Haagen-Dazs Cookies and Cream

Now Dearest Readers, you know I've been in the ice cream game long enough that little surprises me. Especially when it comes to the big players like Ben & Jerry's, Haagen-Dazs, and Talenti. I hear about when they are coming out with a new flavor or taking away a flavor long before the general public. And I am incredibly familiar with their line ups. Or so I thought. Right before winter break, I was out running other errands and I happened to be closer to the larger HyVee in Iowa City, so I decided to do my grocery shopping there. This HyVee doesn't have any brands my HyVee doesn't have, but they do have a wider and more interesting selection of flavors. If you recall, I purchased Haagen-Dazs' Green Tea flavor from this HyVee.

Well, when I was perusing the ice cream section back in December, the Haagen-Dazs Cookies and Cream flavor caught my eye. Now, Cookies and Cream isn't a fascinating flavor in and of itself, but I had no idea HD had a version of this. I don't think I'd ever seen it in a store! Obviously, I had to buy it.

And after a bit of research, I discovered what is probably the reason I didn't know Haagen-Dazs made this flavor. Back in 2014 they discontinued it! They only reintroduced it in 2015. Also this probably explains why I'm finding other reviews of this flavor by ice cream bloggers?

The description of this flavor, in classic over-the-top flowery Haagen-Dazs language, is Gently crumbled dark chocolate wafers are folded into our signature vanilla ice cream.

Really HD?? Really.  I love you, HD, and all of the ice cream you produce, but "gently crumbled"? Please, invite me to a tour of your factory and I would love to watch your employees "gently" crumble the dark chocolate wafers. And seriously, call them cookies.

Now, as much as I love to talk smack about HD's flavor descriptions, this was a great flavor. Not many of the high quality ice cream brands out there are doing a simple cookies and cream. Ben & Jerry's has Milk & Cookies, which is cookies and cream and cookie dough and Talenti has Caramel Cookie Crunch which is cookies and cream with caramel. So I was quite excited to try the Haagen-Dazs version of this classic flavor.

My first comment, compared to your average vanilla base in a cookies and cream ice cream, Haagen-Dazs' base is way better. You can taste the vanilla and had Haagen-Dazs signature thick texture. The cookies in this ice cream were also pretty standard. A bit darker than a normal chocolate cookie, but nothing to write home about. The cookies came in chunks, as opposed to a swirl, and were soft and moist. When you got a bite of cookie, the chunks were big, but in my opinion there weren't enough chunks!

All in all, this is a great version of a classic flavor. I'm happy to see a high quality brand take a stab at this flavor. If cookies and cream is your jam, this is definitely THE flavor on the market for you!