Have you ever seen one of those viral videos about how to hack your life and make the perfect ice cream sandwich?

I guess it just showed up in Ben & Jerry’s inbox.

Ben & Jerry just hacked the shit out of themselves with the new Ben & Jerry’s Pint Slices.

The novelties feature popular flavors of Ben & Jerry’s pints and surround them in chocolate. Now, instead of eating an entire pint of ice cream, you can eat one individually wrapped ice cream sandwich after another until the box is empty.

Ben & Jerry’s Pint Slices currently come in seven flavors: Americone Dream, Chocolate Fudge Brownie, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Vanilla Peanut Butter Cup, Cherry Garcia, Coffee Coffee BuzzBuzzBuzz, and The Tonight Dough.

There’s some pretty good variety here, and you know what they say… variety is the slice of life.

Yeeeesh, does anyone remember when I relied exclusively on puns for attention? Guess I had one left in me.

… Slice Up Your life.

……by the Slice Girls.

Americone Dream

The Americone Dream Pint Slice features vanilla ice cream bars with caramel swirls and fudge covered waffle cone pieces, all covered in a dark chocolatey coating that’s studded with even more waffle cone pieces. By design this is the most complex of the Pint Slices. In reality, it’s the most disappointing.

Don’t get me wrong; the Americone Dream Pint Slice still tastes good. But one of the best parts of the pint version is a rich & plentiful caramel swirl. The pint slice iteration? Barely any caramel.

Now onto the good. The crispy dark chocolate shell is a more refined chocolate than a Klondike’s. Ben & Jerry’s vanilla ice cream? Definitely more flavorful than a Klondike’s. The vanilla is tame but it’s a smooth, sweet, and serviceable officiant to marry all the components. There was plenty of fudge-covered waffle cone pieces throughout the ice cream and in the shell to bring that signature flavor forward.

I just really miss the caramel. This is basically an improved Klondike with waffle cone crunchies.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10

Nutrition Facts: 280 cals, 18g fat, 29g carbohydrates, 3g protein, 25g sugar

Chocolate Fudge Brownie

The Chocolate Fudge Brownie Pint Slice features chocolate ice cream bars with fudge brownies and the dark chocolate shell. On paper, this flavor sounded too one-dimensional to me. Turns out it’s my favorite.

This is the only Pint Slice that uses a chocolate ice cream base. In my opinion, Ben & Jerry’s chocolate is more complex than their vanilla. I thought there was great contrast between the creamy chocolate ice cream, the delicate & darker chocolate shell, and finally… the heavenly sweet brownies from Greyston bakery.

The brownies are fudgey, chewy, decadent, and all other great brownie adjectives that have ever existed. And best of all? My Pint Slice was absolutely loaded with brownies from front to finish.

This is a Triple Chocolate Klondike on crack.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Nutrition Facts: 250 cals, 16g fat, 27g carbohydrates, 4g protein, 22g sugar

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

The Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Pint Slice features vanilla ice cream, fudge flakes, the dark chocolatey coating, and gobs of chocolate chip cookie dough. Gobs!

The cookie dough is another mix-in that B&J do expertly. Their texture has the same sugary grit as the stuff you’d make at home from scratch. The chocolate chip angle is driven home even harder with the crispy fudge flakes in the ice cream. Their flavor is even deeper than the dark chocolatey coating – the two didn’t strike me as redundant. The cookie dough pieces and fudge flakes are both large and their frequency high throughout the slice. Having two separate mix-ins ensures an interesting novelty, providing some variety in each bite.

This was probably the truest interpretation of the pint version. Except now it’s wrapped in chocolate!

Rating: 8 out of 10

Nutrition Facts: 290 cals, 18g fat, 31g carbohydrates, 3g protein, 24g sugar

Vanilla Peanut Butter Cup

The Vanilla Peanut Butter Cup Pint Slice is vanilla peanut butter ice cream with peanut butter cups and dark chocolatey coating. Did you catch that? The ice cream is a blend of vanilla and PB.

Quite honestly I missed this nuance when I read the label. The ice cream looks like dirty vanilla ice cream more than it does a mixture of the two flavors. It’s surely no peanut butter swirl, but there is just enough PB flavor infused throughout the ice cream to make an impact. Still, I’m pretty disappointed they didn’t go with straight peanut butter ice cream like the pint version of Peanut Butter Cup – especially considering how many Pint Slices already feature vanilla. This would have made it stand out more.

