Ben & Jerry's Bohemian Raspberry Ice Cream

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Ben & Jerry's
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Ben & Jerry's ice cream was founded by Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield and has now been brought by Unilever. They met in school and several years later after many unsuccessful and unenjoyed jobs they both attended a $5.00 course in ice cream making and after investing $12,000 they then opened their first 'scoop shop' in a gas station in Burlington, Vermont in 1978. It didn't take long ...
...brands of ice cream. Ben and Jerry's along with Hagen Daaz have always been my favourite ice creams, and apart from the flavours with nuts in, I love them all but Bohemian Raspberry is my favourite.

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Bohemian Raspberry
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Bohemian Raspberry is one of Ben & Jerry's newest ice creams released in 2007, as the name suggests it contains raspberrys. It consists of vanilla ice cream ... more

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Ben & Jerry's
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Ben & Jerry's ice cream was founded by Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield and has now been brought by Unilever. They met in school and several years later after many unsuccessful and unenjoyed jobs they both attended a $5.00 course in ice cream making and after investing $12,000 they then opened their first 'scoop shop' in a gas station in Burlington, Vermont in 1978. It didn't take long for them to become very popular. Ben had no sense of taste so he relied on what he called 'mouth feel', and big chunks of all sorts of ingredients, especially chocolate became their signature, and it is still is to this day. In 1979 they began selling pints of ice cream out of the side of a VW camper van, they continued to grow and improve throughout the years and have now stand as one of the favourite brands of ice cream. Ben and Jerry's along with Hagen Daaz have always been my favourite ice creams, and apart from the flavours with nuts in, I love them all but Bohemian Raspberry is my favourite.

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Bohemian Raspberry
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Bohemian Raspberry is one of Ben & Jerry's newest ice creams released in 2007, as the name suggests it contains raspberrys. It consists of vanilla ice cream with chunks of chocolate fudge brownie and raspberry swirls. As soon as I passed this on the shelves in Sainsbury's, I immediately brought it. The name of Bohemian Raspberry is a play of the song Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen and is a dedication to Freddie Mercury. This name was suggested by customers of Ben & Jerry's and fans of Queen. It continues its Queen theme by donating 10p of every pot sold going to the Mecury Phoenix Trust, which is the charity that has been set up in Freddie Mercury of Queen's memory. This charity helps worldwide with AIDS.

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Taste, Texture & Smell
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Bohemian Raspberry has got to be one of my favourite ice creams, if not my absolute favourite. I am completely in love with anything that consists of chocolate and raspberrys together - it is devine.

When you open the pot of ice cream, there is no distinctive aroma, you can smell the chocolate fudge brownie and a hint of vanilla but there is no aroma of raspberrys. I might have expected this ice cream to smell a bit more fruity, but no big deal, it tastes devine and that's what matters.

The ice cream is vanilla, it is a real white and creamy vanilla, with chucks of chocolate fudge brownie with swirls of thick raspberry sauce. When you open the tub, you will see the creamy white ice cream with veins of raspberry swirls running through and some chunks of chocolate fudge brownie. Every pot however is different, so one pot you may open and not all those things may be on show, they may be underneath. There are several colours on show, especially with the bright colouring of the raspberry swirls, it really stands out to you, the packaging also helps do this. Overall, from first impressions this looks very very tasty.

Vanilla ice cream - Bohemian Raspberry mostly consists of vanilla ice cream. This has a real and natural tasting vanilla flavour, it doesn't taste overpowering, sickly or artificial. It is a full bodied vanilla taste that is perfect in composition. The ice cream is thick and creamy, it tastes rich without being too much. The ice cream isn't too hard or too runny. You can easily scoop it out the pot without a struggle but it does give some resistance proving its not too soft and runny. Some cheaper ice creams, I tend to find are a bit airy in texture, but this really isn't, its full of cream and thick in texture, whilst still tasting light in your mouth. The whole ice cream is very soft to the taste, and just melts in your mouth, it definately tastes like a premium flavoured ice cream should. I never usually like vanilla ice cream that much, I always find it boring but Ben & Jerry's is one of the only ones I could eat on its own, although it's vanilla, it still bursts with flavour and leaves you craving more. Although I do love this with vanilla ice cream, I would love to see a chocolate ice cream version, as it would be pure chocolate and raspberry - my idea of heaven, obviously I know this would probably be too sickly for most people apart from those chocoholics.

