Coffee Heath Bar Crunch always tends to rank highly among fans of Ben & Jerry's ice cream; even claiming the 8th spot for best selling flavors from the famous duo. The simple combination of coffee ice cream with chunks of Heath bar sounds simple enough, however there had to be something special inside considering the amount of attention this selection receives. Staying true to their environmentalist roots, Ben & Jerry's uses only Fair Trade Certified coffee in order to assist those that provide the raw ingredients used in the production of their ice cream. Heath Bars tend to make an excellent addition to ice cream because of the multiple tastes and textures they bring along. The rich, milk-chocolate coating combines with the English toffee inner filling to enhance nearly every ice cream they make their way into. With the top taken off, the first layer shares the same color as a perfectly creamed cup of coffee and makes no attempt to hide the pieces of chocolate-covered toffee poking through the top.
It's practically impossible to taste the coffee ice cream void of any Heath Bar, but I snake my spoon around most of the larger fragments. At 280 calories per serving, this is heavier than most of the offerings from Ben & Jerry's. The consistency of the coffee base is thick, slow-melting and bursting with the flavor of high-quality beans. They've found a nice balance between the natural bitterness of the coffee and the creamy richness of the ice cream they've combined it with. This results in a bold flavor profile that doesn't overpower the palate and remains easy to eat. Although the coffee ice cream excels all on its own, it's hard to imagine it can't be approved upon once I begin to hit the Heath Bars.
From the bottom to the top, this pint is packed with various-sized broken bits of the coveted candy. The non-uniform, roughly broken pieces ensure that every bite isn't quite the same as any other. Most of the chunks are small in stature and only add a bit of crunch from the toffee, followed by a rich finish from the remaining chocolate coating. A few of the pieces have seemingly snuck through the grinder and grow bigger than the size of my spoon. Especially when combined with the well-balanced coffee ice cream, these bites are the ones that make it easy to realize why this flavor is usually regarded as one of their best. Does this mean I can have ice cream for breakfast?
Where I Found It: Ingles Markets
