Here’s a hot take for ya: I hate milkshakes. Okay, maybe “hate” is a strong word, but in most situations I find milkshakes totally pointless. I am of the mindset that we shouldn’t drink our calories, and much like soda is a silly way to take in 50 grams of sugar, I don’t want to slurp down 1,000 calories of dairy bliss.

Sure, a burger, shake, and fries is a classic pairing if you want to go into an immediate food coma, but I’d rather have my burger and fries with some water and go in on a double scoop for dessert. I also believe that well crafted ice cream is a thing of beauty and watering it down with more milk is simply sacrilege. That being said, I do like me a little maltiness from time to time, and Ben & Jerry’s are giving me the opportunity to indulge in the classic shake experience without breaking my no straw rule. Chocolate Shake It Truffles combines a chocolate malt milkshake ice cream with chocolate-cookie covered fudge truffles and marshmallow swirls.

The chocolate malt milkshake ice cream is a unique choice and executed really well. I’m immediately taken back to sweaty Little League games and chasing the ice cream truck for a chocolate malt cup, sans that awful wooden spoon that makes my teeth cringe. The flavor is a light milky chocolate accented by mild funky malt notes that don’t come on too strong. It has a great creamy texture that when softened a bit would seem perfectly at home slurped through a straw.

As always, the marshmallow swirls are lovely and bring a great sticky gooey-ness and sugary shine to the milky malty base. I don’t love them as much here as in Glampfire Trail Mix or One Sweet World, but that has more to do with the overall composition of the flavors in the pint than the swirls themselves.

Once again, where this flavor falls short, are in the fudge truffles themselves. When I think of truffles I think of super rich chocolate and ganache that melts in my mouth with buttery seduction, and I’m not getting that here at all. They taste fatty but they have more of an oily finish that leaves a weird slick on my tongue without any deep cocoa flavor. Much like the other Truffle flavors, there’s a ton of them, and I love the density that B&J’s are delivering with this line, but I don’t look forward to eating them, and actually enjoy them less than just regular chunks of chocolate. The cookie coating adds a little bit of gritty crunch before the more dominant soft squish of the interior, but again the flavor is lacking.

Chocolate Shake It is the safest of Ben & Jerry’s new pints and ultimately it’s the most successful. There’s a lot of nostalgic whimsy behind the flavors of a malted milkshake, and when combined with fluffy marshmallow it’s hard to deny how fun it is to eat. That being said, I wouldn’t choose this over a similar classic like Phish Food, and as result it just isn’t calling me to scoop it again.
Rating: 7/10
Found at: Safeway ($4.99)