Ben & Jerry's CORES! FIVE FLAVORS REVIEWED IN ONE POST!

There are times when here at Fatguyfoodblog our readers will message us about things we should review. Before these new Ben & Jerry's flavors had even hit stores we were getting emails, tweets, and facebook messages sent at us like crazy, every single day. People wanted our review of these in the worst way. But as luck would have it, we weren't able to find them in our area until recently. We scoured every store within a 40 mile radius. But finally I tracked them down at a local Hannaford and felt like a complete slob buying five pints of ice cream at once. It wouldn't have been so bad if I had been using a basket or cart. But since I was juggling them in my arms trying not to drop them, I looked like a bumbling fat moron who was about to have a really high calorie evening. 

But let's get right to it. Here you go, your review of the Ben & Jerry's CORE flavors. Starting with...

HAZED & CONFUSED 

So the gimmick with this ice cream line is that it's two separate flavors with a middle core of some kind of flavorful goo. With this one we get Chocolate and Hazelnut ice cream with fudge chips and a Hazelnut Fudge Core. Translation: Half Chocolate with chips, half tasteless ice cream, with a weird almost-Nutella glob in the middle. Sounds great right? Well...it was alright. I found that if I just ate the ice cream alone, I was bored of this incredibly fast. But then I'd find myself eating too much of the core at once. It was very hard to regulate.

Now even though I wanted to keep eating the core, it wasn't that great. It was like the generic version of Nutella. It resembled it in a lot of ways but paled in comparison. It was a little on the gritty side.
All in all, I give Hazed & Confused a C-.

Next up... Karamel Sutra CORE!

Chocolate and caramel ice creams with fudge chips and a soft caramel core. Sounds great, right? Well...kinda. You see, chocolate ice cream with fudge chips, it's okay. Caramel ice cream? It pretty much sucks. It doesn't have a strong enough flavor so it's like you are eating a tasteless ice cream. You can tell it's sweet but beyond that, nothing. The core was much more gooey than Hazed & Confused though.

A waterfall of caramel! 

Yep, the problem with this flavor is that the nearly liquid caramel core is the best part of it, so the rest of the ice cream bums you out. I realized multiple times how annoyed I was that I had to dig through the tasteless caramel ice cream to get to more caramel core. Two pints into the five I'm starting to think that this is a completely flawed design.
Karamel Sutra CORE gets a C.

Next up...PEANUT BUTTER FUDGE CORE!

Chocolate and peanut butter ice creams with mini peanut butter cups and a peanut butter fudge core. I nearly cheered out loud when I read this description in the store. It sounds like everything I could ever desire. Was it though? Not quite. But don't take that as a bad thing! Unlike in the previous two flavors, this one spreads its extra ingredient throughout both flavors of ice cream. There were plenty of mini peanut butter cups to go around, so even though I wasn't getting much out of the peanut butter ice cream (very subtle flavor), I was still happy to score so many of those little cups. The weirdest part of this pint, though, was the core.

For some reason I was expecting the middle of this to be a giant wad of pure delicious peanut butter. Sadly, that's not what it ended up being. It's still delicious, but it's more like a chocolate/peanut butter fudge vein. It was pretty thick and kind of hard to get a little of each part of this ice cream on your spoon at once. But it was quite delicious for the peanut butter lovers out there. This third pint gets the highest rating of the bunch so far with a B+!

Up next... THAT'S MY JAM CORE!

Chocolate and raspberry ice creams with fudge chips and a raspberry core. Now, I know what you're thinking. "Who the hell thought fruit was a good idea in a Ben & Jerry's." I KNOW RIGHT?! I was dreading this one. But then I learned a lesson that I seem to have to relearn every once in a while. Fruit flavored ice creams aren't all that bad at all! In fact, my biggest complaint about the previous pints was that one side of them had no flavor beyond sweet. Well this one definitely does! The raspberry and chocolate together was really good. 

And the raspberry jam core was a burst of tart sweetness that rounded it out nicely. I would say that this one ties up the Peanut Butter Fudge Core. I'm giving That's My Jam a B+!

And finally... SALTED CARAMEL CORE...

Sweet Cream ice cream with blond brownies and a salted caramel core. This one is definitely the weirdest flavor of the bunch. The rest seem like they were either a direct repackaging of an existing flavor or something close to it. But this one brings Blondie's and salted caramel into the Ben & Jerry's Universe. This one is also a bit strange because there aren't two flavors of ice cream here, just the one. But it works quite well. The sweet cream ice cream suffers from the same subtle, just tastes like sweet, problem as some of the others. However, the chunks of blond brownie really burst with an almost brown sugar flavor. But then there's the core...

