Despite being a fan of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream for many years, even having visited their factory and head quarters in Vermont as a teenager on holiday some years ago, until recently I had not tried Cherry Garcia, one of their most popular flavours. The reason for this was that I am not usually ... Read review
Advantages: It's delicious! Disadvantages: It's fattening and expensive.
Despite being a fan of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream for many years, even having visited their factory and head quarters in Vermont as a teenager on holiday some years ago, until recently I had not tried Cherry Garcia, one of their most popular flavours. The reason for this was that I am not usually very keen on chocolate and fruit mixed together (although both items on their own are strong favourites!) so the formula of cherry flavoured ice cream with ... ...a very limited selection of Ben and Jerry’s to choose from. The other flavours available all contained nuts (something which I am not keen on in ice cream – I’m a fussy so-and-so, aren’t I?) so Cherry Garcia ended up being my chosen flavour. Call it fate, call it whatever you want, but this chance meeting was the start of a beautiful relationship.
Ben and Jerry’s ice cream has been something of a success story in recent years. The ... more
Despite being a fan of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream for many years, even having visited their factory and head quarters in Vermont as a teenager on holiday some years ago, until recently I had not tried Cherry Garcia, one of their most popular flavours. The reason for this was that I am not usually very keen on chocolate and fruit mixed together (although both items on their own are strong favourites!) so the formula of cherry flavoured ice cream with cherry pieces and dark chocolate chunks did not appeal to me as much as some of the other flavours on offer. However, last Friday I found myself with an ice cream craving, standing in front of the freezer in my local One Stop, with a very limited selection of Ben and Jerry’s to choose from. The other flavours available all contained nuts (something which I am not keen on in ice cream – I’m a fussy so-and-so, aren’t I?) so Cherry Garcia ended up being my chosen flavour. Call it fate, call it whatever you want, but this chance meeting was the start of a beautiful relationship.
Ben and Jerry’s ice cream has been something of a success story in recent years. The company was started by two free spirit hippies (can you guess their names?) who made ice creams using fresh, natural ingredients. Their empire took off to a such an extent that the brand is now a permanent fixture in ice cream freezers across the world, competing with the likes of Haagen Dazs. This particular flavour was named after Jerry Garcia, lead singer of the hippy festival regular band The Grateful Dead, who shared many of the same philosophies on life as Ben and Jerry – not to mention a similar beard and long hair.
***Spooky Coincidence Alert: The holiday to Vermont where I visited the Ben and Jerry’s factory was the first time I ever heard of Jerry Garcia when I learnt about the origins of this flavour’s name. A few days later, on the same holiday, news reports in the hotel reported the death of Jerry Garcia. Had I not been on the factory visit, I wouldn’t have even known who he was.***
Ben and Jerry’s ice creams pride themselves on using not just natural ingredients, but also big chunks of them. Ben and Jerry’s ice cream is chunky – really chunky – and is as fun and bright in its packaging as Haagen Dazs is classy and understated. Cherry Garcia is no exception. A brightly coloured 500 ml cardboard tub with pictures of cows and the like, containing cherry flavoured ice cream, real cherries and dark chocolate chunks. Yum.
So, on to the bit you’ve been waiting for: the taste test. Once you’ve managed to get the ice cream out of the tub, which can be difficult if it’s been stored in a home freezer (you’re supposed to let it stand for a while but I can never wait and normally end up microwaving it for 30 seconds on a Defrost setting!) you are faced with a pale pinky red ice cream with clearly visible cherries and pieces of chocolate and are ready to taste. You will not be disappointed!
The ice cream itself is rich, thick, creamy and delicious, and is particularly delicious once it starts melting a little bit. The flavour is out of this world. There is no other way to describe it but the flavour of real cherries translated into an ice cream texture. There is nothing synthetic about this flavour, and it tastes like I would imagine home made cherry ice cream to taste – if you pureed some fresh cherries and mixed the puree into some double cream to freeze in an ice cream maker. It is sweet, but not sickly, and does not taste like anything has been added to sweeten it, other than the natural sweetness of the cherries. There is also a very slight hint, to my mind, of Maraschino cherries – but perhaps that’s just wishful thinking.
