NEW! Ben & Jerry's Topped: Salted Caramel Brownie, Chocolate Caramel Cookie Dough & Strawberry Swirled (ASDA)

The news hit two days before I went away: Ben & Jerry's were treating us (once again) with three brand spanking new flavours, and in a different style too. The new Topped tubs have a chocolatey layer above the ice cream and all three flavours sounded insanely good. As always, ice cream princess Ms One Treat was straight off the mark and I eagerly awaited her reviews from the other side of the world. Whilst she praised the new flavours she wasn't blown away, but I'm afraid to admit that it didn't hinder my excitement to try them for myself. Frustratingly Ocado has been the only place to purchase them from until this week, and seeing as the online supermarkets refuses to deliver to us country bumpkins, I had to wait it out. Monday was the day! Instagram filled with pictures of the Topped tubs in ASDA, and so I made a beeline on the way home.

£4.80 a tub. Ouch. Fortunately for me, Ben & Jerry's kindly invited me to a launch event a few months ago, and when I told them that I couldn't make it they sent me a couple of vouchers for free tubs and I've saved them for new tubs that aren't on promotion.

So which to choose? I'm embarrassed to admit that I dawdled for a good few minutes, pondering between the three before phoning a friend (I.e calling Bert) and asking his opinion. He chose the chocolate and strawberry tubs, but then I remembered that One Treat recommended the cookie dough as the best of the bunch and once again I was baffled. It was like choosing between my children.

Then I was struck by a brainwave! I remembered it was the 13th of February, and I could have bet your bottom dollar that Bert hadn't bought me a valentine present. All three made their way to the till, thanks Bert!

Salted Caramel Brownie

"Vanilla ice cream with a salted caramel swirl (11%), chocolate brownie pieces (3%), chocolatey chunks (3%) and chocolatey topping (9%)

The thick layer on top had a ganache-like density and shine to it, with plenty of dark coloured chocolate ampersands dotted about. Digging into it was fairly easy though, and I found the ice cream beneath to be one of Ben & Jerry's softer styles (much like the Sofa So Good). There was noticeably less chunks in it than I've become accustomed too of late, and the sauce was almost infused within the ice cream.

The taste was good though, and whilst I'd ordinarily never buy Ben & Jerry's for their vanilla flavours, it was yummy and allowed the caramel sauce to shine through. The brownies that I found, although far and few between (there's just 3% brownie in this compared to 7% in Sofa So Good) were up to scratch -moist and chewy as they reliably always are in B&J's tubs. The topping was the star of the show though, for it is in fact a chocolate and hazelnut paste and tastes rather like a nutella inspired ganache. It's thick and silken and complements the ice cream wonderfully. I only wish there were layers of it as opposed to just a topping! 

8/10

Chocolate Caramel Cookie Dough
Despite being a blatant chocoholic, I'm very fussy when it comes to chocolate ice creams. It's a fine line on when they become just too sickly and I didn't particularly enjoy my last pint of Ben & Jerry's Blondie Brownie. That said I'm utterly addicted to their Chocolate Fudge Brownie Wich's and couldn't be more pleased to see that they've made a come back in multi-pack form this year.

"Chocolate ice cream with a caramel swirl (10%), chunks of chocolate chip cookie dough (3%), chocolatey chunks (3%) and chocolatey topping (9%)."

The uppermost layer used in this tub is the same as used in the Salted Caramel Brownie Topped, a thick chocolate hazelnut paste with chocolate ampersands -which all stuck themselves to one side of my tub.

(Yep I was greedy and had both the Chocolate Caramel cookie Dough & Salted Caramel Brownie at the same time. The brownie is on the left and the cookie dough on the right).

The chocolate ice cream didn't disappoint, and I loved the addition of the caramel swirl. I recently tried Baskin Robbins' chocolate peanut butter ice cream (one of the best ice creams I've ever had!) and this reminded me of it. It's almost like a Rolo in ice cream form. Even better was the cookie dough pieces which broke up the texture and added a gritty biscuit flavour, nom nom nom. Again the amount of 'extras' was lower than usual, but I didn't seem to mind so much thanks to my state of chocoholic bliss. 

9/10

Strawberry Swirl

Why we can't get Ben & Jerry's Strawberry Cheesecake in pint size tubs I'll never know. It's the only reason I buy the multi-packs of 100ml tubs (and only when they're on offer for £2.50 in Tesco). Ben & Jerry's seem to forget that a fruity ice cream is delicious when done right, although they seem to be rectifying this having brought back One Sweet World, and now this Strawberry Swirl, hurrah. 

"Cream ice cream with strawberry (13%) and marshmallow (7%) swirls, shortbread chunks (3%), with a white chocolate flavour topping (9%) and white chocolatey chunks (1.5%)."

Oooh, the white chocolate topping looked extremely inviting, and once dug into revealed a pale creamy coloured ice cream beneath. The topping was firmer than the hazelnut based one, shattering into shards upon impact. A pretty pink swirl pervaded throughout the ice cream, although the marshmallow was less obvious.

Mmmm. Delicious! I'm a huge fan of white chocolate and raspberry and/or strawberry in any form, so using it in Ben & Jerry's luxuriously creamy ice cream was always going to be a winner for me. The white chocolate was just as creamy and sweet as I'd hoped and melted in the mouth easily. Perhaps there could have been more strawberry sauce, or indeed it could have done with being a strawberry ice cream to bring the flavours into a better harmony, but I still absolutely loved this tub. The shortbread chunks were buttery and crumbly, and should make any Scot proud. 

I really really miss the Baked Alaska tubs, but Strawberry Swirled is a very good compromise!

9/10

NEW! Ben & Jerry's Cookie Dough S'wich Up Ice Cream

Following my disappointment with Tesco's new chocolate cookie ice cream I felt the need to bite the financial bullet and buy the new Ben &Jerry's S'wich Up ice cream. 

Fortunately, lady luck must've read my dispirited review and persuaded the Supermarket bosses to whack Ben & Jerry's on offer because -lo and behold- I found it in Morrisons yesterday for a much more reasonable £2! For those without a Morrisons nearby fear not, because it's also now on offer in Tesco at the slightly dearer price of £2.50, still a damn sight better than the £4 RRP!

"Our legendairy Cookie Dough Flavour took us 5 years to perfect. 25 years on, we wondered how could we make it even cookier! So we turned the cookie-o-meter right up to concoct this: vanilla ice cream with chocolatey cookie sandwiches, a swirl of chocolatey cookies (& of course, cookie dough chunks!) in this new Cookie Dough S'Wich Up. We think it's cookie sandwich-tastic., & hope you do too! Cookies & ice cream, good together, any 'Wich way!"

The first thing that struck me was just how solid it was -I went to stick my ice cream scoop into the tub, but it just wouldn't budge! Impatiently I waited a few minutes or so, but still struggled to wedge my scoop into the ice cream. When my work finally started to pay off, I discovered promising oreo-coloured flecks dotted throughout and an abundance of biscuity cookie dough chunks. I couldn't see many of the chocolate cookies as I wrestled with the ice cream but I hoped that they were hidden in my scoop's embrace. 

Mmm. Vanilla. Yes Ben & Jerry's! Vanilla that really means vanilla, rather than the more common use of the word -as a thinly veiled deceptive adjective that really equates to a lack of flavour. The ice cream was thick and creamy, and I immediately regretted swaying away from Ben & Jerry's in the first place.

Texture came from the cookie-dough chunks that the company is famous for, delicious bites of biscuit that worked well against the vanilla. The chocolate cookie swirl was rather hard to distinguish in terms of taste, but offered a sort of crumb like consistency to the otherwise smooth ice cream.

Jackpot! In my 100ml serving (yes, I have to portion it out otherwise I'll polish off the whole pint in one sitting) I finally found two of the namesake cookie-sandwiches. They looked very similar to the mini-oreos that I reviewed last month, save for the fact that they contain a milky coloured filling (instead of peanut butter!). The cookies were softer than biscuits but still retained enough texture to keep them intact. Flavour wise the cocoa wasn't as rich as you'd expect with Oreos, but were chocolatey enough to satisfy my chocoholic cravings. 

When I wrote my last Ben & Jerry's review (Cinnamon Buns), I commented on how sweet I found it. I'll admit now that it was the first time I'd had their ice cream in years, but that review paved the way for Ben & Jerry's to enter my heart once again. Since then I've tried:

• Peanut Butter Clutter: Absolute heaven -a must for PB addicts
• Speculoos Speculove: I loved the cinnamon & biscuits -but not my favourite.
• Phish Food: I'd forgotten just how chocolatey this flavour is -delish.
• Karamel Sutra: I think this might be my new favourite -the caramel centre is divine.
• Blondie Brownie: Mmm! The brownie & caramel sauce are a perfect match.

So the point of that mini-multi-review was to give you a basis on where I would pitch the new S'wich Up. I wouldn't say it's the best Ben & Jerry's, but I' think it's the best non-core ice cream in their range and a lovely new addition. Yummy yummy.

9/10

Ben & Jerry's Cinnamon Buns

I've been eagerly awaiting the new Cinnamon Buns flavour Ben & Jerry's ice cream since I heard a rumour on the grapevine about it's UK release a couple of months back. My anticipation mounted when it was released a couple of weeks ago and I read both Reaching for Refreshment's and One Treat's reviews singing B&J's praises; however being the cheapskate student I am, I've bided by time and waited for it to come on offer. Thankfully my wait is now over as ASDA have started a half price offer across the entire range! Hallelujah!

More specifically this dessert is 'caramel ice cream with a cinnamon swirl and chunks of cinnamon bun dough.' Ben and Jerry's I could kiss you! Cinnamon,  buns, and caramel in ice cream? That's 4 of my favourite foods combined right there- wowzers. It's been a long time since I've been this excited about ice cream, and that's saying something!

When I removed the lid of the B&J I could see the lovely chunks of bun dotted across the top which are of decent size as both R4R and 1treat also noted. The ice cream was lovely and soft, making it easy to scoop into a cone. It was lovely and creamy to taste, and the cinnamon was powerful throughout. I found it slightly overpowered the caramel flavour, but rather than rendering it unpleasant reminded me of lotus biscoff biscuits. The cinnamon swirl didn't alter the taste very much but added a grainy texture which I haven't made up my mind about. The bun nuggets naughtily tasted like raw cinnamon cookie dough which served to enhance the ice cream even more.

I enjoyed this Ben & Jerry's but I found it extremely sweet- two scoops was plenty. I'd  have this ice cream again, but I wouldn't go out of my way to buy it. I definitely prefer their 'Baked Alaska' which sadly seems to have disappeared from supermarket shelves.

7/10