Ben & Jerry's Everything but the... Ice Cream

2015 Update: I've been slowly going back to retry some of the older Ben & Jerry's flavors that made it through the transition to Non-GMO and for whatever reason, I grabbed this one so quickly that I forgot that it has the new toffee in it. Yeah, that "new toffee". The one that was supposedly fixed but is still way too potent and inspires people to constantly comment about how frustrated they are. Yeah, it really takes things down a notch. Sure you can avoid the big toffee chunks, but sometimes the small pieces kind of melt and ooze their potent-ness everywhere. Oh well. Original review after the break.

Ben & Jerry's Everything But The... Ice Cream

[Original 2009 Review] Oh Ben & Jerry ...why must you torment me? Sure, everything but the... came out in 2000, but it wasn't until this week that I finally tried it ...and I am so confused. There are bites you want to love ....and then bites you just don't understand ...why? why why why why why? Ok, let's dig in and find out what I'm talking about.

Ben & Jerry's everything but the... is "a collision of chocolate & vanilla ice creams mixed with Heath bar chunks, white chocolate chunks, peanut butter cups & chocolate covered almonds". Sounds crazy doesn't it? I mean what else could you add in besides maybe pretzels or cone pieces? Ofcourse, then you'd have zero room left for ice cream. You may be looking at the above picture and think "hey! where are all the pieces??"

There, does that help? Uh oh...I think I'm getting hungry again ...ok, anyway, check it out! Green arrow is a chocolate covered almond ...I think we'll call him Ollie. The red arrows point to multiple heath bar chunks. I hope you like Heath because the chunks can get rather large (the image in the corner is the same scale as the rest of the container, that particular piece was like an inch and a half big). For whatever reason, the Heath bar chunks that are missing their chocolate coating are melting very quickly for some reason (the bottom red arrow). The remaining chunks you see are peanut butter cups. The cups are about the same size as Reese mini cups and often you will find yourself digging into an entire half cup chunk. I didn't manage to snag a white chocolate chunk image yet, but they too are huge and probably a good 1/8" thick.

It looks awesome doesn't it? We have four mixins dieing to be scooped, and they're huge too! it's actually alot of fun trying to dig out a mixin that is so big that it doesn't want to come out. There's that whole rewarding yourself with candy pieces for your "hard work" of digging it out. It's even better if you've been dieing for a candy bar all day long. Great fun is had, you just want to keep scooping and chomping and scooping and chomping....

(from my 2015 pint, click to enlarge)

But wait, I said I was confused, didn't I? I did indeed my fellow ice cream lovers. The problem is, all these great tastes don't come together that well. First, these aren't Reese's brand peanut butter cups, they are some all natural alternative, and unfortunately, they are kind of bland. They aren't awful, but they have a thicker chocolate shell and are much more mild than what I would have hoped for. Now, I could probably forgive this ...but ...we have a second problem. I like Heath bars (I adore Heath Bar Blizzards), but these giant heath bar chunks they use, well, they overpower everything. Sure the pb cups are mild, but after a bite of heath bar, you can barely even taste them. And the nice combo of quality Ben & Jerry's chocolate and vanilla ice cream? also nullified by the Heath bar. Wait, did I just manage to use the word nullify in a review?

So, there is my dilemma: We have one of the funnest ice cream ever, yet it can't execute in the taste department, and that, well, it is really unfortunate. Now I've already second scooped this last night (when I finally ran into the huge white chocolate chunks), and I have gotten somewhat use to the overall mix (in part by being wary of the heath bar chunks), but this really has been a lesson ...in the fact I use too many periods and parenthesis, so I apologize for that. No, seriously, it's a lesson than you can have too much of a good thing. Bummer.