At-tennnnnnTION!!!

Your regularly ignored neapolitan ice cream has been strip searched, reworked, and made relevant again. Goodbye strawberry and vanilla, hello cake and salted caramel. Keep the dark daddy chocolate to hold it all together and you’ve got Baskin Robbins’ First Class Camouflage.

Originally released in November 2014 to celebrate Veterans Day, this is the flavors’ second appearance alongside the limited edition camouflage colored waffle cone.

The ice cream itself is visually a spot on representation of American military camo. Swirled together in random quantities are brown (chocolate), tan (caramel), and a deep forest green (cake). Unfortunately the pale color palate is also representative of the way the flavors work together on the spoon and they miss the mark on the potential of this scoop.

I was initially excited about this flavor because while I had read about Baskin’s “Salty Caramel” ice cream on their website I had never seen it available in stores. Being one of the main components of the camouflage it seemed finally my time to try it – but not quite. The caramel flavor in first class is completely devoid of any saltiness at all, likely due to the lack of “salty caramel ribbon” that is supposed to come in the flavor. What it does have, is a wonderful deep burnt caramel essence reminiscent of the crystallized sugar on top of a creme brûlée. I have never tasted a rich caramel flavor like this from BR before and that is this limited offering’s greatest success, even though its name is misleading.

On the flip side, its biggest weakness is a total lack of any cake flavor whatsoever. Cake is a much more delicate flavor than chocolate or caramel and as a result gets completely lost in the trenches of sugary warfare. The green “cake” doesn’t taste like cake nor does it taste like vanilla, it simply becomes a sweet creamy question mark being bullied by chocolate. To be fair, it’s hard to judge a flavor like this on one scoop, because like neapolitan and spumoni, every serving is a little different depending on the ratios of each component.

What would have really helped make this flavor more interesting is a ribbon or mix in of ANY KIND. Without little bits of cake to drive the green or a swirly salty caramel ribbon to punctuate the tan the flavor reluctantly becomes a poor mans version of the Baskin staple Gold Medal Ribbon.

There is nothing wrong with this flavor but there is nothing particularly special about it either. The base is up to standard BR quality – creamy, rich, and velvety smooth, and the chocolate has a great prominent cocoa flavor. Good as far as quality ice cream is concerned but not worth a trip or forgoing your favorite flavor on your next visit.

Rating: 6/10