Review: Ben & Jerry's Stephen Colbert's Americone Dream Ice Cream

Admittedly, I'm an ice cream freak and I'm sure you've been able to figure that out if you are a regular reader of the blog.  A while back, I was in the store hunting down the elusive Schweddy Balls ice cream and since I had a coupon that gave me $1 off two pints of Ben & Jerry's, I decided to make the second pint be Ben & Jerry's Stephen Colbert's Americone Dream Ice Cream because I have never had tried it before.  I've read countless reviews of this flavor and most of them gush over it, but I just kind of figured it was overrated because of the Stephen Colbert connection and due to that, I never really had a desire to try it.  Standing in the freezer section and staring at the available flavors, I figured it was finally time to see if the hype was worth it.  This was picked up at Walmart for $3.29 for the pint.  It's 270 calories per serving (four servings per pint), so it carries the weight (pun intended) of "premium" ice creams in the caloric chart.

As you can see from the label, Americone Dream is made up of "Vanilla Ice Cream with Caramel Swirl & Fudge Covered Waffle Cone Pieces."  I wasn't so sure about the waffle cone pieces (I ordinarily like them, but find them to lose their crunch in most ice creams), but the vanilla and caramel sounded outstanding, especially since as I've said on this blog many times before, I love caramel.  Anyway, when I opened the pint and took out a scoop to show the dispersal of toppings, I was more than pleasantly surprised.  The caramel swirl was ample and the chocolate covered waffle cone pieces were spread amply throughout the pint.  Ben & Jerry's definitely gets a gold star on the visual composition on this one. 

Visual composition aside, was the taste overrated or was it worth the hype?  I can say, without a doubt, that this flavor is deserving of the hype and then some (and much better than the equally hyped Late Night Snack flavor).  I destroyed nearly the entire pint before I even realized it because every single bite was incredible.  The vanilla ice cream was pretty basic, but when you combined it with the ample caramel and waffle cone pieces, it truly was the dream that the name professes.  What made it even more outstanding was that the waffle cone pieces retained their crunchy texture through and like I said, that was a question going in.  I'm more of an add-in guy when it comes to ice cream because I like the difference in textures that add-ins provide (versus just having the same texture of just one flavor like plain chocolate ice cream, for example), so this one was right up my ally.

Buy It or Fly By It?  Without hesitation, BUY IT.  I don't know that I'll buy it a lot, but that's not because I didn't love it.  The problem is that I loved it too much and having this in my freezer will do my pants no favors because I would destroy it non-stop.  If you are one of those lucky people that can actually control your portions, this should be one that you have in your freezer on a permanent basis.  If you are like me and have no power over controlling your portion sizes, just buy it for an occasional treat.

BUY IT!!

FYI, Stephen Colbert donates the proceeds from the sale of this ice cream to charity, so that's another good reason to buy this one.