Blue Bell has a long-standing tradition of being able to nail Southern classics in ice cream, so I was excited to see that they had started offering Key Lime Pie again. Key Lime is continuously used as inspiration for ice cream flavors, but a concept that is rarely well executed. The tart fruit typically has trouble coinciding with the sweetness of ice cream, however their description of sweet and tangy key lime ice cream blended with crunchy graham cracker crust and a creamy whipped topping swirl has me hoping for the best. Since I failed to locate a pint-sized portion, I ended up splurging for the huge, half-gallon pail my supermarket had in stock. Investing in such a large quantity of something you've never tried is always risky. If you don't enjoy what you've just purchased, you're stuck with the equivalent of four pints of ice cream, all the same flavor, rotting away in the freezer.
Blue Bell's Key Lime Pie contains 170 calories per serving, which is much lower than most of their other flavors revolving around cake or pie. After removing the giant, golden lid from the carton, I was left looking at a first layer that was more yellow than you'd expect from a flavor modeled after a bright-green lime. The pale yellow base was striped up with bright white streaks of whipped topping and a few of the pie crust pieces even poked through the top. I scooped out a hearty helping into a bowl, but couldn't help but notice the slightly crumbly texture that is synonymous with many underperforming fruit-based flavors. Most of Blue Bell's ice cream bases are smooth and fall somewhere in between low-fat offerings and a super-premium pint. This, on the other hand, felt a bit different. My first bite was free of any of the other mix-ins and consisted only of the sweet and tangy key lime ice cream. Although I'm aware that key lime is overly sour when compared to other fruits, this directly translated into the taste of the ice cream; and not in a good way. The consistency was also a bit icy, a characteristic I loathe when companies create a base made strictly from fruit.
Luckily for Blue Bell, there were plenty of mix-ins hiding beneath the surface. The creamy whipped topping swirl added the sweetness I'd been looking for and attributed a light, fluffy texture to the mix. A whipped cream swirl may not seem like much, but it has been able to do wonders for any flavor it's involved with. The finishing touch came from the large hunks of graham cracker crust that were littered about. These crunchy pieces were dense, chewy and provided the grittiness of an actual Key Lime Pie's crust. Perhaps if Blue Bell had been able to nail the key lime ice cream this would have secured a higher score, but it looks like my search for the perfect Key Lime Pie ice cream continues.
Where I Found It: Ingles Markets
Grade: C
