Following our trip up Vermont to the Ben & Jerry's Factory back in April of 2013, we've been looking forward to the transition from offering Candy Bar Pie exclusively at scoop shops to becoming readily available in a prepackaged pint. At that point, this flavor was slated to hit shelves sometime in September-December of 2013. Unable to wait any longer, we tried a hand packed pint from a Ben & Jerry's scoop shop in June, which received high marks across the board. September, October, November and December came and went without any signs of Candy Bar Pie as flavors like Scotchy Scotch Scotch seemed to take precedence. Finally, 8 months after its scheduled release, we finally have this Fairtrade peanut butter ice cream with fudge flakes, chocolate nougat, and sweet and salty pretzel swirls in our hands.
The first layer of this 300 calorie per serving creation shows plenty of the tiny fudge flakes and even some of the pretzel swirls sitting right beneath the surface. As we've seen in flavors like Peanut Butter Cup and What A Cluster, Ben & Jerry's peanut butter base is rich, full of flavor and seems to only get better with more mix-ins. The fudge flakes add a crunchy consistency along with some complementary flavoring from the chocolate, but the swirls are really what set this flavor apart from others.
Chocolate nougat has been used by Ben & Jerry's before, most notably in the underwhelming flavor known as Chocolate Nougat Crunch, but for some reason the light, sticky swirl works far better with a peanut butter base. The real highlight of this limited batch pint however comes from the sweet and salty pretzel swirls, something we haven't really seen from Ben & Jerry's before. The granulated texture along with the sweet and salty flavoring goes perfectly with the other ingredients and secures Candy Bar Pie a slot towards the top of our rankings. You'll want to check this one out before its limited status runs out.
Where I Found It: Walmart
Grade: A
