The Good: Inoffensive flavor, Good ingredients
The Bad: Low nutritional value, Not a strong flavor or a good mix of flavors, Very dry aftertaste
The Basics: Ben & Jerry’s Spectacular Speculoos Cookie Core Ice Cream is mediocre and unsatisfying, making for one of the few Core fails from Ben & Jerry's.
My local grocery store has had a pretty awesome sale on Ben & Jerry's ice cream for the last week and that has led me to try some new and new-to-me ice creams. One of the new flavors my grocery store began to stock that I was intrigued by was the Ben & Jerry's Spectacular Speculoos Cookie Core ice cream. I have generally enjoyed the various Core ice cream flavors, so the idea of one with - essentially - a cinnamon cookie core was interesting to me.
For those unfamiliar with the concept, Core flavors of ice cream are ice cream flavors that have, essentially, the “topping” of the ice cream in the pint, presented as a cylinder going through the center. So, for example, in the Caramel Sutra Core, if one looks at the top of it, there is a circle in the center of caramel (it is actually a column that goes straight down to the bottom of the pint) surrounded by ice cream. It’s a neat concept and the Spectacular Speculoos Cookie Core has two flavors of ice cream swirled around bits of cinnamon cookie blobs.
Unfortunately, the Spectacular Speculoos Cookie Core is a less-remarkable representation of the Core concept and the dryness of this ice cream flavor makes it off-putting.
Basics
Ben & Jerry’s ice cream comes in a pint container. The Spectacular Speculoos Cookie Core Ice Cream is a smooth ice cream on the vanilla bean side and the caramel side is grainy, which is accented by the dry cookie pieces. The cookie core is obvious and not as plentiful as the core in some other Ben & Jerry's Core flavors.
At (locally) $5.99 a pint, the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream is an mid-range ice cream, especially compared to other ice creams and while the Core concept is unique to Ben & Jerry’s, it is not such an incredible execution of the concept as to justify the inflated ice cream price.
Ease Of Preparation
The Spectacular Speculoos Cookie Core Ice Cream is a mildly loaded ice cream, where the core additive blends with one of the two ice creams in the mix. 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 Spectacular Speculoos Cookie Core Ice Cream! No matter how one tries to consume it - blended together or with each of its independent elements, it is in no way extraordinary.
Taste
Spectacular Speculoos Cookie Core ice cream has almost no aroma to it. This is an ice cream that has virtually no scent to it, even as it nears its melting point.
In the mouth, Ben & Jerry’s Spectacular Speculoos Cookie Core ice cream is very dry. The caramel ice cream is not overly sweet and the vanilla ice cream is essentially vanilla bean, but a very mild form of it. The dry, sugary flavor of the caramel ice cream is bland and seems to absorb the flavor of the cookie additive. The cookie is strongly cinnamon flavor and that makes more than half of the Spectacular Speculoos Cookie Core ice cream just taste dry.
Unfortunately, the Spectacular Speculoos Cookie Core ice cream is not just dry and somewhat indistinct in its primary flavoring; the aftertaste is strongly dry. The net result is an ice cream that is more dry than sweet and not at all satisfying in its flavor.
Nutrition
The Ben & Jerry’s Spectacular Speculoos Cookie Core Ice Cream is a fairly light ice cream with a noticeable additive and it is not at all healthy, though it does use decent ingredients. The pint represents four half-cup servings. In the half-cup serving, there are 290 calories, 170 of which are from fat. The nineteen grams of fat represent 29% of the RDA of fat, with 50% of one’s RDA of saturated fat coming in the 9 grams of saturated fat in this ice cream. One serving has 65 mg of cholesterol (that’s 22% of the RDA!) and 90 mg of Sodium (4% RDA). The only other real nutrients are four grams of protein, 10% of the RDA of Calcium and 8% of the RDA of Vitamin A in the Spectacular Speculoos Cookie Core Ice Cream.
Ben & Jerry’s Spectacular Speculoos Cookie Core has decent ingredients. Made primarily of Cream, Skim milk, and water! There is nothing unpronounceable in the ingredients list. The Spectacular Speculoos Cookie Core Ben & Jerry’s ice cream is Kosher, but not marked as gluten free. There are no allergy warnings on the pint.
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 pint I purchased last week would have lasted until November 2017, had I not had to gobble it down for review and enjoyment!).
The Spectacular Speculoos Cookie Core ice cream is fairly light in color, for both the vanilla and caramel ice cream flavors. Consult a fabric guide for getting the dairy or cookie components out of whatever you get it on. On nonporous surfaces, the ice cream wipes off exceptionally easily.
Overall
The Ben & Jerry’s Spectacular Speculoos Cookie Core ice cream is a rare, mediocre outing from Ben & Jerry's, dominated as it is by cinnamon flavoring. The Spectacular Speculoos Cookie Core is dry and the aftertaste is one of the more enduring and dry ones from any Ben & Jerry's ice cream.
For other Ben & Jerry’s ice creams, be sure to visit my reviews of:
Ben & Jerry's Coffee Toffee Bar Crunch ice cream
Blueberry Vanilla Graham Greek Frozen Yogurt
Coffee Caramel Buzz ice cream
3.5/10
For other food reviews, please visit my Food Review Index Page for an organized listing!
© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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