Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia

I recently had some Archer Farms Amaretto Cherry Gelato, which sounded amazing but turned out to be of the good-not-great variety. I didn't really taste the amaretto at all, which was a big disappointment since my all-time favorite drink is an Amaretto Sour. So I was a little bit skeptical when trying Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia, thinking that fruit flavored ice creams don't really do it for me nearly the same way as chocolate, peanut butter and coffee-flavored ice creams. Still, Cherry Garcia has fudge flakes (a Ben & Jerry's term that means smaller, thinner chunks), so with the promise of at keast sone chocolate mixed into the flavor, I delved into the pint.

I have to admit that I should have had more faith in Ben & Jerry's. Cherry Garcia is a cut above the Amaretto Cherry Gelato that I had previously eaten, with plenty more chunks of cherry mixed into and throughout the B&J's flavor. And, oh what cherries. These aren't farm fresh flavored cherries, bursting with a tart freshness (although Ben & Jerry's should take note - that would be a good flavor to try). These taste just like the cherries that come floating in my Amaretto Sour, with a sweet, alcohol-soaked flavor that may or may not be produced by my imagination. Am I imagining things?  Oh, well.  For me, eating a scoop of Cherry Garcia is akin to sitting at the bar and pulling cherry after cherry out of my drink, sucking on the sweet flavor those drink "garnishes," which are part of the main show in my opinion. Even the cherry ice cream base has the same flavor, the same suggestion of my favorite cocktail.

As for the flavor combo of cherries and chocolate - while some people apparently don't enjoy this combination, I'm always a huge fan of cherries and chocolate (or raspberries and chocolate, strawberries and chocolate, take your pick).  So I'm scratching my head at all the commentary online about the chocolate and cherry combo being strange and unappealing.  I think it's delicious and brilliant.  While the fudge "flakes" might need to be bigger to satisfy a chocolate lover's chocolate craving, this isn't really meant to be the flavor to choose if you're in the mood for some serious chocolate.  Putting in more of the fudge would overwhelm the delicious cherry flavor, so the fudge flakes are meant to accent the overall fruit cocktail flavor of the ice cream. And for once in a blue moon, I'm okay with chocolate being the sideshow because the ratio of chocolate to cherries in this flavor is the perfect harmony.  But don't get me wrong - the fudge "flakes" aren't the whimpy little chips of fudge that Ben & Jerry's usually means when they use the word "flakes."  These are hefty little chocolate bricks, and the pieces of cherry aren't anything to sneeze at, either.  I'm not quite sure if this flavor actually qualifies as a "chunky ice cream" in my book, but Cherry Garcia has a pleasing texture and mouth feel that emphasizes the chocolate and cherries flavor combo perfectly.

Cherry Garcia gets four stars and a spot in regular rotation in my freezer.