Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream: Peanut butter cup

Product name: Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream: Peanut butter cup
Purchase details: £2.50 for a 500ml tub (tesco.com)

Calories: 280 per 100ml serving

Given my love of all things peanut butter, I should have rushed out to buy this Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream: Peanut butter cup when it was released, following many consumer requests. However, I wrongly assumed that it wouldn’t be that much different from the Core: Peanut butter me up that I tried about 18 months ago, so I waited for a price reduction and then kept the tub unopened in my freezer for a while. Let me tell you, I’m kicking myself now!

Made by Unilever for the UK and Ireland, this Fairtrade ‘peanut butter ice cream with peanut butter cups’ was a simpler idea to the Core variety since there was no jam. Although I’m a big fan of Reese's Peanut Butter Cup: Miniatures, my memory of the non-Reese’s cups in the Peanut butter me up was that their frozen nature made them a bit hard, which I guess is why I was hesitant to try a version that didn’t have the distraction of other flavours.

The tub featured the cheerful Ben & Jerry’s farmyard design and stated that each serving was the equivalent of two scoops or 86g. With a promising 20% of the product being the cups, the speckled ice cream turned out to be full of rugged chunks that actually made it quite hard to serve. I’m rubbish at scooping ice cream at the best of times but I had no chance of getting a neat portion here!

Despite being frozen, I was pleasantly surprised to find that this ice cream did have a slight peanutty scent. With 9% of the tub consisting of peanuts, and peanut flour also included, I was glad this did manage to come across.

Although 20% of the product was cream, I had been slightly disappointed to learn that the main ingredient was actually water. However, even when melted, the ice cream was quite thick and had a fairly creamy taste, as well as a slight graininess. The peanut flavour was by far the main aspect, though, with the emphasis being on salty rather than sweet tones.

Breaking up these salty hints was the star attraction: the peanut butter cups! I really don’t know what I was worried about because the chunky shells gave way to soft centres which were heavenly. The chocolate added a much-needed sugar hit and the abundance of peanut butter itself was more than I could have wished for.

 
I’m not going to pretend this ice cream was without faults. Personally, I would have liked the ice cream side of things to have had a tad more sweetness or creaminess (if not both!), but this was very good indeed and I did enjoy how the delicious cups were able to take centre stage.

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 6/10
Taste: 8.5/10
Texture: 8.5/10
Overall score: 7.63/10

Nestlé Butterfinger: Peanut butter cups

Product name: Nestlé Butterfinger: Peanut butter cups
Purchase details: £1.50 for a 42.5g pack of two cups (A Quarter of Sweets)
Calories: 230 per pack
Country of origin: USA

A few months ago, Nestlé launched a Butterfinger version of Peanut butter cups. As a huge fan of the Reese's version, I was a bit sceptical about this – surely they just wouldn’t compare? After all, Butterfinger bars are an unusual concept in that their peanut butter comes in the form of a brittle rather than a smooth, soft filling, so I wasn’t sure how well this version would satisfy my desire for a more standard centre whilst maintaining the brand’s unique selling point.

These cups came in a very glossy yellow and blue wrapper that fitted with the usual colour scheme and I was both pleased and intrigued too see that they were described as being both smooth and crunchy. The image on the packaging suggested that the cups would be more square-shaped than circular and this turned out to be the case. They were served on a cardboard tray but, unlike Reese's, they did not come in paper cases. However, I was pleased that they did still have ridged edges.

When I first opened the pack, I immediately noticed a butterscotch-like smell, but this was only from a distance. They smelt more like nuts up close but, unfortunately, the aroma wasn’t of the greatest quality and I didn’t enjoy this aspect of it.

On opening up a cup, I must confess I winced at the inner hue – it was so orange it was almost red! It just didn’t look right at all for peanut butter. However, the interesting-sounding ‘peanut toffee pieces’ inside did look quite nice interspersed in this.

Milk chocolate (not just a flavoured coating – yay!) was the main ingredient and, whilst it didn’t bend away from the peanut butter filling in the same way I enjoy with Reese's, it was chunkier and pretty enjoyable. I found that the cocoa did a good job of mellowing the very salty and nutty flavour on offer from the peanut butter and I was pleased I could detect hints of toffee in the sweet crispy bits too. As I always find with chocolate and peanut butter combinations, the sweet and salty contrast worked really well and, as these cups were particularly salty, they had the pleasant effect of leaving a cooling sensation in the back of the mouth. This saltiness was the main feature, for me, so I was surprised that the whole pack only contained 120mg of salt which meant it scraped into the ‘low’ range.

