Ben & Jerry's Bob Marley's One Love Ice Cream

[New for May 2017] I will admit that I actually saw this pint at another store two days ago but was weary of dumping five bucks on a pint of banana ice cream. Well, I went in to Target this morning and while I didn't find Keep Calm and Caramel On, I did find this on sale for $3.50.

Ben & Jerry's Bob Marley's One Love Ice Cream

banana ice cream with
caramel & graham cracker swirls & fudge peace signs

I didnt plan on having this one as my morning snack, but the ride from Target had gotten this one nice and tempered. I had trouble opening the lid because of that caramel you see keeping everything glued together. Since it's been almost two years since I covered a banana ice cream, let me give a quick recap of my taste preference. I'm a middle of the road kind of person when it comes to banana. I don't like them green when they are tough and light in flavor. I don't like them brown when them are smushy and a bit too heavy in flavor. I like them in the middle of that. Good texture, good flavor, and probably floating in a bowl of rice krispies.

I take a few bites and this is a surprisingly strong banana flavor. I know I've had either Ben & Jerry's Banana Split or Chunky Monkey a few years ago (sorry, I forget which) and I don't remember the banana ice cream being this strong. Whether this is the same or different, I definitely think that the sweet caramel is amplifying that robust, ripe banana flavor.

The chocolate peace signs are also a bit darker/drier than expected and actually take you out of the moment a bit. I know many of you don't like the new B&J's fudge flakes but I think their constant presence would have gone better here than the peace signs (though maybe they were concerned that they would override the banana base).

The graham swirl seems nice but I'm having trouble getting it by itself since this first serving is more about the caramel. It's a nice caramel, I'm not complaining about it specifically, it's just that more graham cuts the strong banana flavor while the caramel extenuates it. So going back to my earlier comments, personally I'd like a bit more dampening here.

Those of you that love banana are pretty stoked at this point right? And you should be, you will really enjoy this. It's up there with other strong (and sweet) banana flavors. If you've ever made banana bread with really ripe (very brown) bananas, that's about the level of intensity here.

Ok, that was interesting and we'll see how the afternoon scoop goes.

On Second Scoop: Banana really needs to be your thing if you are going to pick this one up. It's got good quality and flavor but if you are going in thinking that your so-so feelings towards banana will be helped out by the graham and fudge balancing things out completely, well, you might be somewhat disappointed. There's nothing wrong with this ice cream, it's just meant for a specific set of people, say Marvo for example. He should adore this flavor. For me, the varying banana intensity (depending what's on your spoon) just isn't my thing. I'd much rather go attack a s'mores flavor than try to get my graham fix here.

Verdict?  strong banana flavor
Buy Again?  not my style

Charity Note: A portion of the proceeds go to the One Love Youth Camp.

allergy note: may contain peanuts and tree nuts