The Popular Ben & Jerry's Flavor That Doesn't Live Up To The Hype

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The foodie world is ever-changing, and like any world, "popular" doesn't always mean "good." In Tasting Table's definitive ranking of 61 Ben & Jerry's flavors, one well-known ice cream left us puzzled over any seeming iconography — and that flavor was Chubby Hubby. Despite being a longstanding flavor (at least, it sells well enough that it hasn't gotten rotated out yet), Chubby Hubby doesn't live up to the hype, and pulled a pretty dismal 57th-place in our ranking.

According to the Ben & Jerry's website, Chubby Hubby comprises "vanilla malt ice cream with peanutty fudge-covered pretzels with fudge & peanut buttery swirls." It's a fully-loaded dessert bonanza, and in theory, the texture of the crunchy pretzels and the counterbalancing salinity should have created swalty dimensionality. In execution, however, all of these scrumptious parts don't form a cohesive treat. As we mentioned in our review, "It's tough to distinguish between the many different flavors, and in our opinion, the vanilla malt base is so lovely that it deserves to shine. But in Chubby Hubby, everything gets muddled together, and the pretzel bits begin to feel soggy near the bottom of the pint." Elsewhere online, one Reddit thread dedicated to Chubby Hubby agrees, "It was good but kinda disappointing. I was looking forward to the vanilla malt base but it was overpowered by the peanut buttery swirls. Basically making it a PB base which isn't bad but not what I wanted." Multiple Reddit comments also echo our criticism about the soggy pretzels.

Multiple customer reviews on the Ben & Jerry's website use the word "grainy" (woof), but the most common criticism was that the flavor was overly salty. Quoth the folks, "I tried this for the first time because it sounded like all my favorite things but I found some bites were INCREDIBLY salty!," "So incredibly salty that it was inedible," and "Like eating a salt lick!" Walmart reviewers take an even more impassioned approach to Chubby Hubby, writing "this ice cream is gross" and "worst ice cream I've ever eaten in my life." Other commenters posit that the chain seems to have changed its recipe, noting that Chubby Hubby used to be their favorite flavor and tastes different nowadays. Any recipe changes notwithstanding (and unconfirmed), it seems like a few balancing alterations are in order.

Still, the old-school flavor comes with its own iconic lore. Ben & Jerry's Chubby Hubby started out as a lie, or more specifically, a prank played on a co-worker. Ben & Jerry's also temporarily renamed the ice cream to "Hubby Hubby" in support of Vermont's legalization of gay marriage in 2009 (and 12 more facts you didn't know about Ben & Jerry's). But, beyond its iconography, the ice cream (alas) doesn't deliver as impressively on the spoon.