Ben & Jerry's Triple Caramel Chunk Ice Cream

[By Nick] I’m starting to run out of old Ben & Jerry’s flavors we’ve yet to review but also have access to. I had all but given up trying to find Triple Caramel Chunk or as our friends up north call it, Caramel Hat Trick, or other countries call it, Caramel Chew Chew. Yeah, the flavor with three caramel components also goes by three different names. Okay, random tangent aside, I finally made my way to Walgreen’s to pick up Truffle Trifecta (Hey look, another triple flavor!)and low and behold, Triple Caramel Chunk was sitting right there next to it. Of course I had to pick it up as well, too bad there wasn’t another interesting flavor because then I could’ve picked up a trinity of pints. Okay, I’m done with all these triple notions; let’s just go straight to the ice cream!

As I stated earlier, this flavor is made up of three caramel components. Those being Caramel ice cream, a caramel swirl and fudge covered caramel chunks. The folks over at Ben & Jerry’s aren’t reinventing the wheel with this flavor but as a caramel lover, I’m excited to try this one.

And that excitement diminished with the pints lackluster first impression. There’s a slight hint of the fudge covered caramel chunks but that’s about it. At least this makes it easier to sample the base alone. The caramel flavor is very light. If I didn’t know it was supposed to be a caramel base, I would’ve thought it was a vanilla with a little something extra to it. Let’s dig a bit deeper and hope the other two components bring a stronger caramel flavor.

I’m not exactly sure why Ben & Jerry’s calls these chunks because they’re mini caramel cups. I didn’t have a coin on me but I’d say they’re a tad bit smaller than the “new” Reese's minis. While small, they pack a serious caramel punch. Think of a simply caramel Milky Way bar just not as cloyingly sweet. The fudge coating is basically an afterthought. It just doesn’t stand a chance against the buttery caramel filling.

As for the caramel swirl, I wish there was a lot more of it. As you can tell from my photos, my pint was quite lacking. The bites that managed to have a decent amount took this flavor to new heights. Think of hot caramel fudge topping and that’s pretty much what Ben & Jerry’s managed to pull off, albeit cold. It has the flavor, texture and is just all around awesome. This is what every caramel swirl should be and it’s a shame my pint didn’t have copious amounts of it. I can’t give this a one a ringing endorsement because of my lack of caramel but if my experience was just an abnormality and there’s regularly more caramel, I can see this one being a good choice for caramel lovers. As is, with flavors like Talenti Sea Salt Caramel out there, you’re not missing much if you can’t find this one.

Vedict?  Needs more caramel swirl!
Buy Again?  Can I just buy the swirl instead?