Ben & Jerry's Turtle Cheesecake

As I explained in my last blog post, my husband and I came to visit friends in the Washington DC area and of cpurse I had to check amd see if there were any Ben & Jerry's scoop shops nearby. I was thrilled to find a scoop shop in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia, that had a TON of flavors that I haven't tasted yet. Since we are visiting for a four day weekend, we decided that we would make the most of the opportunity and visit the scoop shop several times so that I could properly sample multiple flavors. And my friends have undoubtedly been enjoying themselves, accompanying me on my quest to try each Ben & Jerry's flavor.

As for the taste testing, I wanted to try a combination of basic flavors such as Mint Chocolate Chunk and Mango Sorbet, as well as several more unusual, signature Ben & Jerry's Ben & Jerry's flavors such as their Saturday Night Live-inspired "Two Wild & Crazy Pies."  But I've really enjoyed sampling several of Ben & Jerry's other cheesecake ice cream flavors, so I've been eager to try Turtle Cheesecake.  Therefore I was particularly excited to find that the Old Town scoop shop carried this flavor. So how does Turtle Cheesecake compare to Strawberry Cheesecake and Pumpkin Cheesecake?
 

First of all, cheesecake doesn't actually seem to be the dominant flavor of Ben & Jerry's Pumpkin Cheesecake ice cream, so I feel like the real comparison is between the cheesecake ice cream in Strawberry Cheesecake and Turtle Cheesecake. As I wrote in my post on Strawberry Cheesecake, the cheesecake in this flavor is more like a tasty "lite" cheesecake dessert, as opposed to a rich piece of cheesecake that I would buy at a bakery or The Cheesecake Factory. This isn't necessarily a disappointment, but a richer cheesecake ice cream would score higher for me. Even though I enjoy lighter flavored ice creams and sorbets, my preference usually leans towards rich flavors with chocolate, caramel, toffee, peanut butter, etc. To someone with my preferences, the cheesecake + chocolate + caramel combination in Turtle Cheesecake sounds utterly delicious, even rich enough to be comparable to something that I could order at The Cheesecake Factory.

After taste testing Ben & Jerry's Turtle Cheesecake, I can confirm that not only is the cheesecake ice cream itself more rich than in Strawberry Cheesecake, but the addition of caramel and chocolate also make this flavor a much more rich concoction than the other Ben & Jerry's cheesecake flavors. And while Strawberry Cheesecake and Pumpkin Cheesecake both have a graham cracker swirl, Turtle Cheesecake skips replicating a graham cracker crust in favor of not only fudge chunks and a caramel swirl, but pecans as well. So even though the graham cracker swirl is the hoghlight of the other Ben & Jerry's cheesecake ice creams, I didn't end up missing it in Turtle Cheesecake. There are plenty of goodies in this delicious flavor to satisfy anyone with a taste for rich flavors. In fact, at 4.5 stars, my rating for Turtle Cheesecake is higher than my rating for Strawberry Cheesecake precisely because I prefer rich flavors. And it would be hard to go wrong when combining so many of my favorites - cheesecake, chocolate amd caramel. Yummmmm.