As spring winds down and electricity bills ramp up from air conditioning, grocery stores nationwide are busy curating their ice cream supplies to make room for this season’s newest releases.

Walmart is no exception, and it’s entirely appropriate that it, as the most distinctly “American” superstore, be the exclusive distributor of Ben & Jerry’s two newest pints celebrating summer in the USA.

Red, White & Blueberry

This Old Glory-themed pint blends pieces of shortbread cookies with raspberry, blueberry, and vanilla ice creams. Colorful name aside, this appears woefully pale under the lid, and its taste is similarly one-note.

Rather than enhancing the more interesting blueberry and raspberry ice cream swirls, the intense vanilla base comprised roughly 70% of this pint’s volume, and almost entirely masked every unique component promised in this flavor’s description.

Granted, Ben & Jerry’s makes an excellent vanilla ice cream (so excellent, in fact, that Delish.com declared it to be the best vanilla ice cream you can buy in stores), but nobody is buying this Walmart-exclusive because they want something so…vanilla.

Blueberry is a woefully underrepresented flavor in the frozen dessert aisle, and I was hoping for this to be its moment to break out into the limelight. Sadly, the only blueberries I found were in the swirl’s light purple color. Somehow, the raspberry ice cream was even more indecipherable. I didn’t see a single trace of pink or red in my entire container.

Even the shortbread pieces seemed uninspired. Although not entirely terrible, they were soggy, lacked any notion of creativity, and didn’t seem up to par with Ben & Jerry’s usual “everything plus the kitchen sink” attitude.

Ice Cream Sammie

Supposedly a more expensive and less portable spin on the classic childhood treat, Ice Cream Sammie combines chocolate sandwich cookies and chocolate cookie swirls into a base of rich vanilla ice cream.

Like Red, White & Blueberry, this flavor also failed to live up to my expectations. Unlike its sister pint, however, the issue here isn’t from lack of flavor. Rather, the true nature of this pint is misrepresented by its name. The cookies used here are basically Oreo-like, not true ice cream sandwich wafers. That difference may seem minor, but the impact it has on how this ice cream comes across is enormous.

Rather than reminding me of actual ice cream sandwiches, this is more like Cookies ‘N Cream on steroids. Is it a good version of Cookies ‘N Cream? Yes, absolutely! (And if you’re into Cookies ‘N Cream, then this is something for you to pick up on your next trip to Wally World). But is it like those unmeltable ice cream sandwiches I loved so much as a kid? Not even close.

Although those in search of the ultimate Cookies ‘N Cream may dig Ice Cream Sammie, both of these Walmart-exclusives were way off the mark for me. With so many other delicious options from Ben & Jerry’s, I’d recommend sticking to your usual favorites during your next ice cream run.

Purchased Price: $3.48 each
Size: 1 pint
Purchased at: Walmart
Rating: 4 out of 10 (Red, White & Blueberry)
Rating: 6 out of 10 (Ice Cream Sammie)
Nutrition Facts: (1/2 cup) Red, White & Blueberry – 220 calories, 120 calories from fat, 13 grams of total fat, 8 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 70 milligrams of cholesterol, 60 milligrams of sodium, 22 grams of total carbohydrates, 0 grams of dietary fiber, 19 grams of sugar, 4 grams of protein. Ice Cream Sammie – 290 calories, 150 calories from fat, 17 grams of total fat, 8 gram of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 60 milligrams of cholesterol, 150 milligrams of sodium, 31 grams of total carbohydrates, less than 1 gram of dietary fiber, 24 grams of sugar, 4 grams of protein.

What are the Ben & Jerry’s Snackable Dough Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Chunks?

They’re the same gritty and chewy globs of deliciousness that are in Ben & Jerry’s classic Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream. It’s also available in vegan form, which is in the ice cream company’s somewhat new Non-Dairy Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Frozen Dessert. There’s also a peanut butter cookie dough version. Unfortunately, Ben & Jerry’s didn’t send that to me. Sad panda.

The most noticeable ingredient differences between the vegan and regular versions are the use of coconut oil instead of butter, and there are no eggs in the vegan one.

With most other edible cookie dough out there, you need utensils to eat them, but these chunks are completely snackable.

How are they?

Wonderful.

I should preface that by saying Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough is one of my top five favorite B&J’s flavors. To be honest, I’ve never taken the time to think of and write down what my favorite five varieties are, but CCCD would definitely on the list. I love the brown sugar and chocolate of every cookie dough chunk. I also love the gritty and soft texture with the snap of the chocolate chips.

While the regular cookie dough chunks vary in size, the vegan ones are more uniform and slightly firmer, but they’re just as snackable.

Actually, I don’t believe that with every fiber of my being. If I had to choose between the two, I’d prefer the regular one. It tastes a little bit better, but that’s because my taste buds think it has more chocolate flavor than the vegan one, which has a more noticeable brown sugar flavor. A stronger chocolate kick is what I prefer, but I wouldn’t complain if I won a sweepstakes for a lifetime supply of the vegan one. Both make me want to stick my hands into them repeatedly like I’m an OCD kangaroo.

Is there anything else you need to know?

If you want to upgrade crappy frozen dairy dessert **cough**Breyers**cough**, this will do it. If you’d like to create Ben & Jerry’s Xtreme Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream, this will do it.

These have to be kept frozen, but if you let the regular one thaw for a few minutes, it’ll have a pleasant cookie dough-like squishy texture.

I do wish the pouches they came in were larger or had more. A serving is approximately 10-14 pieces, and there are only eight servings per bag, which doesn’t seem like much to me. I found myself quickly blowing past the serving size right after opening them.

Conclusion:

If you’re like me who goes digging into a pint of Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream like an archeologist to obtain the glob of cookie dough safely, then these pouches of snackable cookie dough are a no brainer. No digging necessary.

DISCLOSURE: I received free samples from Ben & Jerry’s. Doing so did not influence my review in any way. Yes, this very positive review might make you skeptical. But I rest assured, I have given you my honest thoughts about them.

Purchased Price: FREE
Size: 8 oz. pouches
Purchased at: Received from Ben & Jerry’s
Rating: 9 out of 10 (Regular)
Rating: 8 out of 10 (Vegan)
Nutrition Facts: (28 grams) Original – 110 calories, 5 grams of fat, 2 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 10 milligrams of cholesterol, 45 milligrams of sodium, 19 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 11 grams of sugar, and 1 gram of protein. Vegan – 120 calories, 4 grams of fat, 3 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 30 milligrams of sodium, 20 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 12 grams of sugar, and 1 gram of protein.