Tag: Blue Bell

What is it?

It is Blue Bell’s newest flavor featuring fruity cereal-flavored ice cream with confetti sprinkles and coated fruity cereal pieces. As you probably figured out from the photo, the cereal is a Fruity Pebbles knockoff. I guess the lawyers at Blue Bell and Post couldn’t come to a mutually agreeable collaboration on this.

How is it?

This little pint is full of surprises. I did not read the label before digging in, so it caught me off guard that the ice cream is not vanilla but rather fruity cereal flavored. And that really makes all the difference here. This has the perfect level of sweetness; it’s not too sugary, but you definitely get that distinctive Fruity Pebbles flavor.

The second surprise is that the cereal remains crunchy even as the ice cream melts, thanks to some kind of magical whiteish coating. The cereal pieces were often clumped together in groups of two or three, delivering a satisfying crunch and burst of flavor every time. The confetti sprinkles are just kind of hanging around to add some color and texture but not really much flavor. If you like Fruity Pebbles and have ever wondered what they would taste like in ice cream form, this one is for you.

I also have to give Blue Bell credit for a little creativity with the name and packaging. If you look through the Blue Bell lineup, most of their flavors are named in a straightforward manner using the same font with a solid background corresponding to the color of the ice cream. This one has a fun, colorful font with a bowl of fake Fruity Pebbles in the background. A job well done by the Blue Bell design department, although they had set the bar pretty low.

Anything else you need to know?

This is one of the few Blue Bell flavors that are only available in pint-size containers, so if you are looking to get a half-gallon of this, you’ll have to buy…umm…I have no idea how many. After consulting with my phone, you’ll have to buy four pints to get a half-gallon.

Conclusion:

I cannot remember the last time I had Fruity Pebbles, and they were never one of my favorite cereals, but this ice cream flavor really delivers what it promises. Yes, I do heart this cereal ice cream, and if there’s ever a Cap’n Crunch version, I just might marry it. Please don’t tell my wife.

Purchased Price: $3.89
Size: One Pint
Purchased at: H-E-B
Rating: 8 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (2/3 cup) 240 calories, 13 grams of fat, 9 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 35 milligrams of cholesterol, 65 milligrams of sodium, 27 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of dietary fiber, 26 grams of sugar, and 4 grams of protein.

What is it?

Continuing the Blue Bell tradition of generally using the most straightforward name possible, the new Salted Caramel Brownie flavor contains exactly what you would expect: chocolate brownie pieces with a salted caramel swirl in vanilla ice cream.

How is it?

It’s good.

OK, I guess I’m contractually obligated to provide a longer answer, so let me expound a bit. The brownies are the best part of this, although they seemed to be somewhat sparsely mixed into my pint. When I did get a brownie piece in a bite, it was perfectly chewy and chocolatey. The problem was most bites didn’t have any brownies.

The caramel swirl was also pleasant. It had only a subtle saltiness and a nice creaminess that reminded me of a Werther’s Original caramel, even though I can’t remember the last time I’ve actually had one of those.

The vanilla ice cream was kind of just there to hold the brownies and caramel. This might have been a bit better if the ice cream base was either chocolate or caramel, but Blue Bell didn’t consult with me for some reason.

Anything else you need to know?

The “swirl” part was a bit different than I expected. Especially with caramel, it seems like a swirl usually consists of significant pockets of the gooey stuff that looks like rivers flowing through the ice cream. But for this flavor, you don’t get those big pools of caramel in different spots. Instead, it’s more evenly dispersed, so you get some in virtually every bite, even if it’s a little hard to see the caramel. As much as I like finding those nice mother lodes of swirl, I also enjoyed this version where it’s almost blended in.

Conclusion:

This flavor falls into the broad category of PGBF, or Pretty Good But Forgettable. The brownies are good, the caramel swirl is good, and the vanilla ice cream is good, but this one doesn’t really differentiate itself from any other caramel brownie options that are out there.

