Sunday, June 22, 2014

Ben & Jerry’s What A Cluster Ice Cream Pleasantly Recreates Peanut Butter!


The Good: Tastes great, Reasonably priced
The Bad: Marshmallow flavor is almost entirely absent from the ice cream, Not one of the more nutritious flavors
The Basics: Ben & Jerry’s What A Cluster Ice Cream is a pretty wonderful ice cream, despite not having all of its promised components and being pretty high in fat.


Ben & Jerry’s What A Cluster ice cream is one of the latest pints of Ben & Jerry’s that I’ve managed to find on clearance at my local grocery store. I’m always pleasantly surprised that my local grocery store has awesome ice creams at 50% off periodically and What A Cluster is a pretty awesome ice cream. Ben & Jerry’s ice cream names do not always clearly indicate what flavor they are and What A Cluster is a good example of that. What A Cluster is a peanut butter ice cream with chunks of peanut butter, caramel chunks and a marshmallow swirl (supposedly). Outside the marshmallow swirl, the What A Cluster ice cream lives up on all of its promised flavor fronts!

Basics

Ben & Jerry’s ice cream comes in a pint container. The What A Cluster Ice Cream is a fairly chunky ice cream with two obvious additives. The marshmallow swirl was minimal, but the other two additives are prevalent in virtually every bite.

At (locally) $5.99 a pint, the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream is an expensive ice cream, especially compared to other coffee ice creams. Given that I was able to get the ice cream half off, it is hardly as expensive as it can be. This is made of decent ingredients, which does set it apart from many other ice creams.

Ease Of Preparation

The What A Cluster Ice Cream is a loaded ice cream. As an ice cream, preparation is ridiculously simple: one need only to open the top of the container, scoop out a half cup and consume! There is no trick to preparing or eating the What A Cluster Ice Cream!

Taste

What A Cluster ice cream smells strongly of peanut butter. The aroma is instantly inviting to anyone who loves peanut butter as the aroma is a perfect foreshadowing of the flavor one might hope for from the ice cream.

In the mouth, Ben & Jerry’s What A Cluster ice cream tastes like peanut butter in every single bite! That makes the ice cream a little drier than other ice creams as the nutty flavor is blended perfectly in with the cool creaminess of the milky ice cream. In about every other bite, the What A Cluster is infused with a sweet burst of caramel and/or the nutty peanuts in the actual peanut butter. Out of the two pints we tried, my wife and I only had about a single sweet bite of marshmallow swirl.

This ice cream leaves a fairly dry sweet aftertaste in the mouth, though that aftertaste does not endure very long.

Nutrition

The Ben & Jerry’s What A Cluster Ice Cream is a fairly heavy ice cream with two heavy additives (the caramel swirl is a little lighter in the ice cream) and the marshmallow swirl is not present in any recognizable form in this ice cream. The pint represents four half-cup servings. In the half-cup serving, there are 320 calories, 170 of which are from fat. The nineteen grams of fat represent 29% of the RDA of fat, with 40% of one’s RDA of saturated fat coming in the 8 grams of saturated fat in this ice cream. One serving has 45 mg of cholesterol (that’s 15% of the RDA!) and 140 mg of Sodium (6% RDA). The only other real nutrients are seven grams of protein and 10% of the RDA of Calcium and 8% of the RDA of Vitamin A in the What A Cluster Ice Cream.

Ben & Jerry’s What A Cluster has decent ingredients. Made primarily of Cream, Skim milk, and liquid sugar! There is nothing unpronounceable in the ingredients list. The What A Cluster Ben & Jerry’s is Kosher, but not marked as gluten free. There is no allergy warning on the pint, though it obviously has nuts in it and those with a peanut allergy need to be aware.

Storage/Clean-Up

Ben & Jerry’s ice cream is both a frozen and a dairy product, so it is pretty obvious that it must be kept frozen in order to remain viable. Kept frozen it remains fresh for months.

The What A Cluster ice cream is fairly light in color and it would be surprising if it left stains outside of light fabrics. As well, when the ice cream melts and gets onto fabrics, it will require one to wash it right out. On nonporous surfaces, the ice cream wipes off exceptionally easily.

Overall

The Ben & Jerry’s What A Cluster ice cream is good, but given that it is higher calorie and does not have the promised marshmallow flavor to it, it is a little less incredible than it ought to be. Even so, this is one of the newer Ben & Jerry’s flavors well worth trying and one bound to satisfy those who love peanut butter and ice cream!

For other Ben & Jerry’s ice creams, be sure to visit my reviews of:
Limited Edition Pumpkin Cheesecake
Limited Batch Pina Colada
Limited Edition Cotton Candy
New York Super Fudge Chunk
Cheesecake Brownie
Willie Nelson's Country Peach Cobbler

6.5/10

For other food reviews, please visit my Food Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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