What is Blue Bell Fudge Brownie Decadence?
It’s the newest and fanciest of all the Blue Bell ice cream flavors. It features chocolate French ice cream with fudge brownie chunks and whipped topping with chocolate flakes. What makes ice cream French, you might ask? It’s made with eggs, which makes it thick and custardy. Side note: custardy is fun to say, but if you keep saying it all day, people around you are likely to get annoyed.
How is it?
If you put decadence in the name, it better be something special. And this is. Before digging in, I thought maybe there would be too much chocolate going on. Instead, it was a perfect symphony of different chocolate flavors, all teaming up to make my mouth happy.
The brownies truly are decadent. They are chewy — almost even a little gooey somehow — and taste more like homemade brownies instead of the non-descript chunks in many ice creams. These brownies have a rich flavor, and there are plenty of them.
The ice cream is smooth and creamy, as it should be, with the perfect level of chocolatiness. It did remind me a little of custard, but I’m not sure if that was the power of suggestion from reading the label. Regardless, the ice cream did its part to keep the decadence rolling. The chocolate flakes are a bit overshadowed by the brilliant brownies, but they add some nice texture and taste to the mix.
The only letdown is the whipped topping. First, there is a lot of it — much more than just some swirls or ribbons like I was expecting. If it tasted great, that might be fine, but it really doesn’t. It’s like Cool Whip-flavored ice cream. In limited amounts, like as a topping, that could be a nice contrast to the chocolate, but it just seems like too much of it here. Even so, this flavor achieves its stated goal of being decadent. But despite my quibble about the whipped topping, it’s a big winner.
Anything else you need to know?
If you do not reside in the southern third of the country, you may not be familiar with Texas-based Blue Bell Creameries. You also might think it is the same company that makes Blue Bunny ice cream. It’s not; Blue Bunny is headquartered in Iowa.
This is where I must deliver a stern warning, just in case you ever happen to discuss this topic with someone from Texas. Unless you are fixin’ to start a kerfuffle, or perhaps even a brouhaha, DO NOT ask a Texan if Blue Bell and Blue Bunny are the same thing. And, even more importantly, DO NOT say that Blue Bunny is better than Blue Bell unless, of course, you are looking for an all-out donnybrook.
I’m not originally from Texas, but I have lived in the state long enough to know that many Texans will defend the honor of Blue Bell until well…wait for it…they are blue in the face. You have been warned.
If you don’t live in Blue Bell country and really want to try it, you can order four half-gallons directly from the creamery for overnight delivery, but I have another warning. It’s not cheap, and depending on where you live, it might almost be cheaper to fly to Texas and try it in person. Just for fun, guess how much it is to get four half-gallons (costing about $20 at the grocery store) overnighted to your door.
Ready?
It’s $135!
Conclusion:
Since I’m not a native Texan, I do not have an innate love of Blue Bell and feel like I can be an impartial judge here. My verdict is that this is one of my new favorite ice creams, and I’ll shed a little tear if it doesn’t become a permanent member of the Blue Bell lineup.
Is it worth $135 if you can’t get it in your area? No, of course not. But I’ve got a lot of family “up North,” as Texans refer to most other states, and I’d be happy to bring you some for the bargain price of $125 next time I’m visiting.
Purchased Price: $5.85
Size: Half-gallon
Purchased at: H-E-B
Rating: 8 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (2/3 cup) 240 calories, 15 grams of fat, 10 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 50 milligrams of cholesterol, 75 milligrams of sodium, 26 grams of carbohydrates, less than 1 gram of fiber, 20 grams of sugar, and 4 grams of protein.
Isn’t this the ice cream brand that was being licked at the grocery stores a few years back? Did they ever put a seal on it? This is good ice cream so I can understand the lack of control!
Yes, it was. And no, they don’t.
Blue Bell is head and shoulders above every ice cream for us. The Pumpkin Spice Prailine is amazing. As is the Cookie Cake. There are very few misses in their lineup.
They had listeria and got sued for the deaths of three people and the contaminated ice cream. Will never eat it again.
I thought this was a rare miss from Blue Bell (based on my expectations from the title), though your review makes me wonder if I just got a bad batch.
Decadence made me expect that gooey, lava cake style of rivers of fudge, a chocolate overload. This was not that, largely (but not only) due to the whipped topping.
