NEW! Peanut Butter & Jelly Ice Cream (Co-Op)

Now, you must have realised by now if you've ever read this blog before just how much I LOVE peanut butter and jam. I must be secretly American or something. The trouble is, bad peanut butter jelly combinations can be vile...

I'll give you one example in particular. Goober. Have you seen the attractive looking jars containing perfect stripes of peanut butter and strawberry or grape 'jelly'? Have you been tempted to part with your pennies? Well please do not buy it! Save yourself the heartache. Seriously that stuff tastes so plasticky that I woudn't even feed it to my peanut butter loving dog Monty. Yuck.

Anyway, last week Snack-finding-extraordinaire Kev (Kev's Snack Reviews) posted a photo on Instagram of some new ice creams at the Co-Op. I'd spotted the cappuccino sticks that very same day, but then remembered the overflowing state of my freezer and left them there for another time. What I hadn't spotted however was their new peanut butter & jelly ice cream tub. There's been a host of new pb ice creams this year (including Feasts, Magnums and ASDA's own) but I haven't seen a PB&J ice cream since the much missed Ben & Jerry's core tub.

Wowsers. I wanted! Nay, I needed! I would have to make room in the freezer. Back to the Co-Op. No luck. There was one thing for it, I'd have to cycle the 16km round trip to the larger branch on the other side of the city. I didn't bank on the heavens opening about a third of the way through the journey though -this ice cream better be worth it.

"Peanut Butter ice cream rippled with raspberry sauce and fudge pieces, topped with sugar coated chocolate candies."

Doesn't it look pretty? Or rather akin to something you'd find at the ice cream factory station at Pizza Hut -am I showing my age here or does that still exist?

The ice cream was reasonably easy to scoop straight from the freezer -a good job seeing as I was so eager to get stuck in. I immediately noticed the sweet peanut-y scent and admired the vivid ruby red sauce that not only adorned the ice cream, but permeated it as well.

With one lick, I entered peanut butter heaven. Thankfully I could taste the real deal instead of the artifical flavouring that infuses Peanut Butter Oreos and Peanut & Caramel Müllerlights. I realised later (when writing this post) that there was a good reason why it tasted so good: the Co-Op Peanut Butter & Jelly Ice Cream includes 9% real peanut butter. Hurrah! The ice cream is perhaps a little on the sweet side, but not so much that my teeth started to jar.  It was rich too, but admittedly not quite as luxurious as Ben & Jerry's.

The fruity sauce was tasty, offering a slight tartness that worked so well against the nut flavour. Crunch came from the sugar coated chocolate pieces -mini smarties if you will- and there was enough of them to inject tiny kicks of chocolate into every few mouthfuls.The only element which puzzled me was the fudge pieces. Yes they were sweet, squidgy, and really quite yummy, but they seemed like an odd addition to an already sweet and creamy ice cream. Perhaps little pretzel or biscuit pieces would have worked better?

I imagine this peanut butter and jelly ice cream would particularly appeal to children -if only for the colourful little smarties. I'm quite happy to act the kid however, and enjoy every last spoonful of this pretty new Co-Op ice cream. It's not as good as the Ben & Jerry's PB&J core, but it makes a good substitute!

9/10