Product Review: Phin & Phebes Dark Chocolate Salty Caramel Ice Cream

Product: Phin & Phebes Dark Chocolate Salty Caramel Ice Cream – $5.99+

I have to give some major props to my favorite local grocery store in my area – Earth Fare.  What I love about Earth Fare is the deals that they have every now and again…especially over the weekends.  Because if it wasn’t for some of those deals, I wouldn’t have even thought about getting some products that are offered.

This past weekend, the special deal going on was for a brand of ice cream that I never even noticed before.  It’s a brand from New York (the Brooklyn area) known as Phin & Phebes.  And in my area, only Earth Fare carries it.  The deal was…for a if you spent $5 at Earth Fare, you could get a pint of Phin & Phebes ice cream (any flavor) for $1.  With one thing in my cart I had already spent that much…so…I went to the freezer and eyed a few options.  I already had banana ice cream from my local ice cream shoppe (YAY COMFY COW!) in my freezer, so I didn’t want to get the pint of Banana Whama Ice Cream.  It turned out I couldn’t anyway…because it had vanilla wafers in it.  So…good call.

Other flavors that I could find included Coconut Key Lime…which would have been like a key lime pie.  I couldn’t have that one either…due to the graham cracker chunks throughout that.  There was Ginger Cookie Snap…which is ginger flavored ice cream with ginger cookies and lemon icing filling.  Again…one I couldn’t have.  I was starting to think my roommate was going to be the one benefiting from this deal…not me.  I kept looking…finding Vietnamese Iced Coffee flavor, which was one I could have…as it was simply coffee flavored ice cream with a hint of chicory and cardamom.  But…I knew Cathy disliked coffee ice cream.  This left…as far as I could tell…Vanilla Cinnamon…which is what I ended up grabbing.  It was simply vanilla ice cream blended with Vietnamese cinnamon.  I could tell Cathy was less than thrilled, so I almost said I’d get the banana one and she could have that while I ate the one from The Comfy Cow that was in our freezer…but didn’t bother.  We put it in the cart and moved along.

Then…as we were perusing the freezer section just before heading to the checkout counter…I spotted it.  I spotted ONE LAST PINT of what had to be the best flavor EVER of Phin & Phebes Ice Cream.  It was all they had left so I grabbed the Vanilla Cinnamon from the cart, threw it into the freezer and snatched the last pint of…DARK CHOCOLATE SALTY CARAMEL.  It was like it was meant to be.  I love dark chocolate.  And salty caramel anything grabs my attention.  We called it a day and checked out.

Later that week…for two days…we each got to enjoy the awesome, awesome, awesome flavor of this ice cream.

Phin & Phebes Dark Chocolate Salty Caramel Ice Cream ice cream is just what it sounds like.  Dark chocolate ice cream that has been sprinkled with salty caramel to create this uber rich, satisfying, and super-delicious treat.  After dinner, I went to retrieve the pint from the freezer and dished up a serving (the standard 1/2 cup) for my roommate.  I handed the bowl off to her and she dug in.  I heard her say, “OMG!  OMG!”  I was like…”What?”  And she said…”BEST ICE CREAM EVER!”  Or something to that affect.  She told me she wanted to see me take a first taste because she was having a hard time not hoovering hers.  The reluctance to have a brain freeze was what kept her in check, I think.

So, my bowl now held a perfect 1/2 cup serving.  The pint was returned to the freezer and I settled in to have my first taste.  One bite…and it was a done deal.  Whenever this flavor was in stock…it had to be in my shopping cart and then in my freezer.  Holy cow!!  This flavor is kept in balance by the perfect blend of rich, smooth dark chocolate ice cream with the salty, slightly sweet caramel.  I mean…perfect balance.  It was everything an ice cream should be.  It was…it was a blend of my two favorite flavors from Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream in Columbus, Ohio.  Right there.  In one pint.  It was heaven.  It was delicious.  It was worth savoring…but not too much because ice cream soup is not as much fun as ice cream.  I immediately tweeted to my friend Jenn and told her she needed to venture to the other side of town to their Earth Fare and just snag a pint of it.  She wouldn’t be sorry.  It had to happen.  That’s how much I loved it.

This treat…is certainly a treat.  A dessert among desserts.  And sometimes…the taste and flavor is enough to negate any thought of how non-nutritional it really is.  I mean…it’s ice cream!!!  Live a little.  But…as always, I like to share the nutritional information with my readers.  A serving of Phin & Phebes Dark Chocolate Salty Caramel Ice Cream, which as mentioned is 1/2 cup, dishes up 230 calories and 14 grams of fat.  So as tempting as it is to make it an every night sort of thing…DON’T DO IT!  It’s fine every now and again.  And worth it too.  Also, you will be scooping up 500 mg sodium and 20 grams of sugar.  In addition, you’ll get 2 grams of fiber and 5 grams of protein.

So…for a treat on a week when dark chocolate and salty caramel goodness is the only thing that is going to make life better…I highly, highly recommend Phin & Phebes brand.  The Dark Chocolate Salty Caramel Ice Cream is a total WIN in my book.  It does everything right.  It tastes amazing.  And…oh…it’s simply…the best.

You’ll want to lick the bottom of the bowl.  Trust me.

NOTE: On the Web site, there is one further flavor listed that I didn’t see at all.  Again, this wouldn’t be one I could indulge in, but it is Peanutty Pretzel, which is peanut butter ice cream with chocolate covered pretzels.