If you’ve been following Ben & Jerry’s over the past few years, you know the brand has come out with a line of Core pints that feature a sweet middle that in the past has included cookies, cheesecake, caramel, and whatever Ben & Jerry’s Flavor Gurus dream during REM sleep (Of course, REM meaning Ruminating on Edible Middles). This time, though, it’s cookie dough.
The line features three varieties — Chocolate Chip, Sweet Like Sugar, and Wake & “No Bake” — and they all have a cookie dough core running through the middle of each pint. But here’s the thing about these, they sound exciting, but they’re very similar to other flavors. Ben & Jerry’s has basically Core-ified its core (totally intended) varieties.
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Core Ice Cream
If anyone knows how to make completely safe edible cookie dough, it’s Ben & Jerry’s.
Its classic Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough flavor that features vanilla ice cream with gobs of cookie dough has been around for decades. All that experience, I imagine, has helped with the development of the new Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Core Ice Cream.
The pint has cookie milk ice cream with fudge chips and a chocolate chip cookie dough core. After trying it, it’s hard not to think of this as kind of like a reboot to the Ben & Jerry’s classic because the difference in taste between the two is so slight.
The cookie milk base seems to have a bit of the brown sugar that the cookie dough has, but I have to really think about it to notice it. If eaters don’t look at the label, they may assume it’s vanilla.
There’s more of a chocolatey presence because of the fudge chips, which, thankfully, are smaller than fudge flakes. Because they’re smaller pieces, there are more throughout the pint, which ensures that you’ll get a little bit in every spoonful.
As for the cookie dough, I want to say it’s slightly different from what’s in the classic in that it has a stronger brown sugar flavor and it tastes as if there’s a little maltiness. Its texture is the same sugar gritty feel as the gobs in the classic, which I love chewing on.
Bottom line with this variety is that if you love Ben & Jerry’s classic Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, then you’ll most definitely enjoy this.
Purchased Price: FREE
Size: 1 pint
Purchased at: Received from Ben & Jerry’s
Rating: 8 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (1/2 cup) 290 calories, 18 grams of fat, 9 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 70 milligrams of cholesterol, 65 milligrams of sodium, 28 grams of carbohydrates, less than 1 gram of fiber, 25 grams of sugar, and 4 grams of protein.
Sweet Like Sugar Cookie Dough Core Ice Cream
This features sweet cream ice cream with a hint of almond flavor, shortbread cookies, cherry ice cream with cherries, and a sugar cookie dough core.
From the first spoonful, I’ve wanted to call this by another name, Cherry Garcia Dressed Up as Santa Claus. But I don’t think any graphic designer could legibly fit that on the front of a pint-sized ice cream container. My logic for the name is this: It has a lot of the same flavor as Cherry Garcia (mainly the cherry), but both ice creams are light in color like Santa’s beard and sugar cookies are what you leave out for Santa.
The cherry base and cherries are going to remind you of Cherry Garcia, minus the fudge flakes, which I don’t miss here. The other base is sweet cream with a hint of almond, but “hint” is a little modest. Eating the ice cream and its mix-in, the shortbread cookies, tastes like I’m eating Chinese almond cookies and it’s wonderful.
Haven’t you had Chinese almonds cookies? Find some, they’re wonderful!
Combining the almond with the cherry makes it divine. Cherry is the driving flavor, but at times I thought the combination tasted like pistachio. But no matter how I scooped it, I loved it. Although my love for Cherry Garcia, probably plays a major role in how I feel.
If I didn’t have to stop to type out my thoughts, I think I might’ve eaten half a pint in record time. You can see my lack of willpower with this in the photo above. Notice how far I’ve dug into it before taking a photo. Now look at the other pics. I didn’t dig very far into those.
As for the sugar cookie dough core, it doesn’t play a prominent role in terms of flavor. It has that wonderful sugar grittiness like the other cookie dough, but its taste is kind of plain compared with the chocolate chip one.
Purchased Price: FREE
Size: 1 pint
Purchased at: Received from Ben & Jerry’s
Rating: 9 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (1/2 cup) 270 calories, 16 grams of fat, 8 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 70 milligrams of cholesterol, 75 milligrams of sodium, 27 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 22 grams of sugar, and 4 grams of protein.
Wake & “No Bake” Cookie Dough Core Ice Cream
So if the first pint was like Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough and the second pint was like Cherry Garcia, then the third must also be like another. And, it is, Sherlock. It reminds me of Peanut Butter Half Baked, which had chocolate and peanut butter ice cream mixed with gobs of peanut butter cookie dough and fudge brownies.
Wake & “No Bake” features vanilla ice cream with peanut butter cookies, peanut butter ice cream with fudge chips, and a no bake cookie dough core.
You may think, due to its color, that the core will bring a chocolatey-ness. It does, but it’s also noticeably nutty and salty. I don’t know if that’s because the peanut butter ingredients somewhat permeated into it, but it shifts the flavor of the pint more into a nutty direction. Also, I’m not going to test this scientifically, but the core feels grittier than the other two, which I liked.
The fudge chips weren’t too plentiful in my pint, so that could also explain why it leaned more toward peanut butter. The vanilla base also helps prevents it from becoming too peanut butter-heavy.
While this has the best name out of the three, because I do love them Ben & Jerry’s pint names that are also weed references, it’s my least favorite of the three. Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s a great flavor if you like peanut butter, but don’t want to be smacked in the face with it. I found it easy to control myself around this pint, unlike the other two, which I had to force myself to put back in the freezer.
Purchased Price: FREE
Size: 1 pint
Purchased at: Received from Ben & Jerry’s
Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (1/2 cup) 290 calories, 19 grams of fat, 9 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 70 milligrams of cholesterol, 85 milligrams of sodium, 26 grams of carbohydrates, less than 1 gram of fiber, 22 grams of sugar, and 5 grams of protein.
Other Things
- Don’t think of the cookie dough as this spreadable. I mean, if you let it thaw enough, it might be spreadable, but, at the same time, your ice cream will also be liquid.
- Even though they’re new and wonderful, the flavors are too familiar.
DISCLOSURE: I received a free samples from Ben & Jerry’s. Doing so did not influence my review in any way. Although I know with 7, 8, and 9 ratings, it reads like it, but I assure you it did not.