Bart's Peanut Butter Paradise Ice Cream

Over the summer, local company Bart's Ice Cream upgraded their packaging. The old packaging was fine (local, quaint) but there was no differentiation between flavors. Now unfortunately my local Roche Bros. grocery store only stocks their more basic/tame flavors (including the one I tried awhile ago), but on Monday I finally found something new! The only downside is that it's carrying a limited edition sticker label rather than showing off one of their flavor logos.

Bart's Peanut Butter Paradise Ice Cream

peanut butter ice cream, chocolate chunks, fudge brownies & peanut butter swirl

Looks fairly tempting but somewhat tame to start but then...

I discover the brownies and swirl and chocolate chips just below the surface. Now this picture probably makes you think that I fell instantly in love, but to honest, I did not. It's not that it's bad, it's that it strikes me as more of a sorbet than an ice cream. The texture reminds me very much of the Talenti pb sorbetto from last year. I just have trouble clicking with that drier, sorbet-like texture. Now, it may be that the top of the pint was a little extra dry from freezerburn, as it did get a smidge better as I went down, but for now, it's too dry.

In fact, can I go a step further? I couldnt' help but think that I kept tasting a hint of coffee. It must have been from however they roasted/toasted/made their peanut butter. Random question: is there a peanut butter coffee flavor out there? and if not, who's interested? Anyway, it's not super strong, but I couldn't shake that perception.

My plan for the second scoop is definitely to let it temper more to see what happens. I got a few bites that had a bunch of various components on the spoon and I felt that those were the best bites. I do love the combination of peanut butter and chocolate oh so very much, but at the moment this is 85-90% peanut butter dominance with a small side of chocolate.

On Second Scoop: Boy does this stuff take forever to temper. I left it out for what felt like a good 20 minutes and it was still fairly solid. First, a question: did they borrow the core technology from Ben & Jerry's to make this? I had a bit of the core by itself and it's flavorful and a little bit salty. Second, I did have more fun by filling the somewhat softer texture with more chips and brownie bits. Yeah, the brownie bits stay pretty small and infrequent, but they are there for sure (and no point will you be overwhelmed with brownie flavor).  So yeah, second scoop went better but I'm certainly still not in love. Fine to try once but I don't currently foresee a repurchase.

Verdict?  interesting
Buy Again?  probably not