Ben and Jerry's Netflix and Chill'd

Really. A blog post. Literally 2 years to the day after the last blog post. (Srs, I did not plan that.) In that time I (Madeline) defended my thesis, so you can now call us Dr. Big Muddy Ice Cream Blog, thank you very much.

So it's 2020. All through 2019 we joked that the year was a dumpster fire. Little did we know. We're in the midst of a global pandemic, Australia burned to the ground, March lasted 23 years, Kobe Bryant died, Donald Trump was not impeached, Megxit Megxited, my personal life is somewhat of a shit show, all of our mental health is a complete and total joke, so I decided now is the perfect time to write an ice cream blog post because ice cream is LITERALLY the only light left in the world.

Ben and Jerry's Netflix and Chill'd came out at the beginning of the year, and I finally found it in Minneapolis. It is

Peanut butter ice cream with sweet and salty pretzel swirls and fudge brownies.

If you are not familiar with the term Netflix and Chill, it is a euphemism for DOIN IT. Typically Millennials, facing their inability to find meaningful work or even find some sort of soul-crushing career which would at least give them health insurance and the opportunity to build a modicum of wealth, and the ennui of contemplating a desolate future in which their grandchildren inhabit a sere and barren earth caused not only by inaction by our current politicians but also the denial of scientific facts by much of the population, join Tinder (a dating app, for all you old, out-of-touch toots out there) with the hope of feeling literally any sort of human connection no matter how fleeting or shallow. Their Tinder date comes over to Netflix and Chill which involves the farce of an awkward conversation about what tv show or movie to watch, and perhaps the offer of a glass of wine, while both participants know full well that the watching a screen is just a pretense for inevitably hooking up.

So anyway, Ben and Jerry's made an ice cream which I guess you can split with your Netflix and Chill date.

I suspected this flavor would be great as brownies and salted pretzel swirl are two of my favorite Ben and Jerry's mix-ins. Ben and Jerry's uses Greyston Bakery brownies, which are hands-down the best ice cream mix-in brownies on the market. I have yet to find any other brownie, whether in the freezer aisle at the grocery store or at a scoop shop, that come anywhere close to how thick and chewy Greyston Bakery brownies are. The salty pretzel swirl was used to great effect in Glampfire Trail Mix, and is an absolute star here. It has a gritty texture reminiscent of pretzels, and you definitely get the full effect of the Maillard reaction that gives pretzels their flavor (that's right, I looked it up on Wikipedia).

The peanut butter base alone is not bad and not great, but paired with the brownies and pretzels it has just enough nuttiness to balance the rich brownies and salty pretzels. I'm rating this 🍦🍦🍦.5/4 cones.

🍦 - You couldn't pay me to eat this again
🍦🍦 - I would eat this again, but not buy it
🍦🍦🍦 - I would buy this again
🍦🍦🍦🍦- I need this in my apocalypse bunker