13 Ben & Jerry’s flavors we love and 13 we can do without

When we heard Ben & Jerry’s was releasing a Stephen Colbert-themed ice cream, we were skeptical. When we heard it contained fudge-covered waffle cone pieces and a caramel swirl, we were intrigued, but still skeptical of the final product. But the first time we tried it, we were in love. The caramel is thick, and so is the chocolate, which so completely encases the waffle cone pieces that they manage to stay crispy. Colbert is king!

Mocha is excellent, and although Ben & Jerry’s offers a few coffee options, there’s only one that contains the word “mocha.” That would be Boom Chocolatta!, which combines mocha and caramel ice creams, fudge flakes, chocolate cookies, and a chocolate cookie core.

We’re suckers for ice cream flavors loaded with chocolate and caramel and other sweets, but when we’re looking for something a little different, we reach for the Ben & Jerry’s classic Cherry Garcia. The cherry ice cream and cherry pieces have an excellent tart taste, and there are still some fudge flakes in there for added sweetness. Long live the Grateful Dead!

Coconut ice cream? Sign us up! Especially when the coconut ice cream is crammed with fudge chunks, graham cracker swirls, caramel, and walnuts. And to top it all off, Coconut Seven Layer Bar uses non-dairy ice cream made from almond milk.

Our all-time favorite Ben & Jerry’s flavor is Half Baked, not just because we love the 1998 comedy movie of the same name. Half Baked expertly blends vanilla and chocolate ice cream while incorporating cookie dough chunks and brownie bites. We’re not alone in our love of this flavor, as evidenced by the fact that it’s often Ben & Jerry’s best-selling variety. And now there’s also Peanut Butter Half Baked!

The union of peanut butter and chocolate is one of humankind's greatest accomplishments. A close second is the invention of Ben & Jerry’s Peanut Butter Fudge Core ice cream. Not only does it have chocolate and peanut butter ice cream as a base, but it’s packed with mini chocolate-covered peanut butter cups, AND it has a core made of peanut butter fudge. The only thing we don’t like is how hard it is to resist eating the entire pint.

Before we tried Phish Food for the first time, we thought the chocolate pieces and both marshmallows and caramel swirls wouldn’t be sufficient enough to satisfy our taste buds. But the swirls are super thick, and the chocolate pieces are large, fish-shaped beauties—larger than any chip or chunk in any other ice cream. Plus, this flavor was made with the help of the jam band Phish, and a portion of the proceeds goes toward environmental efforts in Vermont!

This is basically frozen cheesecake in a bowl, and we can’t get enough of it. The role of the crust is played by a thick graham cracker swirl, strawberries play themselves, and the cheesecake is portrayed by creamy, delicious cheesecake-flavored ice cream. Bravo!

Late-night hosts certainly have a way with flavors! Like Stephen Colbert’s awesome Americone Dream, Jimmy Fallon’s The Tonight Dough is downright delicious. For those seeking diversity in their ice cream flavors, this is the holy grail, as it contains a mix of caramel and chocolate ice cream and is positively packed with chocolate cookie swirls, chocolate chip cookie dough, and peanut butter cookie dough.

Since it’s obvious we like a lot of stuff in our ice cream, naturally we’re fans of Ben & Jerry’s Topped line, which also adds stuff on the ice cream. Our favorite is Salted Caramel Brownie, a vanilla-based variety containing fudge brownies and a salted caramel swirl—and the pint is topped with a thick layer of hardened chocolate ganache containing mini caramel cups.

We love shortbread, so of course we absolutely adore Ben & Jerry’s Topped Tiramisu ice cream. Not only does it start with mascarpone ice cream (how often do you see that?!) but it also includes shortbread pieces, espresso fudge chunks, fudge swirls, and chocolate ganache. 

Whiskey and ice cream are two of our favorite things, but together? Color us skeptical. But Ben & Jerry’s delivered with this crazy concoction consisting of brown butter bourbon ice cream, blonde brownies, and whiskey caramel swirls. But the fun doesn’t stop there, as this “Topped” variety is also adorned with both white chocolate ganache and white fudge chunks. 