Raspberry Swirls - The raspberry swirls also consist of blackberry puree as well as raspberry puree. From the addition of blackberry puree the colouring is slightly darker than raspberry puree, it is inbetween a red raspberry colour with hints of purple from the blackberry, The colouring is all natural and it doesn't look artificial or taste it. You do get a generous amount of these in the ice cream, but I do wish there were a few more, but this is just me being greedy. The raspberry swirls are thick, they aren't runny or sticky. The raspberry flavour is slightly tangy as it should be, but again like the ice cream it is not too overpowering or sickly, nor does it leave an aftertaste in your mouth. The raspberry swirls are not like raspberry swirls in raspberry ripple ice cream and the ice cream certainly isn't. The raspberry swirls in raspberry ripple ice cream are very artificial tasting and the ice cream is very fake airy vanilla so this just can't be compared, everything in Ben & Jerry's is natural.

Chocolate Fudge Brownies - The chocolate fudge brownies are just as they should be. They are soft and gooey, without being runny or undercooked, nor are the hard and overcooked. Without been overcooked the brownies have a slight crunch and are slightly chewey which is lovely, just as I like my brownies to be. They have a delicious flavour, they aren't sickly or overpowering, just as the vanilla ice cream and raspberry swirls, making it the perfect combination. The chocolate brownie doesn't contain any nuts as some brownies do, which is great for me as I'm allergic to them, but I could see some people would want the content of them to make it a little more crunchy in texture. You get quite a few chucks on chocolate fudge brownie in the ice cream, some larger than others, and some are very small.

With this ice cream, it is all very hit and miss about what you will get on your spoon each time you scoop some out, one time you might get some brownie, the next you might just get ice cream and the next you might get a bit of both. I like this, as it gives you a bit of variety and it doesn't get boring. When my boyfriend and I are eating a pot of this, it's always a race to see who can get to the 'good bits' first, if one person has a spoonful and that reveals a layer of brownie or raspberry, we fight with our spoons to get to it. You also get a variety of textures in your mouth to keep it exciting too, you get a slight cruchyness yet gooeyness from the brownie pieces, soft and light ice cream and again slightly gooey raspberry swirls. You aren't left with an aftertaste or a fuzzy, sugar coated teeth feeling in your mouth after eating this. This ice cream is just like the sundaes I like to make, I have vanilla ice cream, break up some cookies and squirt raspberry sauce on, this ice cream saves me doing that, they've basically got that all in one pot. I never actually tried it, but it seems this is an improved and updated version of Ben & Jerry's Glastonberry, which they released last year. It was very similar, but as the name suggests with berrys rather than raspberry swirls. This ice cream is perfect for having as dessert, it slips down nicely, as a snack or as comfort food, I will always turn to this if I'm feeling down, well they do say chocolate contains endorphins.

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Packaging
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Bohemian Raspberry comes in a stand up 500ml supported cardboard pot. This stores the ice cream well, it doesn't fall apart and leak. The pot looks good, but may appear to a female slightly more - it has lots of purple and pink swirls along with a large raspberry, which actually looks more like a blackberry and a chocolate fudge brownie. As with all Ben & Jerry's pots, their name is written across the front with the words 'Bohemian Raspberry' underneath. Underneath this it states that it is an ice cream, as Ben & Jerry's also do sorbets, and low fat yogurts and underneat this is a small description of what the ice cream is and contains. Ben & Jerry's packaging is always bright, fun and funky, they never take themselves, the names of the ice creams and the packaging seriously. This makes it seem more fun to eat, to me. The pot comes with a seal around the outside of the lid to the pot, ensuring that you know your product hasn't been tampered with before you open it. On the back of the pot, is information about Ben & Jerrys, along with contact info and nutritional information.

