Isn't It Funny That Bears Like Honey? (Ben and Jerry's "Honey, I'm Home")

Member Name: Ophelia

Product:	Ben and Jerry's "Honey, I'm Home"
Date:	10/05/02 (176 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Delicious

Disadvantages: Calorific

I know that Paddington isn't a threat, as he has always been more partial to marmalade sandwiches than honey and, coming from Darkest Peru as he does, his palate is probably a little unsophisticated to appreciate Ben and Jerry's 'Honey, I'm Home!'

I do not consider Rupert to be a danger either, as he is normally too busy having adventures to involve himself in a honey hunt. In any event he is far too polite to sneak into my freezer behind my back and the chances are that some friendly stranger he has helped would be more than willing to provide him with a tub of the delectable dessert to say thank you.

Winnie the Pooh, on the other hand, concerns me a great deal. We all know that he is positively addicted to the bees' produce and his house is normally bursting to the seams (if a house has seams) with the sticky stuff. However, we also know that when he runs out of honey he is willing to turn his hand to thievery; he once snuck into Rabbit's burrow and ate all his honey, getting so fat that he got stuck in the hole on the way out. So, it is Winnie, the devious little criminal so-and-so, against whom I must take precautions.

THE REASON FOR MY CONCERN

I have recently encountered one of Ben and Jerry's new creations, 'Honey, I'm Home!' ice cream.

This consists of a base of soft smooth honey vanilla flavoured ice cream, which is scattered with varying sized lumps of honeycomb coated in chocolate.

I was a little dubious at first of trying this new flavour because, although I do like honey, I am not an enormous fan and thought that the ice cream might turn out to be a little too sweet and sickly for my tastes. I also could not imagine how the honeycomb pieces would blend with the ice cream.

My fears, however, were unfounded.

THE TASTE

The ice cream is just slightly off white in colour, hinting that the honey flavour would be a subtle one. Indee
d it was. The ice cream is beautifully soft and smooth and the taste is hard to describe. Vanilla? Yes but not your standard yellowy beachside Walls' kind of vanilla. It is more creamy and subtle in taste, like the sort of vanilla ice creams that are produced from the milk of Jersey cattle. The vanilla flavour, which I can sometimes find a little boring, is complemented by the subtle light honeyed waves, which wash over your tongue and tempt your taste buds.

The honeycomb pieces are coated with a delicious chocolate and, in my opinion, no ice cream is quite complete without chocolate! They vary in size from half a centimetre in diameter to chunks the size of a twenty pence piece. There are sufficient pieces so that you can ensure you have one in every mouthful but not too many to test your teeth!

When you first bite into the honeycomb it is crunchy as good honeycomb should be but while it lingers in your mouth with the ice cream, it begins to soften and becomes chewy. The resulting textures on the tongue are exciting (yes - an ice cream can be exciting) and well balanced.

THE INGREDIENTS

When you glance at the list of ingredients on a tub of ice cream, there are normally horrible words lurking, which destroy your appetite and stop up your saliva glands faster than you can say, 'antidisestablishmentarianism' (which after a few glasses of wine might actually take you rather a long time).
However, the ingredients on the side of the Ben and Jerry's tub are utterly alluring and make you even more eager to rip off the top and sink your spoon (or just your teeth if no spoon is to hand) into the ice cream.
Cream (real cream!), liquid sugar (how wonderful does that sound?), vanilla extract, honey and even coconut oil. No mention of E numbers or monosodium glutamate or lipids (hmm - that might be face cream but it could be ice cream for all the sense it makes!).

HOME SECURITY

Due to the u
tter deliciousness of the product I am taking precautions to protect my supply and I urge all other Ben and Jerry's consumers to do the same.
I have purchased chains and padlocks to wrap around my freezer (I would like to see Winnie try to get through that without the use of thumbs!) and have installed a highly sensitive infra-red motion detector, which covers the entire kitchen area and can be switched on whenever I leave the house.
Buy some of the ice cream but don't forget to improve security because today's the day the teddy bears have their picnic.

Summary: