REVIEW: Ben & Jerry’s Scoop-apalooza Ice Cream

Kicking off the new year in XL style, Ben & Jerry’s is bringing the shareable scoop party to your home freezer with a new line of bigger ice cream containers in four new flavors dubbed Scoop-apalooza. The traditional Ben & Jerry’s pint has three 2/3 Cup servings and the new Scoop-apalooza 28-ounce jumbo-pints have five. The new flavors are designed to be simpler, more crowd-pleasing combinations that appeal to the broadest of palates.

In short, these Scoop-apalooza lack the usual mix-in variety and textural contrast associated with the B&J’s experience. If you’re a big fan of the brand like myself, this could initially be to the detriment of your expectations. But, if you’re a dad looking to serve something top-tier at your child’s birthday party, or a coffee freak looking to one-up your affogato profile, this is your moment.

Chocolate & Fudge Swirl

Chocolate with swirls of fudge.

I went into this scoop without much excitement, and boy, was I proved wrong. I enjoy Ben & Jerry’s straightforward bittersweet chocolate base but find it to be the most interesting when amplified by something else in the flavor’s composition, usually something salty. It is best in pints like Glampfire Trail Mix and Impretzively Fudged, and I was worried the bare-bones components here would let me down, which is not the case.

While there may not be any salt or crunch, the fudge swirl really came to play, big time. It is thick, rich, and ooey gooey, tasting like a premium jarred fudge from the grocery store. This simple but decadent double chocolate throwdown is perfect for scooping into a cone or topping with your favorite crunchy candy, nut, or sprinkle.

Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (2/3 cup, 129g) 330 calories, 18 grams of fat, 12 grams of saturated fat, 0.5 grams of trans fat, 50 milligrams of cholesterol, 80 milligrams of sodium, 36 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fiber, 33 grams of total sugars, and 6 grams of protein.

Strawberries & Cream

Sweet cream ice cream with tasty strawberry swirls.

This is the flavor that most resembles something you would find at a kid’s birthday party or in the back of your grandma’s freezer in a giant sleeve of small individually portioned cups. It’s a sweet and creamy base with a swirl of strawberry. No doubt the simplest ice cream I have ever scooped from Ben & Jerry’s (other than straight Vanilla, of course). It scratches that nostalgia itch but doesn’t do much else (although I’m not sure it needs to).

It’s tasty because it’s good ice cream, and the swirl, while a bit thin, isn’t icy in the slightest, which brings a respectable fruity flavor throughout most bites. As a little review bonus, January is my birthday month, and I had this alongside my double chocolate birthday cake. It was a fantastic combination, so I see the simplified palooza flavor vision.

Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (2/3 cup, 129g) 280 calories, 13 grams of fat, 9 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 65 milligrams of cholesterol, 55 milligrams of sodium, 35 grams of carbohydrates, less than 1 gram of fiber, 35 grams of total sugars, and 4 grams of protein.

Vanilla & Fudge Brownie

Creamy vanilla ice cream with rich chunks of fudge brownie.

This is the flavor that I was the most excited for, and it delivered exactly what I had hoped it would. A great smooth and creamy vanilla base with lots of chewy, bittersweet brownie pieces. This is the classic Chocolate Fudge Brownie pint with a vanilla base, which allows for more contrast — simple but effective.

Ben & Jerry’s brownies are among my favorite mix-ins and letting them shine here does exactly what I want from a flavor as barebones but delicious as this. Even without the brownie chunks, the vanilla ice cream is the strongest of the four bases in this lineup and is one I can keep going back to with ease. Would it be even better with a salted caramel swirl? Sure! But that’s not the mission statement here, and I have no problem hitting a scoop of this with a nice caramel-y drizzle of my own at home.

Rating: 8 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (2/3 cup, 122g) 290 calories, 15 grams of fat, 9 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 65 milligrams of cholesterol, 120 milligrams of sodium, 34 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 31 grams of total sugars, and 5 grams of protein.

Coffee & Fudge Chip

Coffee ice cream loaded with coffee fudge chips.

Ben & Jerry’s use the word “loaded” in the description and, yeah, no lies detected. This is a simple coffee-ified spin on a chocolate chip ice cream, and both flavors are prominent and strong. The base, made with BLK & Bold coffee, has an excellent, bitterly potent but sweet coffee flavor that plays seamlessly with the high-quality dairy. The texture is a bit less smooth and creamy than the others, possibly from all the coffee used, but I don’t mind it after a proper patient tempering session.

There are abundant coffee fudge chips in every spoonful, which taste like great, crunchy, semisweet chocolate, and the pairing is about as classic as it comes. This is another scoop that would be perfect in a cone but with a slightly elevated touch for the adults in the (party) room.

Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (2/3 cup, 127g) 330 calories, 20 grams of fat, 14 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 70 milligrams of cholesterol, 60 milligrams of sodium, 34 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fiber, 30 grams of total sugars, and 6 grams of protein.

DISCLOSURE: I received complimentary product samples from Ben & Jerry’s. Doing so did not influence my review.

6 thoughts to “REVIEW: Ben & Jerry’s Scoop-apalooza Ice Cream”

    1. I saw at least two of the flavors at Kroger as of last week, so they’re definitely making their way out into the wild

    1. “The new flavors are designed to be simpler, more crowd-pleasing combinations that appeal to the broadest of palates.”

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