Gold Coast - Icecream on the water with Ben and Jerry

Ben and Jerry's Surfers Paradise
Shop 1, Centro, Surfers Paradise

There are two things that for me, are synonymous with the coast. Sun and ice-cream. Without either of those things, I deem a coast trip to be a failure. I have no control over the weather but last weekend, Marc and I were blessed with clear skies and glorious sunshine. I always feel a bit piggish requesting ice-cream in the middle of the day but this time, I didn't have to. We checked into our hotel and Marc was the one who suggested we stroll out for an ice-cream hunt.

I had my mind set on Gelatissimo but as we were walking over to their Cavill Mall store, I spotted a Ben and Jerry sign out of the corner of my eye. I have a slight bit of history with Ben and Jerry. Well... ok, not really. In my early uni days, when I was unemployed and spent my non-study hours being domestic, I bought an ice-cream machine and several ice-cream recipe books. Ben and Jerry's was one of them. I don't think I actually used any of their ice-cream recipes but some of their other recipes for ice-cream 'accessories' e.g. cookies, fudge sauce and brownies are great.

Ben and Jerry ice-cream then started making an appearance in various Australian stores. I tried a tub here and there but I had never seen an actual Ben and Jerry ice-cream store before. Naturally, I had to check it out.


There is a multitude of flavors to chose from. Most are very decadent, rich and sweet, rather than strange and wacky like what many gelato stores are doing these days. Think plenty of varieties of chocolate, caramel, cookie bits and so on. The thing with Ben and Jerry I find is that they're big on combining lots of bits and pieces to add levels of indulgence and texture. Kind of like what you could end up with if left alone in Cold Rock with no restraints.

Wafer Surprise (?) and Strawberry Cheesecake

I went for Wafer Surprise (can't remember if that's the exact name) and Strawberry Cheesecake in a cup. The wafer bits were nice and reminded me of being in China. I think it's because my family there love wafers as snacks and they're available in all different flavors in the supermarkets. They don't seem too popular here in Australia, which is a bit of a shame. The strawberry cheesecake flavor had big chunks of cream cheese. Overall they're probably too sweet for me so I should just stick to one scoop at a time. By the end of my second scoop I was a bit over it.

Choc Chip Cookie Dough and Triple Caramel Chunk

Marc chose Choc Chip Cookie Dough and Triple Caramel Chunk in a cone. Like me, he thought they were creamy and very sweet. In hindsight, he thinks he should have just chosen one of those flavors because they were quite similar and gotten something else for his second scoop.

Ben and Jerry to me is comfort food in the form of ice-cream. The flavors are sugary and creamy with lots of chunky good bits thrown in. They're not as refined as my favorite gelato stores but it's still a bit of fun.