it seems this years’ offerings are tasty, but somehow don’t seem new.

Pumpkin Cheesecake. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Ben & Jerry’s understands that cheesecake ice creams must be subtle or they will overwhelm the consumer, preventing future purchase. While this flavor isn’t new, it is new to the grocery store. Hopefully it will spread pumpkin-love into a year-round craze, like it already is in Trinidad.

Chocolate Macadamia. I haven’t met an ice cream flavor with macadamia nuts I didn’t like. Sadly, I’ve also never met one that lasted long. (R.I.P. Aloha Macadamia and Haagen-Dazs’ Macadamia Brittle.) Vanilla and chocolate ice creams aren’t mixed together often, like they were in Ben & Jerry’s forgotten flavor Bovinity Divinity; mixing the two classics almost tastes like a new flavor, like a lighter chocolate. Following Ben & Jerry's long history of ice cream ethics, this “Flavor with a Mission” uses Fair Trade cocoa and vanilla.

Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brickle Road. Your humble (yet all-knowing) narrator reported this flavor premiere a year ago. It was only available in Vermont then; Ben & Jerry’s is now sharing the love. This unlikely combination of ingredients (chocolate ice cream, peanut butter cookie dough, white chocolate chunks and toffee/brittle-esque bits) is tasty, but isn’t revolutionary if you’ve had Everything But The… and Half-Baked.

Mission to Marzipan. The drippy marzipan swirl overpowers a few bites, but most are heavier with soft chunks of almond cookie. (The almond cookie pretty much tastes like the graham cracker chunks in last years Imagine Whirled Peace.) Since the flavor is in sweet cream ice cream and does not contain actual almonds, it doesn’t have much almond flavor. I am happy to say, though, that the follow-up burps are very almond-y.

What else is new? Triple Caramel Chunk is back in the grocery store freezer after being gone for a few years. This flavor is like a super premium version of Denali’s Caramel Caribou, the often-licensed younger sibling of Moose Tracks. Caramel ice cream with a caramel swirl and chocolate-covered caramel cups to boot! Welcome back!

1 comment:

Melissa O. said...

Mmmmm... You've got me craving some ice cream now. We'll have to give these a try throughout the summer :-)