[Magdalen] Creme de la Creme.

[James Oppenheimer-Crawford]

Stewart's is a local consortium of stores in the New York State area. My
experience is their ice cream is at least comparable to anything I've
sampled, and the flavor availability is simply dazzling, with a much lower
price.  The folks behind the counter are really neat people.

Stewart's rules!

http://www.stewartsshops.com/specials-flavors/ice-cream/

James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
*“If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better
for people coming behind you, and you don’t do it, you're wasting your time
on this Earth.”  -- *Roberto Clemente

On Sat, Dec 20, 2014 at 11:49 PM, Cantor03--- via Magdalen <
magdalen at herberthouse.org> wrote:

>
> I've had occasion to taste and evaluate the two national (USA)
> premium ice cream brands this week.  True, there are other  national
> brands, but they don't have quite the same exalted reputation.
>
> The brands are Haagan Daz and Ben and Jerry's.
>
> I think the best way to evaluate ice cream is to sample their vanilla
> flavors.  IMHO this is the basic ice cream, and if the brand  doesn't
> do well with vanilla, the rest of their production is suspect.
>
> I thought this would be a quick and easy toss-up, but it wasn't.
> Both brands melted in the mouth, but there the characteristics of
> each brand surfaced.
>
> Haagan Daz (which I understand is an artificial term made up to
> give a sort of Scandinavian luster to the brand) melted away in
> the mouth and left a faint vanilla taste but no other residue.   The
> vanilla flavor was good but not overpowering.  I sampled the
> plain vanilla flavor; they have a vanilla bean flavor, as well.
>
> The Ben and Jerry's, OTOH, melted in the mouth but left an odd
> oily, even waxy residue.  The vanilla flavor of the Ben and  Jerry's
> was so subtle as to almost be non-existent, leaving an egg and
> cream taste, not necessarily bad, but not identifiable as vanilla.
>
> I looked at the ingredients, and found oils and wax listed for the
> B&J but not the Haagan Daz.
>
> I'd therefore rate the Haagan Daz as the superior product since
> I didn't find the oil/wax consistency pleasant.
>
> I know that B&J's has a lot of unusual and unique flavors, but
> I wonder if they haven't forgotten about the basic ice cream in
> their rush to mix in all sorts of stuff?
>
>
> David S.
>