Ben & Jerry's 'Late Night Snack' Ice Cream Reviewed

by Erik R. Trinidad, Posted Mar 3rd 2011 @ 11:00AM

Ben & Jerry's new flavor with Jimmy Fallon Photo: Erik R. Trinidad

The battle for late-night supremacy now moves to the ice-cream aisle. On the heels of Stephen Colbert's "AmeriCone Dream" comes a new late-night funnyman-inspired ice cream flavor from Ben & Jerry's. That's right; in conjunction with the two-year anniversary of SNL alum Jimmy Fallon taking over Conan O'Brien's NBC post at Late Night, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield have created "Late Night Snack," a premium ice cream complete with Fallon's mug on the lid. Here's how it rates:

The Claims: Ben & Jerry's Late Night Snack is vanilla bean ice cream with a salty caramel swirl and fudge-covered potato chip clusters.

The Verdict: Grade A. One might wonder what Ben, Jerry, and Jimmy were doing late at night when the idea for this peculiar ice cream and potato chip combination came about, but whatever it was, it worked. The combination of sweet and salty is harmonious, but not exactly balanced evenly; it's more sweet than salty, which is a good thing -- it's ice cream after all. The hints of saltiness in the potato chips adds dimension, much like Ben & Jerry's famous "Chubby Hubby," which contains fudge-covered, peanut-butter-filled pretzels. The fudge-covered potato chip clusters of "Late Night Snack" add a nice texture, but the clusters don't get in the way of the smoothness and creaminess of the ice cream and caramel.

This new ice cream flavor was announced at a press event in Late Night's Studio 6B, where last summer Fallon and his house band The Roots performed a Ben & Jerry's tribute song, "Ladysmith Snack Mambazo," in the style of South African a cappella singing group Ladysmith Black Mambazo. It was this skit that inspired Ben & Jerry's to approach Fallon and NBC for a co-branded ice cream flavor, provided that they were willing to support the ice cream company's pledge to support Fair Trade ingredients. (Proceeds from the sales of Late Night Snack also benefit Fair Trade Universities.) The vanilla beans and cocoa used in this new flavor come from Fair Trade suppliers -- not that you'll taste the difference on your tongue when you eat it. However, Cohen and Greenfield stressed the importance of supporting Fair Trade, an effort hoped to be fully realized by 2013 for their entire product line. While Fallon supported this, he was also proud of his flavor's originality. "Stephen Colbert is a jealous son of a bitch," he joked, desparaging Colbert's "AmeriCone Dream" flavor. "Like no one was going to think of putting ice cream with a cone." Indeed, Fallon's potato chips dipped in fudge are a bit more inventive than Colbert's waffle cone pieces dipped in fudge, but there's room for both of them -- they do have different time slots, after all.

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Photo: Erik R. Trinidad

Find out why Ben & Jerry's stopped calling their ice cream "all natural" over at Walletpop.com.

Filed Under: Taste Test, New Products, Chain Stores / Restaurants
Tags: ben and jerrys, ice cream, Jimmy Fallon, late night talk shows

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 2)

3-03-2011 @11:33AM bilchamberlin said... Entire product line Fair Trade by 2013? Right On Ben and Jerry! Right On...

Question Mr. Trinidad, were the potato chips soggy at all?

I would be very worried that the chips would be soggy....
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3-03-2011 @8:49PM Craig said... Yeah, great job Ben & Jerry. Read up on "Fair Trade Certified." Do a google search so you can see what countries this benefits. Pretty much every country BUT the USA.

When will we learn that if we don't support the people within our own country, we have no right to critique why our economy is worsening every day?

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3-04-2011 @9:25AM ZEKE said... The potato chip clusters are covered in carmel, so maybe that keeps them from getting soggy.

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3-06-2011 @2:50PM Kurt said... I love Ben and Jerry's. Between them and Breyer's. Price is a little high when you consider the small amount of ice cream you're getting, but it is oh so so good!!!! The Ben and Jerry's company has really good public relations too. I had a pint with a problem recently, used some of the ideas from HTtP://bIT.Ly/moneyminded and they worked, and Ben and Jerry's was nice enough to send out coupons for a free pint and a discounted second. Because of it, they kept a happy customer.

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3-04-2011 @8:59AM Jennifer said... I thought this ice cream flavor was okay but I wouldn't get it again. It just tasted like vanilla and caramel with something crunchy. It's impossible to tell the little nuggets were potato chips. They just tasted like chocolate covered crunch.
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3-03-2011 @8:39PM tk said... YUCK!!!
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3-04-2011 @12:39AM Candy said... I loved it! Loved the sweet and salty combination! I have a new favorite now!
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3-03-2011 @11:47PM Megan K said... It's actually pretty good. I had it a while ago because my brother is a frozen foods manager and ordered it in to try it before he put it on his shelves to see if it would sell.

It does pretty good in selling.

I don't really like the potato chip clusters actually. I REALLY like the caramel and ice cream better. Which really makes no sense because it's all about the clusters. It's good, I have a little carton in my freezer, but it only contains the clusters that I didn't wanna eat. The rest of my family likes them, so they can have 'em!
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3-04-2011 @5:32AM TheBrigeedaRocks said... Jimmy Fallon doesn't really deserve his own ice cream. He should have just left TV altogether after leaving SNL. I can't stand him, his "comedy", or his face nowadays either.
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3-04-2011 @4:24AM Barbara said... Growing up in North Western NY in a small dairy community, we used to get potoao chip cookies in school and a friend of mine got me hooked on eating vanilla ice cream with potato chips... I wonder why it's taken someone so long (I'm 50) to figure this out....
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3-04-2011 @5:27AM sunny said... How about pickles ice-cream for the cravers?
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3-04-2011 @6:16AM david K said... Ben and jerry DONT even eat their own product anymore because it clogged their arteries. How anyone can find potato chips mixed into vanilla icre cream appealing is headed toward diabetes and gout on the fast track. have fun with ben and Jerry when you're 20 kidz when you bit 37 you will wonder why your toes are swollen and you cant lose that extra 20 pounds. OTOH no one promotes healtheirt good tasting gelato..you have to really hunt for it. it's not awful like frozen yogurt was and still is..try gellato! It's a bit healtheir.
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3-15-2011 @1:42PM abbey said... dude relax its ice cream its gonna be bad for you EVERYONE already knows that. If you don't like it you don't have to eat it. Why were you even looking at this article if you hate it so much don't you have better things to do. And if you want people to eat healthy don't encourage them to eat gelato its no health food.

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3-28-2011 @10:03PM Laura said... My god, I hate when people come off with this type of crap. EVERYTHING IN MODERATION. Don't be a pig, but don't deprive yourself either -- food is a delicious part of life.

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3-04-2011 @6:19AM david K said... Sure..and while we are going for gross..Americans will eat anything..How about TUNA and Salmon Boat ice cream mmmm FISH CREAM. And why not Be nand Jerrys LIVER AND ONIONS with real bits O Liver..
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3-15-2011 @1:50PM abbey said... GOD shutup!! I read your comments on other articles and they are ALL negative!!! And you rant about Burger King's mayo but you say you still go there all the time!?! And if you go to Burger King maybe you should not be giving health advice! And you call U2 hypocrites!

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3-04-2011 @8:03AM david said... I sent them (Beb and Jerry) this idea about a year ago. I used to crumble up salty chips on icecream along time ago, in fact I used bbq chips. It was the mix of salt, sweet, and bbq that made it so damn good. You should try it.
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