The salted caramel core was something to behold. If this was gold, I would have been able to trade it in and buy myself a speed boat. In other words, it was HUGE. The first spoonful I took of it unearthed just how big this caramel core was, and I'll be honest, it blew my mind. The only problem with this ice cream is that the salted caramel was inconsistent. One bite, it was the greatest thing I've ever tasted. The next, it was borderline too salty. It went back and forth like that the entire time. That takes a few points away from it but in the end I'll give Salted Caramel CORE a straight up B!

So there you have it folks, I hope this helps you out when you're standing in front of the ice cream freezer on your next trip to the grocery store. All in all this is a fun gimmick, but given the choice between one of my usual favorite ice creams or one of these, I don't think I'd put back my pint of Milk & Cookies for any one of these. But they are definitely worth a try!

You should definitely comment and let us know which one was your favorite!

Don't forget, if you have any ideas for upcoming reviews, or maybe even your favorite hot spot for some sort of crazy burger or meal, feel free to email us at fatguyfoodblog@gmail.com . You can also follow us on Twitter, if you are one who tweets, @fatguyfoodblog. Oh and we're also on Facebook! LIKE our page if you get a chance! Every month we give away a free shirt to one of our followers!

Review by Rich

M&M double review! Birthday Cake & Carrot Cake M&Ms!

If there's one kind of candy we can always count on putting out some wild flavors each year, I'd say M&M's are a safe bet every time. Usually they are released in conjunction with a holiday and sometimes even more than one flavor. Well the Fatguyfoodblog crew got lucky here in early 2014 because we have two new M&M flavors to review. Let's see what Rich & Mike thought of these...

First up...BIRTHDAY CAKE M&M'S!

Easily six months ago I remember seeing a small press release about these. The only image that could be found online was a tiny, poor quality version of the package. No other information could be found except that they would be out "FIRST QUARTER 2014." So that meant every time I went in a store I had to make sure to check the candy section to see if they had them. Well it finally paid off, because one fateful trip to Walmart, I spotted them, and grabbed as many as I could carry. 

Great looking package! Irwin agrees! 

But let's get down to it. When I eat something like this, a well known candy standard, that is now boasting the great taste of birthday cake, I want to pop one in my mouth and have that taste hit me like a Shawn Micheals superkick, right in the mouth.

SWEET CHIN MUSIC!

But sadly, Birthday Cake M&M's do not do this. In fact, the first time I popped a handful in my mouth I thought, "is this a defective batch? These taste like plain M&M's..." But then as I was finishing that mouthful I detected a hint of a birthday cake taste. That's not what any of us wants. So I went back to the package and tried again. This time opting to just let one slowly melt in my mouth (Not in my hand. Not ever in my hand.).

Just three colors? Strange. 

This time around I got a bit more of the birthday cake flavor than before. But seriously? You have to slow walk them one at a time to get the flavor that is plastered all over the package? Not cool, M&M's, not cool at all. I would say aside from the strange three color choice of these , if you put them in a dish on your coffee table, visitors to your house might not even notice that they aren't regular M&M's. Some of the more observant ones might pick up on the fact that they are shaped a bit more like Peanut Butter M&M's, but if not, they definitely won't be jumping out of their seats thinking that they somehow just ate a slice of birthday cake without knowing it.

This looks like any other M&M. 

So, sadly, in closing I have to say that these are quite disappointing. These were one of the items I was most excited for in 2014 and they left me hanging. If you see one of the small packages and want to try them out, go for it, just to satisfy your curiosity.  But if they make a big bag, it's not worth the money. 

I give Birthday Cake M&M's a big ol' D, for "Deez thangs could use about 90% more Birthday Cake flavor!"

Let's hope Mike has better luck with his CARROT CAKE M&M'S!

-Rich

As the sole member of the FGFB crew who loves carrot cake, I was tasked with reviewing these M&Ms- they even showed up on my food shelf out of nowhere. Gotta love that. 

I liked the idea, as there aren't enough carrot cake-flavored items out there, but I was cautious. How could they make a chocolate candy taste like carrot cake? 

