First food review post

There are so many things I appreciate about Ben and Jerry's. In fact if I were to list them all then this would turn into a Ben and Jerry's flattery and advertisement post. Therefore I'll give just a brief, gushy background. G and I love ice cream dearly and Ben and Jerry's is unquestionably the best. I would even say it's played a central role in our relationship from the start. Very few Sunday nights have passed since we met in '06 without ice cream. We even served it at our wedding!

See? It's getting gushy. Now that you know that this is in no way an unbiased review, you can choose if you'd like to keep reading as I go on and on about ice cream.

I will say that my favorite thing about the legendary Vermont ice cream company is how they creatively keep it fresh. I don't mean in a preservative sense as all too often the grocery store pints are covered in a layer of nasty freezer crispy ice. I mean that they are always coming up with inventive flavors and they add them to their repertoire at a perfect rate. They never flood the market with new flavors causing one to get bored, and in fact, if you are me, you get suuuuper excited when they send an email saying a new one is coming out. You can also be assured that not too much time will ever pass without at least a limited edition or seasonal flavor making it's debut. Marketing perfection!

Clearly I get very excited about every new flavor that comes out but it should come as no surprise (see previous post) that I actually schedule my week around the debut of a new peanut butter related flavor. The latest addition to this peanut buttery sub-collection of B&J flavors is.... Clusterfluff!! Fun name right?

As the package says, this flavor consists of "Peanut Butter Ice Cream with Caramel Cluster Pieces, Peanut Butter & Marshmallow Swirls".

Yes, I use a coaster when I eat ice cream on the coffee table. It sweats, ok?

Now, when I first read the description of this flavor I was admittedly a tad nervous. It's hard for me to imagine NOT combining peanut butter ice cream with its natural soul mate, chocolate. However, once I had my first taste I was sold on the marshmallow swirl. It harkens back to my fond memories of the three whole times in my sugar-deprived childhood that I was allowed a fluffernutter sandwich. Everyone rebels against their parents in some way and I suppose for me it was developing an almost crippling obsession with sugar. Better than heroine.

Besides chocolate, there is only one other thing that can make peanut butter ice cream even better and that is more peanut butter. I don't mean adding a spoonful of Skippy, I mean the creamy and sugary peanut butter that you find in a Reeses Peanut Butter Cup. Of course my favorite part of this flavor is the peanut butter swirl.

It's like Ben and Jerry put Reeses cups in a juicer, extracted their sweet nectar, and then beautifully swirled it through the ice cream. The last component of this flavor is the caramel clusters. I don't really know how to describe them besides as clusters.

They taste sort of like Rice Krispies that were soaked in, well, caramel until they were saturated with sugar. Unlike Rice Krispies, however, these maintain their crunch. I will say that I could take or leave the caramel taste. It doesn't really add or take away from the existing flavors but I do enjoy the element of crunch. After all, Ben and Jerry's is so delicious in part because of its chunks.

Overall, I'd give this flavor an A-. It's really hard to have a peanut butter flavor that isn't delicious, however, it's no Chubby Hubby. Even Peanut Butter Cup is so classically delicious that it's hard to top.

These days I think my little boy is growing up (growing out?) so fast that you can tell a difference every day. So for kicks, here is 22.5 weeks.