Maybe the third time’s the charm…?

Guys, how many times we are gonna have to not buy this before Ben & Jerry’s stops making a cannoli ice cream?

Dial it back to 1997 for a minute. It was then that Ben & Jerry’s released Holy Cannoli – a bold combination of ricotta and pistachio ice creams with chocolate covered cannolis and roasted pistachios. It launched with much promise to satisfy millions of Italian-American overeaters all over the country.

“Mangia! Mangia! Mangia!” 

They didn’t mangia.

Fast forward to 1998.

So Ben & Jerry’s got back to work (or maybe did nothing) until 2012.

Now, hedging their bets, Round 2 of Cannoli was only intended for a limited run. It was a complete redesign with mascarpone ice cream, fudge covered cannoli pastry shell chunks, and a mascarpone swirl. It was sold for 4 months and hadn’t returned… until now.

I didn’t buy Cannoli, but it wasn’t because it didn’t sound good to me. I was just on a big fitness kick after a particularly… hmmm how do you say it…  “obese” adolescence, and this was my time of massive course correction. During its first release it just didn’t sound worth my calories. Today? A cannoli is basically a celery stalk compared to my regular diet.

Ben & Jerry’s has brought back this version of Cannoli as a “Fan Favorite”, which means it’s a full-time flavor until further notice. I find it kind of hard to believe it was truly a fan favorite if nearly 8 years have gone by without a reappearance, especially with a lengthy list of better-sounding candidates resting in the graveyard. But I also feel a sense of urgency to eat it before Ben & Jerry’s kills it again, so let’s get right to it.

As a reminder, this is the mascarpone version of Cannoli.

If you’re not a fat Italian Goombah like me, you might not even know what mascarpone is. It’s basically an Italian cream cheese made with more fat. And its usage here is value-added. The mascarpone ice cream is richer and more decadent than any other Ben & Jerry’s base I can think of, straddling between a sweet cream ice cream and a cheesecake ice cream.

I’m having a hard time distinguishing the mascarpone swirl from the rest of the base though. I feel like the swirl is probably adding to the overall richness, but I’m also wondering if it’s too redundant. A less duplicative mix-in would have produced a more interesting ice cream, though it’s pretty clear they wanted to deliver as much cannoli cream flavor as possible with this design. I can’t even say it’s too successful at that; I’m not sure I think of cannoli cream when I eat this.

The chocolate-covered cannoli shell pieces are crunchier than I expected, which is a plus. Some pieces are much bigger than others but unfortunately they are a little too sporadic to get excited about. The chocolate also masks a lot of the pastry shell flavor, preventing the overall flavor from landing squarely on “cannoli.”

I’m happy I finally got to try Ben & Jerry’s Cannoli, but it’s definitely not one of THIS fan’s favorites…

Get the shotgun… I don’t care.

Zombie Ice Cream Rating: 8 out of 10
Idiot Fans Not Knowing What They Want Rating: 2 out of 10
Overall Rating: 5.5 out of 10

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