I May Have Found Ice Cream Heaven!

You may have picked up on a few things I like if you visit me here regularly: chocolate, ice cream, more chocolate, chocolate paired with salt... Well unfortunately for both my pocketbook and my waistline, I may have found ice cream heaven.

I will admit I was perusing the ice cream case at the grocery store and I had a mission. I saw a picture in a magazine of Ben & Jerry's Baked Alaska Ice Cream (Vanilla Ice Cream with Marshmallow Swirls and White Chocolate Polar Bears--how fun is that!?) Unfortunately, it was "Olive" Magazine from the UK so I pretty much assumed we would never have it here in Hawaii. (You can check it out here in the fridge on Ben & Jerry's UK site--left side second shelf down on the far left).

Having no luck with B&J, my gaze traveled over to Haagen-Dazs and the dark blue label of their "Reserve" line, (translated that means "we can charge you about $1.50 or so more per pint" line). There are six flavors (see them here) but one flavor caught my eye like a neon sign: Fleur de sel Caramel (doesn't it just sound like poetry?!). You can see the details here. The package states that Fleur del sel Caramel is: "Fleur de Sel caramels covered in a chocolaty coating blended into caramel ice cream with caramel ribbons and French sea salt accents. Crisp, salty nuances harmonize with rich, creamy caramel for the ultimate combination of sweet and salty."

Well it fell into my cart--once again purely for research, and I trotted home with it. Did it live up to the writing on the package? YES! It may be just about perfect--the caramel ice cream is caramelly without being annoying, the little fleur del sel caramel inside are tiny, 1/4"ish, adorable, little chocolates that are soft and biteable. The ribbons of caramel and salt are just the right touch. It just may be as they say--the perfect combination of sweet and salty. I have a serious ice cream crush maybe even ice cream love! I think that it is funny that for tasting notes it says: "After a bucketful of fresh salty oysters, take the empty shells and scoop on dollops of Fleur de Sel Caramel ice cream." I say forget the oysters--just give me the pint and a spoon!"

I would tell you to go out and try it today but you may be better off not trying it--I can't stop thinking about it. I want more. Now as a matter of fact. It weighs in at 1,120 calories a pint, with translates into 280 calories for 1/2 cup serving. I am proud to say that I managed to eat the pint in 3 servings (that's 373.33 calories each) rather than eating the whole thing but I can't be doing that very often. Plus it was about $7.00 or so--yikes!

Still, you never forget a first love and I'll always have the memory of when our glances met over the frosty shelves of the ice cream case and that first time I tasted the salty-sweet perfection in that little blue pint...