A generous serving of Ben & Jerry's Strawberry Cheesecake ice cream. - Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer

Yahneake Sterling, Staff Reporter

The newest ice cream to hit the Jamaican market is Ben & Jerry's Home-made ice cream, and according to those who participated in the Food survey, the flavours were tantalising to the tastebuds.

Ben & Jerry's sets itself apart from the rest of ice creams with a fun selection of natural flavours filled with whole fruits and nuts and contains no artificial flavours.

There are currently seven flavours of Ben & Jerry's in the island - Cherry Garcia, Vanilla, Butter Pecan,Vanilla Caramel Fudge, Chocolate Chip, Strawberry Cheesecake, Pistachio, and one sorbet, Jamaican Me Crazy, which is filled with pineapple and passion fruit.

Two months on market

Distributed by National Meats and Food Distributors Limited, Rory Marsh, brand and merchandising assistant manager, says the ice cream has been on the market a mere two months but has already taken off.

Premium ice cream can be expensive, but according to Mr. Marsh, the aim was to make the super premium more affordable.

"Once an ice cream has over 10 per cent milk fat, it is regarded as a high-quality ice cream. The Ben & Jerry's ice cream is over 20 per cent milk fat," Mr. Marsh explained. This is on the same level as Hagen Dazs.

Noting that this is the ice cream of choice in most American movies such as Disturbia, he describes it as a "really a passionate ice-cream".

"The good thing about this ice cream is that you won't find it being crystallised because our facility does not allow for heat shock to take place," Mr. Marsh noted.

The ice cream is affordable with the one size (473 ml) to date, costing between $300 and $330 per tub.

It is available at Super Plus, Hi-Lo, MegaMart, Sovereign Supermarket and other independent retailers.

Ben & Jerry's is an international company that started out in 1978 in Long Island. There are currently 20 flavours on the international market, and 15 are expected on the local market within the next few weeks.

Tasters' comments

Strawberry Cheesecake

This is absolutely delicious, I do not like cheesecake but this gives it a new twist!

Vanilla Caramel Fudge

I was never a fan of caramel products but this has changed my mind. It was really very creamy and rich, a little too sweet though, just a little.

Nice, smooth taste with the different flavours combined. A little bit on the sweet side though.

This is a little sickly and lacks the texture, i.e. added fruit, nuts, chocolate, like other Ben & Jerry's icecream.

Cherry Garcia

When I first tasted Cherry Garcia, I exclaimed that it was better than Devon House. I liked the fact that it was not too sweet. In fact, it is a taste that lingers on the tastebuds. Finally, there's an ice cream outside of Devon House that I can enjoy!

I was surprised. I have eaten a lot of Ben & Jerry's and I have not tried this before. I am conservative with my ice cream but I really liked the combination between the cherry and the chocolate. I might buy this for myself.

Was tasty. Not too sweet, but gives that little kick when you bite into the cherry.

It doesn't even taste like cherry. Why is chocolate necessary in a cherry-flavoured ice cream? Didn't like the blend of flavours.

Take out the chocolate, leave the cherry and we'll have a perfect ice cream. The chocolate leaves a bitterish taste in my mouth.

The ice cream was generally good. I found the cherry and chocolate flavour so distinct that I am not sure if they mixed or complimented each other.

It is not sweet but has too much chocolate and not enough cherry flavour or pieces of the fruit.

Vanilla

Was sweet and felt a little gritty on the tongue. Other than that, not too different from other vanilla flavours I've had.

Smooth, but flavourless.

I like it. Its mostly milky and refined.

Chocolate Chip

The chocolate is too bitter - and it is not as creamy as I would like.

It tastes delicious as if real milk was used to make the ice cream and not powdered milk. The chocolate chip added an oomph to the overall taste.

Not smooth, has a grainy taste.

It was OK. Loved the pieces of chocolate but hated the grainy aftertaste.

Butter Pecan

Clumps of pecan a little too big. Overall taste was excellent. It will definitely give Devon House some competition.

Loved the pecans but also hated the grainy taste afterwards.

Jamaican Me Crazy

This is good and you can really taste the fruit and it's nice to havethe pineapple chunks.

Too sweet, didn't like it at all.

I'm not so crazy about the Jamaican Me Crazy, I don't think the sweet and sour taste blend well together in this particular flavour.

Love it. It was more like a tropical smoothie but it was wonderful nonetheless. Love the pieces of fruit and mixture of mango, passion fruit and pineapples used in the sorbet. I also loved the smell. It was very enticing.