[Magdalen] Creme de la Creme.

[Susan Hagen]

The important thing is for the vanilla to be REAL vanilla, not vanilla
flavored.  I always check the labels.  There are a couple of local
brands that are pretty good.

I like B&J Chunky Monkey and I like good coffee ice cream.  My very
favorite is real summertime homemade peach ice cream.

I grew up in Silver Spring and Giffords made the ultimate Swiss
chocolate banana split.

Susan

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.



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