Moving on to the chunky bits – firstly the cherries. Again, these are real fresh cherries, whole ones (minus the stones, of course!) – not glace cherries or slimy, syrupy pie filling cherries. Something that Ben and Jerry always seem to manage is to include things in their ice creams that would normally be horrible frozen, but somehow stop them from freezing! These cherries are no exception, and even when the ice cream is straight out of the freezer, the cherries are not icy or hard. They are juicy, succulent and tasty, and each one seems to be surrounded by a very, very tiny amount of cherry sauce, just to keep the fruit moist. Finally, the dark chocolate chunks – again, these are really chunky and each one probably measures about ¾ of an inch by ¼ of an inch, and is thin, like Lindt chocolate squares. The chocolate is quite bitter, but still melts in the mouth and does not leave an aftertaste like some dark chocolates. The majority of pieces are whole and have not broken up during manufacturing. My concern about chocolate and fruit together was not warranted as the flavour perfectly compliments the lovely, fruity cherry flavour – sort of like a Black Forest Gateau with the proportions of chocolate and cherries reversed, frozen and brought bang up to date, rather than being on the menu in a 70s pub restaurant. So, nothing like a Black Forest Gateau really.
The natural, fruity taste of the ice cream means it is nowhere near as sickly as some of the other chocolate or caramel flavours in Ben and Jerry’s range – which is a good thing in some ways, but also a bad thing as it means that you can eat absolutely loads of it without feeling like you need to stop.
Since my gaze alighted on the tub of Cherry Garcia last Friday, a love affair has begun and it is now one of my all-time favourite ice cream flavours. At £3.79 it is more of a treat than an every day purchase, although I bought mine on special offer of two tubs for £5 (it’s all coming out now!) and supermarkets have similar offers on from time to time. If you need to know about calorie and fat content then this is probably not for you – suffice it to say it’s certainly not a dieter’s delight.
I will most certainly be buying Cherry Garcia again. Jerry would be proud.
...was a virgin – a Ben and Jerry’s virgin that is! Although I’d read loads about how fabulous Ben and Jerry’s ice cream was I faithful to my first love Bailey’s Hagen Daaz. But I have strayed. And it was so marvellous that I don’t even feel guilty (except about the horrific calorific content, of course!!)
Ben and Jerry’s, for those of you, like myself who are new to the novelty ice cream market was founded in 1978 by two friends (Ben and Jerry surprisingly ... ...bit…
The ice cream!
Ben and Jerry’s ice cream comes in 500ml cardboard tubs. The lid fits back on so you don’t have to eat the whole thing in one sitting – in fact I defy you to be able to! The tub is fairly simple – it declares itself to be ‘Ben and Jerry’s Cherry Garcia’ and has pictures of chocolate and cherries on it, in case you happened to be in any doubt!
The back of the tub gives you a bit of background info about the product – it was ...
lwperkins 23.05.2003
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia
Advantages: Lots of cherries and chocolate, Smooth, subtle flavour, Disadvantages: Expensive, Far too moorish!
...it was, a tub of Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia, freshly bought earlier today and still unopened. So I had a spoonful. Mmmmmmmmm, yummy. As you might have guessed from the name, Cherry Garcia involves cherries. It's a cherry flavoured ice-cream interlaced with cherry pieces and quite generous chunks of dark chocalate. I know that sounds a little bit bizarre. I've never heard of a cherry flavoured ice-cream before, let alone one laced with cherries ... ...waistline! Ben and Jerry's ice-cream is pretty widely available, most of the supermarkets stock various flavours, as do lots of cinemas and corner shops. The main problem is the price. £3.79 for a 500ml tub. That's about the same price as Haagen Dazs. It's certainly not something you're going to buy every day (unless you get paid a lot more than me!) but it's great for the occassional treat. A little tip when eating it. It's best to get the ice-cream ...
paule23 06.11.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia
Advantages: tasty, authentic flavour Disadvantages: a little pricy, can get sickly quite quickly...