As the name suggests, Triple Caramel Chunk has three servings of caramel in every bite—making it the perfect flavor for us. (That’s more caramel than the aforementioned Salted Caramel Brownie!) To break it down, it’s a caramel ice cream base with a caramel swirl chock full of fudge-covered caramel pieces. Triple the caramel = triple the fun!

We’re crazy for cookie dough, but why get the relatively plain Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough flavor—which is just vanilla with cookie dough pieces—when you could get Half Baked, The Tonight Dough, or any of the other more diverse cookie dough offerings? There are even varieties that come with a cookie dough core!

The same reasoning for Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough applies to Chocolate Fudge Brownie: there are just too many delicious varieties that contain brownies as well as other additional ingredients. Why settle for simplicity?

Chocolate therapy sounds like something we as chocoholics absolutely need, but the Ben & Jerry’s flavor of the same name isn’t exactly an enabler. Yes, it combines both chocolate ice cream and chocolate pudding ice cream, but the only add-ins are chocolate cookies — no chips, no chunks, no other chocolate pieces of any kind. There are other flavors that treat our chocolate cravings much better.

We’re just not fans of banana ice cream, plain and simple. Bananas in ice cream—like as part of a banana split—we can get behind, but not banana-flavored ice cream…even with fudge chunks and walnuts.

We love toffee — and adding toffee to ice cream seems like a terrific idea — but Ben & Jerry’s Coffee Toffee Bar Crunch comes up short. It’s essentially just coffee ice cream with chocolate-covered toffee pieces, but there aren’t nearly enough pieces for them to carry the mix-in responsibilities all by themselves.

Is pretzels in trail mix a thing? Pretzels in a snack or party mix, sure—but not trail mix. And the same thing goes for marshmallows, which also aren’t in many trail mixes. Marshmallows fit with the campfire element, but Ben & Jerry’s already has a s’mores flavor (Gimme S’more!) so Glampfire Trail Mix, which also includes chocolate-covered almonds, just doesn’t make sense to our tastebuds.

One of the most sensual-sounding Ben & Jerry’s ice cream flavor names simply doesn’t romance us enough. The caramel core of Karamel Sutra is enticing, but other than that, it’s just chocolate and caramel ice creams with fudge chips. If we were designing this dessert, we’d at least have filled the fudge pieces with caramel, too. Instead, we’ll go with another cold treat when we’re feeling hot & bothered.

Ben & Jerry’s is unrivaled in its flavor creativity, so why opt for mint chocolate chip, which is also offered by nearly every other ice cream brand? We don’t, even though Ben & Jerry’s Mint Chocolate Chip is one of the better iterations available.

Maybe we’re just old-fashioned, but the new-ish Netflix & Chill’d is not high on our list. We like fudge brownie pieces in our ice cream, and we like pretzels in our ice cream, but not together. (Although, for this flavor, it’s just pretzel swirls.) In other words: We may revisit this offering occasionally, but it’s not binge-worthy. 

New York Super Fudge Chunk? More like Super Nut Chunk, as in addition to both white & dark fudge chunks, this flavor contains pecans, walnuts, and fudge-covered almonds. That’s a bit too nutty for our ice cream, and we can get the fudge in other Ben & Jerry’s varieties.

There’s some big peanut flavor in this one, but it’s still a big yawn for us. We’d need to add chocolate sauce or caramel topping to give this variety a little more punch—or we’d simply opt for Chocolate Peanut Butter Split, Peanut Butter Fudge Core, or PB Over the Top, which all contain peanut butter cups and so much more.

Pistachio is another instance where Ben & Jerry’s doesn’t offer anything beyond the other brands. And to be honest, although the nuts are satisfying, we’re not huge fans of the ice cream’s pistachio flavor.

Ben & Jerry’s makes quality ice cream, but as you may have noticed from this list, we won’t get out of bed (and get dressed, and go to the store) for any Ben & Jerry’s flavor with fewer than two mix-ins. It just doesn’t happen. So when the choice in the freezer case is Ben & Jerry’s Vanilla and something else Ben & Jerry’s, something else will always win.