The FRENCH ice cream did have a different texture/melting point than Blue Bell’s normal ice cream: I left it out of the freezer for the standard amount of time, and it was noticeably less defrosted than the non-French (Freedom?) ice cream usually is (I also could compare it to the whipped ice cream, which seemed like Blue Bell’s normal ice cream). It’s been a while since I’ve had custard (Dreyers had a Snickerdoodle version in a different shaped container that I miss from five+ years ago), but this didn’t make me want to move to France. It wasn’t bad but did seem a little dry, at least when I could taste it/get it on its own, which was rare. Mine was not super smooth and creamy. as Blue Bell’s ice cream normally is.
Unlike the reviewer, my brownies were not moist and were similarly somewhat dry. The title of the Ice cream is Fudge Brownie, not Brownie, and these tasted like brownie pieces without that layer of fudge “icing” on top, or certainly not enough for it to be “decadent.” Had it been “Brownie” in the title, I would still have grumbled, but it at least technically would have been accurate, just as “birthday cake pieces” in ice cream technically can just mean the cake/base without the frosting (even though I can’t remember many “birthday cakes” that didn’t have frosting). But the title is “Fudge Brownie”, so I was expecting at least the fudge icing, if not the gooey lava cake style fudge.
The chocolate flakes are visible but don’t stand out at all. Also, not very decadent. Why not provide more of a contrast with a different type of chocolate (milk or dark or something) to stand out from the ice cream?
But the whipped cream. Not my favorite to begin with, but several issues. First, I don’t associate it with decadence: it’s a light, airy topping. It’s not bad, but it would be like going to a French bread/cheese shop and getting some Cheese Whiz on my baguette: I like Cheese Whiz, but it’s not fancy/gourmet/what I was expecting. Second, the amount. I view Cool Whip as a topping (as the flavor’s description indicates), a little swirl, dollop on top of pie/cake/ice cream. If not 50-50, this felt like 70 French and 30 whipped, way more than I was expecting or would have used. Third, because of the aforementioned melting point/texture of the FRENCH, this was melty/everywhere by the time I felt the french was ready. Fourth, instead of providing contrast/making the French or the Brownies or the flakes stand out, it overwhelmed them (odd, given that I usually feel chocolate ice cream overwhelms whatever it’s paired with, like B&J’s Half Baked). Maybe all of the other parts were better than I thought, but I simply couldn’t taste them on their own without the whipped ice cream whipping in to muddy the waters. When combined with the French, it really made me think of mousse or a French silk ice cream, which, again, is not what I associate with decadence, though that, again, might have to do with my mistaken expectations.
On the positive side, it did accurately capture whipped cream, but with (most likely) an incredibly increased amount of calories/sugar than the cool whip I could have applied from the can.
I think it largely delivered on its components: the French ice cream felt/tasted different than Blue Bell’s normal ice cream (not better, in my opinion, but not bad and was noticeably different), the chocolate flakes were there, and the brownie pieces were there (I generally think Blue Bell’s brownie/cake pieces are the weakest parts of their flavors, generally due to dryness – rather incredible given the meltiness of the normal ice cream). The whipped topping definitely was there.
But it just wasn’t what I was expecting from the title. I would have guessed Brownie Mousse or Chocolate Cool Whip. But for Fudge Brownie Decadence, I needed something else. Really, I needed the sundae swirl (make it fudge) from Ice Cream Cone. I wanted brownie pieces dipped in fudge.
Maybe I just got a bad batch.
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/blue-bell-creameries-agrees-plead-guilty-and-pay-1935-million-ice-cream-listeria#:~:text=Texas%2Dbased%20ice%20cream%20manufacturer,the%20Justice%20Department%20announced%20today.
Texas resident here. BB tried to cover up their listeria bungle and it cost them nearly 20 million.
I wouldn’t eat BB if at gunpoint. Kill 3 people, pay a fine, sell more ice cream.
Same here Mike. That brand is 100% dead to me after their irresponsible disregard for food safety.
I’m willing to concede that maybe I didn’t try the right flavors, but I’ve had Blue Bell on a few occasions and it was just ok. I was excited to try it because people make such a big deal about this brand and they appear to have some really interesting varieties but, meh. Come at me, Texas.
I imagine you’ve probably got some much more exciting and quality creameries in the area.
wow it was awesome.
I love love the decadence! I think all the flavors mesh so well, wasn’t sure at first about the whipped part but I cannot put it down! Now I cannot find in any of the stores in my area! Please tell me you are still producing it!!!