Purchased Price: $3.29
Size: One Pint
Purchased at: H-E-B
Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (2/3 cup) 240 calories, 12 grams of fat, 8 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 35 milligrams of cholesterol, 150 milligrams of sodium, 28 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of dietary fiber, 25 grams of sugar, and 5 grams of protein.

What is it?

The Blue Bell website describes this new Oatmeal Cream Pie flavor in great detail, and since I assume many meetings and memos produced the synopsis, I’m just going to copy it: “A delicious oatmeal flavored ice cream with hints of brown sugar mixed with soft oatmeal cookies and a vanilla icing swirl.”

How is it?

Is this delicious, as the Blue Bell website promised? Well, almost. Let’s start with the “oatmeal flavored ice cream.” I’m not even sure oatmeal has a flavor, and that’s why you add cinnamon, sugar, fruit, or if you have the imagination of a 5-year-old like I do, gummy bears to your oatmeal. If I did a blind tasting of this ice cream, I’m not sure I would have pegged it as oatmeal flavored, and even with the power of suggestion, I didn’t really get an oatmeal vibe. The “hints of brown sugar” was also a bit of a miss, as it took my complete concentration to just sorta, kinda maybe think I tasted a little bit of brown sugar.

Things do improve substantially for the second half of the description. The oatmeal cookies are indeed soft, as well as pleasantly chewy, and generously mixed throughout the ice cream. There are some good-sized chunks in here. The vanilla icing brings a nice sweetness to the mix with a bit of a different texture that I did like. While this flavor as a complete package doesn’t quite live up to its billing, it’s still pretty tasty.

Anything else you need to know?

Doing these reviews has allowed me to compile plenty of knowledge that, while interesting, is totally useless for any other purpose except for filling space in said reviews. Since the Little Debbie brand is synonymous with oatmeal creme (not cream) pies, it got me wondering if Little Debbie is a real person. It turns out she is, and Debbie McKee-Fowler is no longer little and is now the executive vice president of McKee Foods, which owns Little Debbie. If I ever get on Jeopardy! then maybe that knowledge will pay off, but if not, I’ve just cluttered up my brain – and now yours – with information none of us will ever need.

Conclusion:

This flavor to me is like a band that I wouldn’t pay full price to see because I only like some of their songs. If a friend has a free ticket or I see a discounted Groupon deal, then I’ll probably go, but I wouldn’t have the urge to go out and find tickets myself. I’m going to finish this pint and enjoy it, but next time I’m at the store, I’ll probably buy a different flavor.

Purchased Price: $3.29
Size: One Pint
Purchased at: H-E-B
Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (2/3 cup) 260 calories, 13 grams of fat, 7 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 25 milligrams of cholesterol, 110 milligrams of sodium, 33 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of dietary fiber, 25 grams of sugar, and 5 grams of protein.

What is it?

Blue Bell’s Strawberry Lemonade Ice Cream continues the company’s tradition of generally straightforward and boring names, but it does have a couple of twists. First, it’s a mix of ice cream (strawberry) and sherbet (lemonade), and then it adds in lemon-flavored flakes.

How is it?

It’s quite tasty but also a classic example that more is not always better. And yes, I’m talking about you, lemon-flavored flakes. But let me get back to them.

The strawberry ice cream is creamy with a more subdued flavor than what you might get from other brands. It’s clearly strawberry, but it just doesn’t jump up and down and scream strawberry. The lemonade flavor is, well, basically lemon (is there really any difference between lemonade and lemon flavoring?). Together, they are a perfectly refreshing summer treat.

The surprising part for me was that the ice cream and sherbet were almost indistinguishable from each other, except for the different flavors, of course. Even eating the sherbet by itself, I had difficulty convincing myself it was sherbet, as it seemed almost as creamy as the strawberry. So if you are looking for two contrasting textures, you will likely be disappointed. But as for their flavor, they were great together.

