Ben & Jerry's Berry Voluntary: Target Exclusive Flavor

It may may have been a hot and cruel summer for the rest of the country, but summer came late to Southern California this year. And now that it's here, as far as I am concerned it can go away again. I'm sorry, but there is just something wrong when it's so hot inside your apartment that the back of your thighs are sticking to the sofa cushions...and the sofa is cloth upholstered...and the AC is running full blast! If that doesn't scream "ice cream for dinner weather," I don't know what does.

OK, maybe I really just wanted to have ice cream for dinner. Don't judge me.

Earlier in the summer, Ben & Jerry's partnered up with Target to offer the special, Target-exclusive flavors of Berry Voluntary and Brownie Chew Gooder. If you didn't get the hint of the names, they are part of a program that Ben & Jerry's is sponsoring with Volunteermatch.org called Scoop It Forward. Basically, if you visit that website and volunteer your time and service to the local charity of your choice, Ben & Jerry's will reward you with free ice cream. Now how cool is that?

It probably would have been selfish of me to simply eat the ice cream and not volunteer my time for something. So, with that in mind, I have actually voluntarily appointed myself to be the official Food Blogger Spokesperson for Lupus. As someone who lives with lupus, I will grant that I am biased towards finding new treatment options and ultimately a cure. (I actually am planning a post around that, but please feel free to send questions my way in the meantime.)



Well, since I have been such a good person, I have earned some ice cream...right?

Damn right!

I decided to start with Berry Voluntary. I love most raspberry flavored items -- and how could I not love raspberry flavored ice cream?

Berry Voluntary has a raspberry cheesecake flavored base with white chocolate chunks and a raspberry swirl. The base has a purple-tinged color. The raspberry is nice and soft. It's not too sour, and tastes pretty natural. I also like the fact that it's raspberry cheesecake. The "cheesecake" portion keeps the flavor a little tart and tangy. In fact, it reminded me of frozen Greek yogurt. The raspberry swirl was my favorite part. I will admit that it tastes like every other raspberry swirl on the planet -- which is to say a little sweet and almost candylike, but I happen to like that taste.

As for the white chocolate... (sigh) why must it always be white chocolate? Indiana Jones has snakes, and I have white chocolate.

Never let it be said that I won't take one for the team, however. Because it's Ben & Jerry's, the chunks of white chocolate are ginormous (which, to be honest, also made them easy to avoid). Honestly, I have a hard time really giving an opinion here because I just don't like white chocolate to begin with. It's got a good texture, there's some nice snap. It's the taste that I just don't like. It has that kinda vanilla-like, mostly just sugary oil taste that all white chocolate has to me. I suppose if you're a fan of white chocolate, it'll be just fine. But if you're like me...well, I did mention that the chunks are huge and thus easy to avoid.



Even with the white chocolate I still really liked this flavor. It's definitely worth picking up next time you're at a Target store.

Be sure to check out Marvo's review of both of the Target-exclusive flavors here.



PURCHASED FROM:
Target

PRICE:
$2.50

CALORIES:
250 calories per 1/2 cup

OFFICIAL WEBSITE:
benjerry.com