...the most popular flavours that Ben and Jerry's have ever done - whenever you mention B&J to people, they always seem to mention other flavours such as Phish Food and Chunky Monkey. Well, Cherry Garcia has been around quite a while, so we should be acquainted with it by now. Created in 1987, it was named, obviously, after the guitarist with the Grateful Dead. There's the history - now onto the ice cream! We all know the B&J brand by now, with their ... ...the price tag. Cherry Garcia is no different. You still get the same style tub, you still have to pay around £3.50 per 500ml, but, in my opinion, the flavour more than makes up for the price.
So what is Cherry Garcia? Well, looking at the picture of the cherries and dark chocolate on the front of the tub, it's obvious: cherry ice cream with pieces of cherry and dark chocolate chunks. I'm glad to see that cherry pieces make up 11.5% of the ice cream, ...
emmorticia 24.03.2003
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia
Advantages: real fruit, nice for a fruit ice cream, addictive Disadvantages: high calories, too addictive sometimes, 500ml is not enough
...cream and everyone knows nothing Ben & Jerry's so I decided to buy some. I searched through flavours for ages and then came across the Cherry Garcia flavour which I definitely hadn't tried so I thought why not? It cost about £3.60 and was quite a big tub and would last a night.
The tub's are always sealed with plastic around the lid so nothing leaks. I peeled this off and lifted up the lid which was kept down very well which I suppose is a good ... ...there is something addictive about Ben & Jerry ice creams but I don't know what it is. Maybe, it's the sweetness of the ice cream and the fact that all ingredients are real and taste great even thr fruit ones.
The tubs are made of cardboard and always have a good design. This particular ice cream has the Ben & Jerry's logo black with eye catching white writing. This is one a cream coloured background which goes all the way round the tub. There are ...
ms19 09.06.2003
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia
...two for £5 offer on Ben & Jerry ice-cream.
I have long been a fan of Ben and Jerry ice-cream especially Cherry Garcia flavour. The two partners started their ice-cream empire in rural Vermont in 1978 and have been churning out imaginatively titled ice-cream ever since. They rely heavily on marketing with the product pitched at those looking for a trendy image when selecting their ice-cream but they back this up with some great tasting quality flavours ... ...Starting with the packaging, Ben and Jerry's ice-cream is very distinctive and comes in a 500ml cardboard carton with a cardboard lid that's fits back on after use. All of their ice-creams have a picture of Ben and Jerry on it and this particular one is a bright purple in colour and the product details on the back. There is not a great deal of nutritional information on the label and what there is gets repeated in about six languages.
The ice cream ...
atticusuk 10.08.2005
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia
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Advantages: high quality, very tasty Disadvantages: expensive
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I have long been a fan of Ben and Jerry ice-cream especially CherryGarcia flavour. The two partners started their ice-cream empire in rural Vermont in 1978 and have been churning out imaginatively titled ice-cream ever since. They rely heavily on marketing with the product pitched at those looking for a trendy image when selecting their ...
Advantages: Makes a nice change from 'Ben and Jerry's' Disadvantages: Calorie Packed, Not cheap
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Advantages: Chocolate (again;+) and those scrummy fudge brownie pieces. Disadvantages: The price.
and drink along with Bridget to your hearts content.
There is not really a great deal more I can say about this ice cream, except that it is extremely worth trying if you want something different for once. There are many different flavours of Ben and Jerry's ice cream and I am particularly tempted to try "From Russia with Buzz" and "CherryGarcia", so you never know, an opinion about those flavours may also apprear on these pages someday soon;+).
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