Guilty Pleasures Review

Today I discovered the Starbucks has a new Frappuccino flavor that they released for the summer. Last summer it was toffee mocha and now the new flavor is Mocha Coconut. At first this didn't have much appeal to me. I have mixed feelings about coconut, and like most people who complain about coconut, I agree that the texture is definitely a problem on many occasions. Still, an almond joy or a macaroon is nice on occasion and the flavor is not bad.

I decided to sample the Frappuccino since it was a hot day. My first impression after, where's my chocolate syrup and coconut flakes like the picture, was WOAH COCONUT! It's very strong. It's basically like drinking an almond joy. The chocolate is certainly there, although the coffee aspect is questionable I think. It's a bit of a nice change from the usual flavors and it feel kind of summery but I'm not sure it's something I'd want to drink all that often. It does manage to get the coconut flavor without the texture issues though. As far as looks go, it's basically what you would expect as far as a mocha color. I had whipped cream on top but none of the pretty toppings. This is what mine looked like:

Notice how it differs from the official picture.

Guilty Pleasure number two came from a trip to the supermarket where there was a sale on Ben and Jerry's. They are so expensive that of course I have to buy them when they're on sale! 2 for $6.00! I like to taste new flavors and have some of the classics. I picked up Phish Food Froyo ( not as good as the full fat ice cream) and a new addition to the line called Bonnaroo Buzz. Bonnaroo Buzz is part of a collaboration between B& J's and the Bonnaroo music festival which is held every summer. A Bonnaroo Buzz tour was also launched in the Fall of last year.

I was intrigued by the flavor which is described as light coffee and malt ice cream with whiskey caramel swirls and English toffee pieces. Sounds good no? But what exactly is malt? I know there's malt whiskey, malt beer and malted milkshakes so that seemed like a good choice.

As it turns out, malt is a cereal grain that has been dried in a certain process, known as malting ( thanks wikipedia). Basically the grain is heated and then stopped from heating which turns it into a kind of sugar. From this you can produce malt syrup, which can be used to flavor things. Bottom line: yum.

The Bonnaroo Buzz was delicious! I'm a sucker for coffee ice cream to begin with, but add alcohol and some other good stuff and you've got a pretty awesome dessert. The base flavor definitely has a different taste than just coffee, although the coffee is strong. There's a bit of a malted milkball feel to it. The swirls just taste like caramel to me but maybe there's some whiskey in there. I'm a little disapointed that the crunch wasn't evenly distributed in my pint. There's a pretty big toffee chunk lodged in the container and not to many other ones I've seen so far. I'll let you know as the chunk spelunking continues! Until then, go buy some ice cream. It's nearly summer!