Moscow Food Co-op Food Review
Vanilla Ice Cream
by Vicki Reich, from the April 2004 Newsletter
I have a confession to make. I don’t really like vanilla ice cream. I’m a die-hard chocolate girl (and coconut, or better yet, both of them together). So what was I to do when it came time to taste test vanilla ice cream. This was going to be as hard for me as tasting mayonnaise. Okay, not really. Vanilla ice cream has its place (on top of apple pie, for instance) and its followers, some of who were at spinning the other night for the taste test. We tested five brands of vanilla ice cream, and I threw in one soy cream at the end to see how it compared.
The first ice cream we tested was Julie’s Organic Vanilla ($3.25). It was very creamy and sweet but not as vanilla tasting as we wanted it to be. It tasted the most fattening of the group even though it wasn’t. Double Rainbow French Vanilla ($3.09) was next in line. This is the only non-organic vanilla ice cream we carry. It had a denser and more pleasing mouth feel than Julie’s. We were undecided on whether we liked the flavor or not. Some thought the vanilla tasted like extract and others thought it was a good pronounced vanilla taste. Howler Organic Vanilla Bean Gelato ($3.79) was our next selection. This was the first ice cream with real vanilla bean flecks. It looked like vanilla ice cream should but was not as vanilla tasting as it looked. It was not as dense and creamy as the previous two samples, but it was a good solid ice cream
Straus Organic Vanilla ($3.55) was the only ice cream that did not have any gums in the ingredients so it has a homemade lighter texture. It reminded us of ice milk even though it is a full fat ice cream. Everyone liked the lighter texture and it had the most vanilla flavor and those all-important flecks of vanilla. We all decided we could eat a bowl of this rather than putting it on something else. The last ice cream we tried was Ben and Jerry’s Organic Vanilla ($4.19). It had a good creamy texture but not a strong vanilla flavor and was our choice for topping a crisp or a pie. Lastly, we tried Whole Soy Vanilla Frozen Dessert ($2.89). I was curious how it compared to real ice cream since I really like it because it’s so low in fat (one gram as compared to 14-19 in real ice cream). I warned everyone that it was soy, and they were a bit hesitant but everyone really liked it. It had a good texture with no beany taste. It had more of a caramel, cookie dough flavor rather than vanilla, but it was a good substitute and even Rochelle, a confirmed soy cream hater, went back for another taste.
The consensus of the group was that vanilla ice cream is good (I even enjoyed it) and that you really can’t go wrong with any of the brands we carry. The Straus ice cream was the favorite of most of us but not all. I liked it because of the homemade texture and the more vanilla flavor. I also like to support the Straus Creamery, the first organic dairy in this country and one that is still family owned and operated. Their chocolate ice cream is really good, too.
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