Blue Bell announces new flavor

Blue Bell Ice Cream introduced its newest flavor on Friday: Cookie Two Step — creamy vanilla ice cream with chunks of chocolate crème-filled cookies and chocolate chip cookie dough pieces.

Blue Bell announced the new flavor on Twitter and Facebook early this morning. The Brenham creamery had teased its followers in the days preceding the announcement, hinting what it might be in a Tweet on Wednesday.

The new concoction is a combination of ingredients from two of its top-selling ice creams and will be in stores today, the company said.

Not all commenters on its FB page were joyful about the latest offering. Some, which a Blue Bell FB admin later deleted, couldn’t resist the opportunity to bring up the ice cream maker’s past troubles, expressing relief that it wasn’t listeria-flavored.

Others longed for the oldies:

Here's what Blue Bell offers now in the half-gallon: Black Walnut (select areas), Butter Crunch, Buttered Pecan, Cherry Vanilla, Chocolate Chip, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Coffee, Cookies ’n Cream, Dutch Chocolate, Homemade Vanilla, Milk Chocolate, Mint Chocolate Chip, Natural Vanilla Bean, Pistachio Almond, Rocky Road, Strawberry, The Great Divide and now Cookie Two Step.

Blue Bell was rescued a year ago by Fort Worth billionaire Sid Bass after a listeria outbreak forced it to stop production.

Before the listeria cases, Blue Bell was the third-best selling ice cream in the United States, behind Nestle and Unilever, which makes Ben & Jerry’s and Breyer’s ice cream.

Now that you’re in a cookie frame of mind, it’s worth noting that Oreo just released a promising new flavor, the Choco Chip Oreo.

“It’s kind of like eating cookie dough with the texture of an Oreo, which is fine by us,” writes Zoe Bain of The Huffington Post who was able to cop one of the limited edition treats. She describes it this way: “The outer cookie layers feature a vanilla base, swirled and speckled with chocolate. The creme filling is also chocolate chip cookie-flavored.”

Had enough?

This story was originally published July 15, 2016 at 9:15 AM with the headline "Blue Bell announces new flavor."