Although they slapped the sexiest candy ever on the bag (seriously, those bunny ears straight from the playboy mansion and that come-hither eyebrow raise? mmmmmmm), I had to split her head right open and spill her candy brains all over the table. I guess I could have ripped the bag somewhere else, and not poured the candy onto a blood red tablecloth, but don't blame me! M&Ms are the ones who choose to advertise their candy by having lovable characters be terrified they're gonna get eaten in every commercial! Plus, these are clearly Easter-based, and you know... Jesus. 

brainz

ANYWAY, I felt these deserved a fancy presentation for something as fancy as carrot cake (and yes, I'm pretty sure the only reason I consider carrot cake "fancy" is because it's cake with a vegetable in it. That also means it's good for you, right?).

These are the white chocolate version of M&Ms (like these and these), which is most likely solely to make things taste more like they should, since there's probably no way to make real chocolate taste like carrot cake. 

And you know what? These are gooooooood.

They give off quite the aroma, and the smell is exactly the same as the taste- carrot cake. Not so much the frosting part of carrot cake, just like a more sweet version of the cake part. It really captures that cinnamony sting and almost bitterness of carrot cake, while staying super sweet, smooth, and KIND OF frostingy. I wish they had more of the frosting flavor, but I'll take what I can get. I figured these would be just ok, and after initial product testing, I felt like they were good, but not great. Last night, I really wanted some sugar and suddenly remembered I had this bag. Then I really got it. These are awesome, and the bag is almost gone.

I have to give them an A. I'd only recommend them if you are a carrot cake fan, but if you are, you'll see right away why I give them an A. They taste like they're supposed to, and they're delicious past the gimmick. I may just buy a piece of carrot cake and jam these in the frosting. Oh wait, I just did.

And it was awesome. 

-Mike

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Cap'n Crunch's Sprinkled Donut Crunch!

Despite being over the age of 30, I have to say, I still eat Captain Crunch on a regular basis. Sometimes I mix it up and get a box of Crunch Berries or Peanut Butter Crunch too. I'm not that picky when it comes to the Crunch family. I know I can count on any one of them to become my irresponsible late night adult dinner at anytime. But here and there the Cap'n will try something different. Sometimes these are great, and sometimes not so much. But when I stumbled upon Sprinkled Donut Crunch in the supermarket the other day, I knew I would at least have to give it a try. I owe the Cap'n that much. We have a long and storied past.

Apparently the Cap'n now has the power to shoot sprinkles from his hands?

So if I'm reading this right, it's supposed to be a sweet breakfast cereal that tastes like frosted donuts with sprinkles. I can't say it's a bad taste for a cereal to try to mimic. But does it ACTUALLY taste like that? Well...kinda. I dove right in and poured myself a massive bowl. I don't play around with tiny plastic bowls. I need a monster bowl that I can pour a quarter of a box of cereal into. I also need it to be glass because when you write for the most popular snack blog in the history of the human race, you gotta snap those pictures! So I need to be able to see the colors the milk is changing. I need to see what sort of debris is collecting on the bottom. Luckily I scored these bowls a few years back. They are perfect. 

Like any other Cap'n Crunch cereal, they are pretty solid before you hit them with milk. Those of you who have weak mouths that get shredded by the Cap'ns cereal will find the same thing happening with Sprinkled Donut Crunch. Those of you who aren't massive wimps, who's gums can stand up to eating a simple breakfast cereal without ripping like tissue paper, shouldn't have any problems. But once submerged in milk, they soften up nicely. Ol' Grandma can slurp them up with her dentures out if you leave them sitting in milk for a good ten minutes. 

Up close they look kinda sloppy. 

Did they taste like donuts? Yeah. I mean, as much as a piece of cereal could. At first you think it might just be a regular sweet cereal taste, but then after a moment you realize that, yeah it does taste a bit like a donut. Enough to base a cereal around it? Maybe not. I enjoyed the flavor but in the end I think I would rather have a bowl of original Cap'n Crunch with a donut on the side.

Bottom line, I give Cap'n Crunch's Sprinkled Donut Crunch a C+. Nothing special, but not terrible. If you scoop up a box, you'll finish it, but you won't rush to the store to stock your cabinets before this limited flavor is gone forever.

As always, feel free to drop us an email if you have an item you think we should review. You can email us at fatguyfoodblog@gmail.com . Also follow us on TWITTER, and if you have one of those Facebook things, you can Like our page and get all the latest FGFB news, plus lots of other fun stuff!