When Blue Bell first announced they'd be releasing their latest Malt Shoppe flavor, we here at the Ice Cream Informant were a bit skeptical. The treasured malt taste of old doesn't seem to translate well to today's ice cream consumers, but we were willing to give this old fashioned combination of chocolate malt ice cream with malted milk balls a chance anyways. Plus let's face it, Blue Bell rarely misses the mark. Reader Reviews of this particular flavor seemed to be mixed, so we weren't sure what to expect as we scooped the light brown colored base into a bowl.
Practically every time our scoop glided through the ice cream it wasn't long before its path was impeded by the enormous amount of malted milk balls (similar to Hershey's Whoppers candies). We approached our first bite with caution, knowing from experience that mix-ins such as these tend to stay frozen solid for a good bit after placing them out of the freezer. This was a smart approach as most of the malted milk balls were initially way too hard to immediately chomp into. The chocolate malt base only slightly differentiated itself from Blue Bell's standard chocolate, but worked well with the interior flavor of the malted milk balls once they were soft enough to chew. Even with these complementary flavors, the hard, overly crunchy texture and lack of any other mix-ins really held this one back for us.
Where I Found It: Walmart
Grade: C