But let’s close with the good. The mini peanut butter cups aren’t very mini at all; they’re sizeable with an exceptional peanut butter bite. They don’t freeze hard, and their flavor will linger while you continue eating the slice. This helps mitigate the lack of peanut butter ice cream. Once again, frequency was good as I had about six full PB cups in addition to several broken ones.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Nutrition Facts: 300 cals, 22g fat, 24g carbohydrates, 5g protein, 20g sugar

Cherry Garcia

The Cherry Garcia Pint Slice is cherry ice cream with cherries & fudge flakes covered in a dark chocolatey coating. Same formula as the original, now wearing chocolate. This is a very good thing.

A classic in its pint form, this flavor is very refreshing – not only because the base is a fruit flavor, but because cherry ice creams don’t get much play in the freezer aisle. It’s a smooth base, almost like a cherry-vanilla, and then the large cherry chunks deliver extra authenticity.

The cherries are sweet more than they are tart, and pair great with the rich, crispy fudge flakes and more subdued dark chocolatey coating. It may have been wise to slice them finer and disperse them more evenly throughout the pint slice though. They’re a delight, but you could end up short-changed at times.

The extra chocolate doesn’t ruin the intent of the original at all. If you like the pint, this is a lock.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Nutrition Facts: 250 cals, 15g fat, 27g carbohydrates, 3g protein, 22g sugar

Coffee Coffee BuzzBuzzBuzz

The Coffee Coffee BuzzBuzzBuzz! Pint Slice is coffee ice cream with espresso bean fudge chunks covered in a dark chocolate coating that has cocoa nibs in it.

I’ll just come right out and say it: of all the pints featured in slice form, this is the one I don’t give a shit about. I drink enough coffee during the day that I don’t crave coffee ice cream for dessert, and mix-ins that merely amount to more coffee and some chocolate just don’t tickle my fancy.

Now, that’s just me; there’s certainly nothing wrong with Coffee Coffee BuzzBuzzBuzz. It’s a smooth coffee prepared with tons of cream and sugar. It’s difficult to discern a difference between the espresso fudge chunks and their normal fudge flakes when surrounded by coffee ice cream, and the coating just shifts the balance further towards the chocolate side.

Simple and straightforward.

Rating: 7 out of 10

Nutrition Facts: 280 cals, 19g fat, 26g carbohydrates, 4g protein, 21g sugar

The Tonight Dough

The Tonight Dough Pint Slice is caramel ice cream with chocolate cookie swirls & gobs of peanut butter chocolate chip cookie dough, covered in a dark chocolate coating with cookie crumbs.

I’m getting pretty tired of seeing Jimmy Fallon’s face on all my ice cream, but I’ll look the other way tonight. This is easily the best flavor and there’s sooo much crap stuffed inside.

I’ve already been through two of these as I write these words. I counted 7 huge gobs of peanut butter cookie dough in the one pictured above, and the the next one had 10. The chocolate cookie swirl is also pervasive through the whole slice, and oh how I love that swirl!

I like this way more than the pint version. They passed on the chocolate ice cream altogether and went with only caramel, but the dark chocolatey coating complete with cookie crumbs has a much more robust and satisfying flavor than B&J’s chocolate ice cream does.

Minus a half point for his stupid face.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10

Nutrition Facts: 290 cals, 18g fat, 31g carbohydrates, 4g protein, 23g sugar

Summary

Ben & Jerry’s Pint Slices may lack some novelty, but they’re actually pretty great novelties. Klondike has been doing this for years with subpar ice cream. Ben & Jerry’s basically amped up the quality of everything and added the mix-ins that they do best. The execution is stellar on 3 of the 4.

Here’s what I particularly enjoy about the Pint Slices launch. Ben & Jerry’s chose some of their pints that I don’t return to often. They may be best-sellers, but they’re rather safe and I seek some specialty when choosing a flavor. I seem to care a lot more about these flavors when they’re wrapped in chocolate. It adds a wrinkle that compelled me to buy and I’m glad I did.

I’m afraid Ben & Jerry have us by the balls on this one.

Life Hack Rating: 9 out of 10
Spice Girl Puns Rating: 6 out of 10
Overall Rating: 8 out of 10 (average)

To keep up with all of our products finds and Junk Bantering in real time, follow us on social media at the links below!

Facebook: www.facebook.com/junkbanterblog
Instagram: www.instagram.com/junkbanter
Twitter: www.twitter.com/junkbanter
Snapchat: junkbanter

To contact us via e-mail, send a message to junkbanter@gmail.com