Ben & Jerry's Core Peanut Butter Me Up


It wasn't so long ago that fellow snacks blogger Creamy Steaks wrote a post decrying the lack of interesting ice cream flavours here in the UK. And it's true; whilst the US are treated to new Ben & Jerry's varieties such as Red Velvet Cake and Key Lime Pie, the most exciting new flavours we get here in the UK are Karamel Sutra and Apple Pie. To be depressed and see what other nice flavours we can't get, check out On Second Scoop, a blog dedicated to the latest in US ice cream releases.

Luckily, Ben & Jerry's UK must have sensed our pain and have recently added this new "Peanut Butter Me Up" variety to their "Core" range, as well as a "Blondie Brownie" variety.


Described as "A raspberry jam core surrounded by peanut butter and vanilla ice creams with chocolatey covered peanut butter cups", I found this in Sainsbury's for a hefty £4.99. The ice cream contains only 4% peanuts, which had me doubting how "peanutty" it would actually taste.

My suspicions turned out to be right, as it didn't turn out to be quite the intense peanut butter and chocolate experience I had hoped. The "jam core" took centre stage and played a big part in the overall taste. I guess the idea was to emulate the classic "Peanut butter and jelly" (PB&J) combination popular in America (over there "jelly" is the same thing as "jam" here in the UK). The "jam" was really more of a fudgey, firm sauce, which tasted ok but there was far too much of it. It overpowered the peanut butter ice cream on the one side and the vanilla ice cream & peanut butter cups on the other.

The PB cups & vanilla ice cream portion was very tasty; each little cup delivered a nice hit of peanut butter and chocolate, which was delicious combined with the vanilla ice cream. The peanut butter ice cream portion was nice and nutty, but a little tame. I would have preferred more of the vanilla ice cream & PB cups to be honest!


Don't get me wrong, this is a tasty ice cream from Ben & Jerry's, but I think the peanut butter cups should have been the star attraction. The jam "core" is an interesting idea and I guess PB&J fans will enjoy it, but it's not really my thing.


Overall, I think this "Peanut Butter Me Up" is a nice idea and it's good to finally get some interesting Ben & Jerry's flavours in the UK. Personally though I would like a tub of peanut butter cups and ice cream without the jam.

Price: £4.99 at Sainsbury's.
Nutritional facts: Contains 4% peanuts and 5% raspberry puree.

Comments

  1. Its a shame that this isn't really "peanut buttery" when I heard about this I was so excited for a really good peanut butter ice cream to hit the UK market; its a shame its not as amazing as it sounds. I'll still probably be giving it a go though; alas £4.99 is quite expensive.

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    1. Yeah the price is a bit steep isn't it! I reckon they'll be on a special offer before long though. Please let me know what you think when you've tried it.

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  2. oh, and thanks for the shout out! :)

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    1. Most welcome :) Not sure where your other comment went but that's a great idea about melting peanut butter onto it, yum! I can't be trusted with peanut butter though - if I have one spoonful, it doesn't take long before the whole jar disappears.

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  3. Couldn't agree more with your comments. I *love* peanut butter cups but I tried it for the first time tonight and was soooooooo disappointed with the jam core. It ruined the ice cream for me. It is too sharp a flavour and also has a weird texture that wasn't quite jam but wasn't quite jelly. Unfortunately I don't think I'll buy this again.

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  4. I live in the middle of nowhere and my online shop is arriving later this afternoon with this icecream (who cares if it's snowing outside?!) oh god, what if they can't get her due to bad weather?
    The anticipation is killing me, I'll report back once I have scoffed it.

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    1. Anon -I LOVE the fact that your typo made your review even more charming! :) 'oh God, what if they can't get her'.. teehee that ice-cream has already become personal to you. I get it dude, I do. :)

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    2. Sadly the shop who handled the delivery had run out of this ice cream flavour so they sent an alternative... was a sad sad day; HOWEVER I have just bought some in the nearest Sainsburys.

      I'm a woman who knows her ice cream, I work on an icecream van ,my best friends family have been in the ice cream business since 1912 & some other friends of mine make ice cream for their shop using their own cows which graze locally on the moors.

      As I opened the tub I was pleased to see she ;) had a liberal amount of tiny peanutbutter cups on the top, the small red dot in the middle was the only indication of the jam bonanza that lay within!
      So spoon in hand I dug in and was pleasantly surprised, the ice cream is of usual B&J standard (as one would hope) and the peanut butter cups still packed a creamy nutty punch despite their size.
      The jam is the smooth kind with no bits and I found it compliments the ice cream well but isn't anything special.
      As I got further into the tub the cups ran out which was a shame as I'm a huuuggee reese's fan and the cups were the main draw.
      I think (although the jam is nice) B&J would be better dispensing with the jam altogether and putting more peanut butter cups in, or maybe tweeking the jam to cups ratio!

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  5. ditto - so excited and then soooooo disappointed :-( such a feeble peanut butter flavour we thought it was all vanilla at first (apart from the jammy bit). Only spotted the 4% peanut content when we were half way through the tub - and most of that must have been the (rather sparse) mini peanut butter cups.

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  6. There I was hoping that it would be a peanut butter ice cream and not a core one. As tbh most of them have not been that good and for the now priced at 5 pounds thats gone up in price T_T I remember when they use to be 4 pounds and when it was reduced to 2 pounds when on sales.

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  7. It's a shame they DO sell it just as the Peanut Butter Cups but only in the USA, seen on onsecondscoop.. I've seen bad reviews for this ice cream literally everywhere - don't understand why the people at Ben & J's don't realise! Also, the PB cups looked hugeeee! I may move to the USA just for all the variations of Ben And Jerry's. I've been looking for Coconutterly Fair just about EVERYWHERE and I can't find it here in the UK... It's not fair!

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    1. I agree, it's really not fair! (good pun btw). That Coconutterly fair was out in the UK a few years ago but I didn't realize they had discontinued it?

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  8. I bought it today and think it a bit bland on the Peanut butter side and i think there should have been more peanut butter and the jam was extremely to sweet for me, i wasn't impressed.

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  9. The jam core is really weird. I think I'll just eat around it.

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  10. Totally disappointed by the shocking texture and flavour of the jam which runs through the centre of the ice cream I passed it on to the wife and kids one by one to get their reaction and can still see in my head the change in their expressions. My wife ran to the toilet to get rid of her mouthful. It really hardly tastes like peanut butter and is absolutely the worst b&j flavour I have come accross.

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  11. I bought this today and I have to say, the vanilla side AND the jam was pants. I wish it had been ALL peanut butter, including the cups.... (Sounds like too much, but I honestly don't think it would have been!)

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    1. Luckily they are doing tubs of all "Peanut Butter Cups" Ben & Jerry's now :) Here's my review of it:

      http://kevssnackreviews.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/ben-and-jerrys-peanut-butter-cup-ice-cream-uk.html

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  12. This is but a bleak copy from their B&Js Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, which was amazing. Explosions of flavor.

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