The peanut butter’s texture was certainly different as it didn’t have the much-loved quality of sticking to the roof of the mouth. However, I did quite like the crispiness as a welcome change, and these toffee pieces also left a slightly bitter aftertaste which was something new in this kind of product.

The difficulty I had with these Butterfinger: Peanut butter cups was that, by their very nature, I was constantly comparing them to the more-established Reese's variety. I think most people would do the same thing which is why I chose to highlight the differences in this review (even Nestlé acknowledge the competition by putting the phrase ‘The cup just got crunchy!’ on the packaging). However, that’s the point – the initial concepts may be very similar but the end results that these two products bring to the table are actually very different. Yes, if I had to choose, I’d usually still go for Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, but I’d make that choice in the same way that I’d choose between a tin of baked beans and a tin of spaghetti – I enjoy them both and I like one a little more than the other but they’re not identical products and it’s nice to switch it up a bit sometimes!

Appearance: 7/10
Aroma: 6/10
Taste: 7.5/10
Texture: 8/10
Overall score: 7.13/10

Reese's Peanut Butter Cups: Miniatures

Product name: Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups: Miniatures
Calories: 220 per five Cup serving (44 per Cup) 

Just a quick review tonight since the majority of what I said in my reviews of the standard Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and the Reese's Big Cup is also true of these Miniatures. I just wanted to give them a mention, having received a handful of them in one of my Christmas stockings, since I knew the ratio of peanut butter to chocolate coating would make a slight difference to their score.

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups: Miniatures hold a special place in my heart since it’s the first Reese’s product I ever tried. Since I didn’t have the main wrapper for these particular Cups, I obtained the nutritional information from Reese's website, and I’d also assume that these were made in the USA and then imported but I don’t have proof of this!

Size aside, the Cups were identical in appearance to the other ones I’ve reviewed, although they came individually wrapped in pretty gold wrappers featuring the orange Reese’s logo. They even still had their own paper cases – I initially thought this was a waste of packaging but then realised it was needed for the chocolatey coating’s ridged edges!

The Miniatures’ aroma wasn’t quite as appealing for the simple reason that the peanut butter wasn’t as strong, but there was still a deeper filling in each Cup than you’d probably expect. They provided the same great flavour and texture that I love about Reese’s but I particularly loved how their size meant you could get a decent mouthful of both the peanut butter and the chocolatey coating in one bite. 

I’m so glad products like this are becoming more and more readily available in the UK. 

Appearance: 7.5/10

Aroma: 7/10

Taste: 9/10
Texture: 9.5/10
Overall score: 8.25/10

Nabisco Chips Ahoy!: Big & chewy original

Product name: Nabisco Chips Ahoy!: Big & chewy original
Purchase details: £1.99 for a pack of two cookies (A Quarter of Sweets)
Calories: 150 per cookie (300 per pack)
Country of origin: Canada

When I bought my packet of Nabisco Chips Ahoy!: Big & chewy chocolate, I hadn’t seen this original variety, but I couldn’t resist giving them a try too when I spotted them in A Quarter of Sweets soon after my last review. One of the reasons I’d been slightly disappointed the first time around was that the chocolate flavour was far stronger than the peanut butter one so I really hoped that the latter would be more apparent in this product.

Looking at the packaging, I’m not surprised this variety originally passed me by – it was identical to the chocolate version, just with a different coloured cookie as the product image. To be fair, the actual concept was also exactly the same, with the only difference being the use of a plain biscuit rather than a chocolate one.

These cookies appeared to contain more chocolate chips than Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and I found they looked more appealing than the chocolate ones due to the lighter colour scheme. They gave off a slight peanut butter smell but the main aroma was something a bit darker – almost like syrup but not as nice.

The cookies felt soft to the touch and they broke very gently and, on sampling them, the soft texture continued, although they also had a slight chew to them. They were moist and, once again, the Peanut Butter Cups provided a slight crunch.

The general taste experience this product provided was a sweet one and the biscuits seemed to have a knack of hitting tastebuds all over the tongue. Unfortunately, though, I still found that the peanut butter flavour wasn’t overly strong, although it did provide a salty kick at the end of each mouthful. Whilst chocolate was still a feature in these original cookies, they didn’t provide a very chocolatey flavour. However, in this instance, I found this to be preferable.

I can’t say that these Nabisco Chips Ahoy!: Big & chewy original cookies were a massive improvement on their chocolate equivalent, but they would be my preferred choice in future. I still think they could do with a chewier texture, and stronger peanut butter flavour, though! 

Appearance: 8/10
Aroma: 6.5/10
Taste: 7.5/10
Texture: 7/10
Overall score: 7.25/10