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