Following a brief and somewhat mediocre introduction to PET ice cream through flavors like Nutty Buddy Cone Crunch, Banana Split and Moose Tracks, their recently released Cookies N’ Cream Extreme was enough to catch my attention. This combination of chocolate ice cream with chocolate sandwich cookie pieces swirled with chocolate cookie crumb ribbon sounded reminiscent of the Walgreens exclusive from Haagen Dazs, Midnight Cookies N’ Cream. I remembered how well PET had done the various swirls in the previous flavors I’d tried from them, so I was paying close attention to the chocolate cookie crumb ribbon to come.
My ice cream scoop didn’t make it far through this reasonably dense, 170 calorie per serving ice cream before running into some serious concentrations of chocolate. Once I managed to collect some sizable scoops in a bowl, I went in for my first bite and first taste of PET’s chocolate base. This premium ice cream, while rich, melts down quickly enough to avoid become overbearing, which is nice considering there’s no end in sight to this chocolate onslaught. PET was seemingly a little stingy with their chocolate sandwich cookie pieces and most of the pieces I came across were small in size. Regardless of their stature, just the base ice cream and the cookies were a successful combination.
The real crowning achievement of this Cookies N’ Cream Extreme comes from the mountains of chocolate cookie crumb swirl that slices its way throughout the entire carton. This swirl has the richness of fudge and the finishing gritty consistency of a crunchy chocolate cookie. When put together with the other components, an A rating is definitely in order.
Where I Found It: Walmart
Grade: A
