This week I'm mostly being brunette although that is subject to change. Now i've turned 31 and I've ...
This week I'm mostly being brunette although that is subject to change. Now i've turned 31 and I've got my degree I'm trying in vain to look a bit more sophisticated and intelligent...(not that i'm saying blondes are not, of course!)
Member since:17.12.2002
Reviews:83
Members who trust:72
Up until last week I 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 enough!) in Vermont. Since it was founded it has gone on to create exciting flavoured ice creams with weird names by the bucket load – according to the website the current number one flavour is
Cherry Garcia – the only ice cream ever to be named after a member of the Grateful Dead (I’m guessing here, correct me if I’m wrong!)
But onto the important 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 created in 1987 and named after Jerry Garcia who (according to the Dutch information panel) was a ‘legendarische hippie rock gitarist.’ Sadly the English information panel offers no such insight!!
The ice cream itself is a not very attractive Germalene sort of colour but don’t let that put you off. It doesn’t taste like Germalene, has no antiseptic properties whatsoever and unlike Germelene is packed with loads of chunks of chocolate and cherries.
When you first get it out of the freezer it needs to stand for about 20 minutes unless you want to break your teeth and/or the spoon, but if you can’t be that patient (and I will admit its difficult because it smells delicious) it starts getting soft round the edges quite quickly at room temperature.
It tastes (unsurprisingly) very cherry. But it isn’t a synthetic cherry flavour and it isn’t too sweet. The ice cream texture is really creamy but the little chocolate chip bits (the French call them pepites which I think is a marvellous word – I think every language should have a dedicated word for chocolate chip bits!) make it more interesting.
However nestled in the ice cream there are whole cherries and chunks – yes chunks of dark chocolate. These chocolate chunks are in some cases nearly as big as the spoon but they are thin so you aren’t overpowered by the taste of dark chocolate. These huge chocolate pieces are abundant as are the whole cherries that are mixed into it (real cherries not bits of rubber dipped in red food colouring and cherry flavouring like in some ‘cherry’ products.)
The problem (yes there is one!) is just how sick it makes you feel. Its quite moreish and you don’t realise until you have eaten half a tub that you want to throw up! Simple answer to that is don’t eat half a tub in one sitting, but it really is hard to put down.
It’s made with double cream so it isn’t exactly a dieters delight, but there is lack of any nutritional information on the tub (although I think that the Dutch for ‘legendry hippy rock guitarist’ is more than enough useful information for one product!) obviously means its ridiculously high and they don’t want you to know!! Well that’s fine because I don’t really want to know – ice cream is not mean to be diet food, its meant to be fun! There is however a low fat alternative ‘Low Fat Frozen Yoghurt Cherry Garcia’ so all is not lost for dieters who want to learn some essential Dutch phrases!!
As with all products of this type Ben and Jerry’s is not cheap. It retails at between £3.50 and £3.99 a tub, however quite often supermarkets have promotions so it’s worth looking out for. There are also Ben and Jerry’s ‘Scoop Shops’ up and down the country mostly in cinemas.
So there you have it – buy this product if you like black forest gateau and want to learn Dutch. Avoid this product if you don’t like ice cream!!
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Advantages: Unusual and tasty flavour combination of cherries and dark chocolate Disadvantages: A little rich in large quantities, expensive for regular buying
May 23rd, 2003
very helpful by (100%):