Now let’s get back to the lemon flakes. On the plus side, they kind of look like shark teeth, so the 5-year-old in me thought that was cool. But other than that, all they did was add a weird and tasteless crunch, like when you eat ice cream of an unknown age from the back of the freezer and it has those big ice chunks in it. If you enjoy those ice chunks, you might like these flakes. But this would have been better off without them, even if they were only a minor annoyance.

Anything else you need to know?

As I wrote this review, I really gave spell check a workout as I could not stop typing “sherbert.” I know that’s not how you spell it, but my fingers kept adding that second r. It turns out that my fingers are smarter than my brain. This might blow your mind a little too, but “sherbert” is actually correct, sort of. According to Merriam-Webster, sherbert “isn’t wrong” and is “now a fully established (though far lesser-used) variant.” So I say we all make a pact to only use sherbert until it becomes the more common variant, or at least until spell check accepts it.

Conclusion:

Even though the lemon flakes knocked my rating down a little for this one, it’s still a classic and delicious flavor combination. I’m looking forward to making a float with this by adding lemon-lime or strawberry soda like the Blue Bell website suggests.

Purchased Price: $6.98
Size: 1/2 Gallon
Purchased at: H-E-B
Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (2/3 cup) 200 calories, 7 grams of fat, 4.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 20 milligrams of cholesterol, 60 milligrams of sodium, 32 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of dietary fiber, 27 grams of sugar, and 3 grams of protein.

What is Blue Bell Chocolate Peanut Butter Overload Ice Cream?

This new flavor from Blue Bell features milk chocolate ice cream with chocolate-coated peanut butter cups and peanut butter cookie dough pieces. But is it really overloaded? I can’t tell you yet, or you might stop reading.

How is it?

It’s awesome, assuming that you like chocolate and peanut butter. The milk chocolate base is creamy and silky, and it’s the perfect complement to its two friends from the peanut butter family, cups and cookie dough pieces. The PB cups are perhaps not quite as peanut buttery as the familiar Reese’s variety, but they are still tasty and deliver a nice firm crunch when you bite down. The cookie dough pieces are quite firm as well, and they contribute a wonderful peanut butter flavor and that almost granular texture of raw dough. The mixture of these three components is certainly not ground-breaking, but it sure is good.

Anything else you need to know?

After the satisfying feeling of peeling the top off this and seeing what looked like a sparsely inhabited chocolate terrain, I was skeptical about the “overload” part of its name. But after further excavation, there were plenty of PB cups and PB cookie dough pieces (which are a little hard to see because of their color). So I can confirm that this is deserving of the overload moniker. Let me explain why I can do so with such confidence.

I visit my local frozen yogurt shop quite often. I go enough that I have developed a classification system for my fellow froyo enthusiasts. There’s The Sampler, who must try every flavor…even vanilla, because what could that possibly taste like? Then there’s The Undecided, who barely makes it to the register before their froyo turns to soup because they spent too long agonizing over whether to put Kit Kat or Twix on it. Then there’s my category, The Overloader. I put a modest amount of froyo in a cup (the largest one available, of course), and then at the toppings station, I somehow forget how basic math works and I’m stunned that my pay-per-ounce total comes to something like $16.32. Maybe nine scoops of PB cups were too much, so I know what overloaded is, and this is about as close as you can get from a store-bought product.

Conclusion:

I’m not very good at Tetris, but I’m getting ready to play the freezer version of it to see how much space I can free up so that I can stock up on this limited time ice cream. If you like chocolate and peanut butter, you need to try this.

Purchased Price: $6.98
Size: 1/2 Gallon
Purchased at: H-E-B
Rating: 9 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (2/3 cup) 280 calories, 15 grams of fat, 8 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 30 milligrams of cholesterol, 100 milligrams of sodium, 32 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of dietary fiber, 27 grams of sugar, and 6 grams of protein.