Ben & Jerry's Pumpkin Cheesecake

God I love Ben & Jerry's. Last year we had a couple of winter seasonal flavours; Joy To The Swirled and Minter Wonderland. This years offerings are Pumpkin Cheesecake and Cinnamon Buns, I'm yet to find Cinnamon Buns but in the meantime the lovely Lucy has and has reviewed it here. 

Pumpkin cheesecake is a Pumpkin Cheesecake ice cream with a Cookie swirl. If you read the tub the ice cream is actually sweet cinnamon spiced ice cream but more on that later. 

I don't mess about when it comes to Ben & Jerry's so got stuck right in, the top of my tub was purely ice cream, the cookie swirl was yet to be discovered. I can't remember eating pumpkin before so this was a new flavour to me, the cheesecake flavour is obvious, so good news for any cheesecake fans. The pumpkin flavour is actually really nice, before I could take much notice of that though I found the little specks of pumpkin pieces dotted throughout. They add a little more pumpkin flavour and the texture stands out through the thick creamy ice cream. 

I didn't know before I sat down to review that the pumpkin is cinnamon spiced but I could definitely taste it. It's not a strong cinnamon but it adds a warm spice and makes it a bit of a deeper flavour. 

This is a sweet ice cream don't get me wrong, but the warmth of the cinnamon means it's not overly sweet. Funnily enough it does taste like I'd imagine Autumn to if seasons had flavours - winter would be mint obviously! I can see why it's such a massive flavour in the USA at this time of year. 

It didn't take long for the cookie swirl to appear and it's the same type of swirl as Ben & Jerry's used in the recent Cookie Core tubs. It's one of my favourite cores of them all, I can't choose between that and the caramel. It has a thick, gritty feel and the cookie flavour is spot on. 

I was apprehensive about a pumpkin ice cream but once again I couldn't have been more wrong. This is why Ben and Jerry make ice cream and not me I suppose! The pumpkin and cheesecake flavours go together so well and the little bursts of cinnamon every now and then are the icing on the cake. This actually reminded me very slightly (because of the cinnamon and cookie swirl) of the Speculoos Core flavour, and I'd like to try a version of this flavour with a Speculoos (or Lotus biscuit) flavoured core. 

And now I know I like pumpkin! 

8/10 

Ben & Jerrys Blueberry Cheesecake frozen yogurt

I've fallen back to my fail safe ice cream frozen yogurt brand for my fix this week. Ben & Jerry's new cookie core range has been pretty hyped up but this new Blueberry Cheesecake Greek style frozen yogurt has seemed to slip under the radar. 

It's actually an ice cream with Greek style yogurt, which I'd never noticed on the previous versions and explains why it seems so much creamier than other frozen yogurt brands. This tub is cheesecake flavoured with cookie and blueberry swirls. 

The base ice cream/frozen yogurt started off quite subtle, it's not bland at all but its not a strong flavour as is the case in the chocolate versions for instance. If you're planning on scooping into bowls or like me, eating straight from the tub, this softens quicker than ice cream - almost straight away it was scoopable. While it does soften up it doesn't melt though, it still had ice cream consistency even at the very bottom of my pint instead of ice cream soup. 

The cheesecake became more apparent the further into the tub I got, probably as the additions evened out more, and it's good. Still quite subtle but tasty nonetheless on its own, with a slight tang from the yogurt. I'd actually like to see this  used more I bet there's lots of other versions it would go well in. 

The brown/orange blob to the right of the picture is the cookie swirl. As usual the flavour is spot on, there's no mistake mistaking it and it's Ben & Jerry's usual sweet cookie. It's a bit different though, in that it's not like the cookie core - it was a lot more solid than that, but not quite as solid as the cookie dough pieces in the original versions. A cookie swirl does sum it up perfectly and it does keep the gritty texture which I loved in the cookie core ice creams though. At the top of the pint I had some very large swirls, which sort of drowned out the cheesecake and blueberry, but this evened out around the center and it was more enjoyable with even amounts of all 3. 

I really didn't expect my favourite part of this tub to be the blueberry, it's not a fruit I'd choose but I don't mind it. The taste here is extremely intense, I was expecting the normal fruit swirl here, sort of like the syrup or sauce you can buy in supermarkets but according to the ingredients it's actually 10% blueberry and 4% of that is blueberry purée. I suppose the fact it's a purée is what gives it the very vibrant blueberry taste, but I think that's what gives it it's texture too. 

 It tastes and feels luxurious, and the juicy soft fruit, thick creamy slightly tangy ice cream and gritty cookies compliment each other well. From start to finish all 3 components stayed as they should, no frozen solid lumps or soggy pools. Cadbury take note ;-)

 This is one I'll most  definitely be buying again. 

Rating 8/10