Tuesday, March 2, 2021

Ben & Jerry's Topped - PB Over the Top


[New for Early 2021] I didn't plan on this being my first experienced with the Topped lineup, but I had to spend the day at the office and I decided that I needed to have my first peanut butter snack break in over a year (I can't believe I went a year without peanut butter! -- I may have also had a king size Reese's peanut butter cup pack today too). Let's dive in to...

Ben & Jerry's Topped - PB Over the Top Ice Cream
chocolate ice cream with peanut butter swirls & peanut butter cups
topped with peanut butter cups & chocolatey ganache

Ummm, wait, that's not right, is it? 

That's not what all the marketing photos look like!! Did it melt at one point and some ice cream came to the top? When the pints are in those 8 pack sleeves, half of them are upside down, so it's possible that happened I guess... talk about a lackluster introduction.

I decided to slowly investigate what was going on. The biggest thing to surprise me was the somewhat soft nature of the ganache. One can't help but think of Magnum or Trio (or Dove!) and therefore expect this top layer to be harder than it is here. I was pretty amused by how fairly easy it was to get a bit of ganache, a pb cup and some ice cream all in one scoopful. Oh yeah, it tasted pretty good too.


The last big hunk of chocolate came out on the spoon and I thought "I gotta take a picture of this". Yeah, that brilliant idea was only brilliant for about 15 seconds and then the giant chunk of chocolate fell on the not so clean desk. You could say I was pretty disappointed at that very moment.... without that top hunk of chocolate (and pb cups) keeping things interesting, this is just a so-so flavor. I didn't feel like there were enough pb cups or swirl in the base ice cream to keep things interesting. It wasn't bad, it's just hard to go from the super exciting top to the regular bottom... if you think about it. People have long complained that the core flavors don't have enough core at the bottom, so the Topped lineup certainly does not fix that problem.

Look, these are fun, and I look forward to trying the strawberry flavor that's in the basement freezer, but I will be thinking about a strategy of how to make that top last as long as possible.

On Second Scoop: No second scooping on this one (since I wasn't sure when I would be back in the office again). I'm sure I'll still be thinking about this for a few days though.

Verdict?  top half is fun
Buy Again?  will try some others

13 comments:

  1. Looks like Ben and Jerry ice cream has significantly dropped in quality after being bought out by unilever...who also destroyed the quailty of Breyers.

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  2. Hated the ganache, way too thick and bitter. Rest of it was good, had a ton of cups in mine.

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  3. So much peanut buttery chocolate goodness. B&J usually gets that flavor combination right and this is no exception.

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  4. Supposedly not everyone will be getting the new flavors. There’s a dude bitching on Facebook about how they’re not coming to Texas at all according to local stores in Houston

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  5. Nope, I call B.S. on that dude. I can go to the website for a couple of B&J's in Texas and I can see Topped pints available for pickup.

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    Replies
    1. I went ahead and checked myself. HEB said they will not be carrying them. No stores of any kind in Houston currently have them . I directly asked Ben and Jerry’s and am awaiting a response.

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  6. I've tried a few so far, this one included. All underwhelming. The ganache layer a huge miss, just sort of there, not really fudgy like I was hoping. Salted Caramel Brownie would be better without the top layer.

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  7. I have a review of strawberry topped coming soon and I definitely am more enamored with that one than I am with this one.

    That said, I totally understand if someone is underwhelmed with these :)

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  8. Replies
    1. Looks like it’s just HEB that won’t be carrying them; Kroger has it (picked up the strawberry topped tart). Then again, HEB’s ice cream selection is tilted more towards their own brands.

      Oh, and after all of that...I ended up with a refreeze 😳

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  9. Awwww, after all that effort? not cool

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  10. I haven't seen PB Over the Top in my local stores yet but I've tried Thick Mint and Salted Caramel Brownie. The top was definitely more consistent and covered all the ice cream than the one pictured here. The mint in Thick Mint ended up being too muted for my taste by all the chocolate throughout while for Salted Caramel Brownie I would've preferred it as a normal flavor without the top.

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