When the Ice Cream Informant notified us about the existence of this new flavor Blue Bell is releasing for July, well, the description alone made me wish that I could leap a weak ahead in time and get some! Blue Bell describes Magic Cookie Bar as a sweet ice cream loaded with graham cracker crust pieces, chunks of dark chocolate, roasted pecan pieces and toasted coconut all surrounded by a caramel sauce swirl. I mean, what's not to like about any part of that? This flavor seemed to have an "A" grade written all over it, so when I noticed a tub sitting in my local Walmart freezer a couple days before July I was all over it.
Cracking open the lid and scooping into this flavor, I quickly realize that Blue Bell has a big winner on its hands. Magic Cookie Bar is a very rich, tasty ice cream. At 220 calories per serving, it equals their chocolate peanut butter flavor as their highest calorie offerings, and you taste all of that in your mouth. The base is a "sweetened condensed milk" flavor, and it is indeed sweeter and less creamy than their vanilla base. The caramel sauce is a thick sauce, and when combined with the shaved coconut and roasted pecan pieces, it creates an almost honey-like taste in the mouth. The dark chocolate pieces are indeed chunks, big ragged rectangles of tasty chocolate and this ice cream is chock-full of them. Best of all are the graham cracker crust pieces. Blue Bell doesn't always do a good job with pie crusts, but these graham cracker pieces are big square-shaped chunks, thick and moist on the inside and crunchy on the outside, and like the chocolate chunks these are plentifully provided. Every scoop I had was stuffed with all of the mix-ins, and their combination and quantity was so rich I was unable to eat the whole tub in a single sitting, which i always do.
Of course I did finish the tub off later! Overall, Magic Cookie Bar is pretty fantastic. I never have had the family cookie treat that it is based on so i can't comment on how faithfully it reproduces it. But on its own terms, this is a very tasty ice cream, a welcome addition to Blue Bell's summer rotation. Dig in and enjoy!
Where Steve Found It: Walmart
Steve's Grade: A