The pot is made from 90% renewable paper stock, but to stop it from leaking Ben & Jerrys have had to coat it with polyethylene which makes recycling a bit difficult. Ben & Jerrys use waterproof ink to print on all the information, so even when its in the freezer and gets water on, you will still be able to read the information you need to, which is really useful.

I find the first time you open the pot, the lid is a little stiff to get off, due to the ice cream being right up to the top and the addition of a plastic sealed wrapper to keep the ice cream fresh. After then it can sometimes be a little loose, it never seems to just right. It won't fall off easily, but when you pick it up you just need to be careful that you don't pick it up by the lid and drop the pot underneath.

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Nutritional Info & Food Facts
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Per 100g there are 240 calories, 12.5g fat, of which 7g are saturated and 25g of sugars. So for a whole pot thats a whopping 1200 calories, which sometimes I am naughty enough to consume in one go, nearly my whole daily allowance, so I would recommend that you only a have a little at a time, if you can resist! Although Ben & Jerry's ice creams have never been the healthiest for you, but Bohemian Raspberry is one of the worst ones for you, probably why it's the tastiest! There are no artificial ingredients, they are all natural, the only thing making this as unhealthy as it is is cream and chocolate.

Ben & Jerrys are always keen to help the environment and get the best products they can. They also like to help people and do as much good as they can with their products. They always use free range eggs and since 2006 now have fairtrade products. Over 50% of a pot of Ben & Jerry's ice cream consists of dairy so they ensure they have a sustainable dairy farming programme.

The brownies that Ben & Jerry's put in their ice creams, including Bohemian Raspberry come from a little bakery in New York called the Greyston Bakery who train and counsel the homeless. The bakery supports the community by providing child care, housing, health care, job training and more for low income residents in certain parts of New York, Ben & Jerry's purchase broken pieces of brownies from the bakery which they would usually have to throw away but as the pieces in Ben & Jerry's ice cream are broken up pieces they use these, and help the bakery.

In 2004 Ben & Jerry's Hellendoorn factory became the first Dutch factory to convert 100% of its gas and electricity use to 100% renewable energy to power its machinary. Ben & Jerry's recycle, use energy efficient light bulbs and where possible, use 100% renewable energy. Another suprising little fact is that any wasted ice cream goes to a pig farm in Stowe, Vermont, and the pigs love it, it's not bad for them at all, so another little helping hand Ben & Jerry's give.

There are no artifical flavourings or colourings in this ice cream, everything in the ice cream is natural. Bohemian Raspberry's main ingredients are as follows:

Cream (31%), sugar, water, skimmed milk, egg yolks, blackberry puree, raspberry puree, vanilla, wheat flour, cocoa, butter, egg whites.

This product is suitable for nut allergy suffers, it doesn't contain nuts and I am allergic to them and have never had a problem with this ice cream. Unfortunately it is not suitable for gluten allergy suffers due to the content of wheat flour.

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Price & Availability
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You can only get Bohemian Raspberry in a 500ml pot and unfortunately not in the smaller snack sized pots. A 500ml pot will cost you £3.95, it is available from most supermarkets, some service stations and Blockbuster. You can occasionally get offers in the supermarkets which consist of 2 for £5 and 1/3 off. You can also get this flavour in certain cinemas, I have recently noticed you can get this in some Cineworlds, if they have a Ben & Jerry stand. As the ice cream is quite expensive, I usually wait till one of these offers comes round till I buy this.

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Contact Info
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Ben & Jerry's UK Pad
1st Floor, Goswell House
Goswell Hill
Windsor
Berks
SL4 1DS
0800 1696 123

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Conclusion
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Although it is expensive, both Ben & Jerry's ice cream just can't be compared to any others, including other premium brands. They are head and shoulders above them and for this reason, I don't mind paying that bit extra, but I do usually try and buy the ice cream when it's on offer. This is my favourite ice cream, the chocolate and raspberry content goes perfectly together and it never gets too sickly, unless they create this ice cream but with chocolate ice cream instead, this will always remain my favourtie. Although not the healthiest of products, its made from all natural ingredients and Ben & Jerry's does as much as it can to help the environment. 

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