Ben & Jerry’s Tasting
Over summer, I started stalking the Ben & Jerry’s van in hopes of scoring a free scoop of ice cream. How hard could it be given that the van would be trundling through the city streets and surrounds and I’m living right by the Yarra River. All I had to do was watch their Twitter space… well, I tried and I tried. I tried to get them to come to my work place, I tried to get them to come to my mother’s group, I finally managed to catch them at Alexandra Gardens where they were settling in for an evening of festivities only to be told that their ice cream had not frozen yet. What??? What kind of lame excuse was that? Don’t they bring them frozen already?
You can imagine what a surprise it was then when I was offered a tasting of the three new flavours available in the pint-sized (not quite 500g) tubs – Phish Food, triple Caramel Chunk and Half Baked. Yes of course I would love to taste them because as many times as I’ve come across Ben & Jerry ice cream stands in my travels, I have never once had a scoop of the stuff. Why not? Maybe there are just too many flavours on offer, defying me to choose just one or two.
So, there I was one Friday afternoon trying to feed my one week old newborn when a rep rocks up to my front door with a freezer bag. There’s no time for an immediate tasting when there’s a hungry tummy to be filled. Fortunately, my parents, brother and his girlfriend were coming to dinner that night – a ready-made judging panel.
Phish Food: Too sweet and marshmallow pillows making it too gooey. Total score – 55
Half-Baked: Too sweet and a preference was indicated for cookie bits instead of cookie dough. Total score – 59.5
Triple Caramel Chunk: Lovely crunchy bits (I especially liked the chocolate covered fudge!). The most popular out of the three with a total score of 73.
Triple Caramel Chunk was unanimously voted the favourite and the general consensus was that all three could do with less sugar. It is an American brand after all, so maybe the Australia palate is not used to ice cream that is so ickily sweet, or maybe it’s just my Asian-Australian family speaking!
If you’re listening, B&J’s, next time I’d like to try the iconic Cherry Garcia and Chunky Monkey flavours (cheeky grin). They always seem to be the ones getting a mention in books & movies. Are they the most popular flavours I wonder…
July 13th, 2010 at 2:45 pm
I forked out some of my own cash to try the half-baked pint. I definitely agree that it’s too sugary! I enjoyed visiting a couple of B&J’s ice creameries when I was in the US but now that I’m home, I’d prefer to churn my own.
July 14th, 2010 at 1:16 am
what a wonderful opinion and judging of the B&J brands of icecream i have never tried the Phish food but have tried the Half-baked and triple carmel chunk. thank you for sharing.
July 16th, 2010 at 5:17 am
Yep. As common as it’s becoming, I must say that Chunky Monkey is one of my favorites. It’s just too good. Too, too good!