JUNE/JULY 2019 • COOK’S COUNTRY 31PRODUCT TASTINGRECOMMENDEDTurkey Hill
Original Vanilla
Premium Ice CreamPrice: $2.99 for 1.5 qt
($1.00 per pint)
Overrun: 97%
Fat: 7 g Sugar: 12 g
Comments: Ta s t e r s
loved this “silky” ice
cream, which had “rich”
vanilla fl avor. It was
spoonable and “airy,”
thanks to its relatively
high overrun percent-
age, but still “velvety”
due to the use of viscous
corn syrup.Ben & Jerry’s
Vanilla Ice Cream
Price: $4.99 per pint
Overrun: 21%
Fat: 16 g Sugar: 20 g
Comments: This pre-
mium product had the
lowest overrun percent-
age, so its texture was
“creamy” and “almost
luxurious.” While most
tasters loved its “rich”
fl avor and texture, a few
found it “dense” and
also “boozy” due to the
addition of pure vanilla
extract.Edy’s Slow Churned
Classic Vanilla
Ice Cream (also sold
as Dreyer’s)
Price: $5.99 for 1.5 qt
($2.00 per pint)
Overrun: 117%
Fat: 3 g Sugar: 14 g
Comments: Marketed
as a light ice cream, this
product was indistin-
guishable from full-fat
ice cream. Tasters loved
its “airy” texture (its
overrun percentage is
high), but some found it
a bit too “whipped.”Häagen-Dazs
Vanilla Ice Cream
Price: $3.99 per pint
Overrun: 38%
Fat: 15 g Sugar: 18 g
Comments: This pre-
mium product had the
shortest ingredient list in
our lineup. Tasters liked
its “familiar,” “sweet”
taste. Many noted that
it had the “strongest”
vanilla fl avor, but some
disliked the “booziness”
from pure vanilla extract.
Some also found it “a bit
chewy” in texture.Breyers French Vanilla
Ice Cream
Price: $4.99 for 1.5 qt
($1.66 per pint)
Overrun: 53%
Fat: 7 g Sugar: 14 g
Comments: Though this
wasn’t the only product
with added egg yolks,
tasters picked up on a
“rich,” “prominent” eggy
fl avor that reminded
some of “eggnog.” We
also wished it had a bit
more vanilla fl avor. Its
texture was “thick” and
“creamy.”Blue Bell Homemade
Vanilla Ice Cream
Price: $7.89 for 2 qt
($1.97 per pint)
Overrun: 82%
Fat: 9 g Sugar: 19 g
Comments: Tasters
praised this product’s
“supercreamy” and
“smooth” texture,
but some found its
sweetness “overpower-
ing.” This Texas brand
has limited national
distribution but can be
ordered by phone.Edy’s Vanilla Ice
Cream (also sold
as Dreyer’s)
Price: $5.99 for 1.5 qt
($2.00 per pint)
Overrun: 99%
Fat: 7 g Sugar: 14 g
Comments: This “neu-
tral” ice cream earned
satisfactory marks for
its “sweet cream” fl avor,
but it was notably
missing any trace of
vanilla. Its texture was
“thick,” “creamy,” and
“whipped.”HAVE YOU EVER met anyone who
doesn’t like vanilla ice cream? Neither
have we. Vanilla ice cream is a classic,
but it’s also the purest expression of ice
cream—there’s nowhere for inferiority
to hide. So which product is best?
We selected eight top-selling nation-
ally available brands (including Blue
Bell, which is sold in stores in only
about 20 states but can be ordered by
phone) and started sorting through all
their varieties: “vanilla bean,” “original
vanilla,” “homemade vanilla,” “French
vanilla,” and just plain “vanilla.” We
tasted 17 diff erent products to fi nd one
from each brand to include in our fi nal
taste test.
In almost every case, we preferred
products labeled “French” or “home-
made” vanilla to those labeled “vanilla
bean.” While the specks of ground va-
nilla beans in “vanilla bean” ice creams
were visually appealing, these products
weren’t very vanilla-y. Experts told us
that the ground beans stirred into ice
cream are usually left over from vanilla
extract production and have already lost
much of their fl avor. A lot of “vanilla
bean” ice creams have natural or artifi -
cial fl avors added to amp up the vanilla
taste, but we still found them lacking.
As for the diff erences among
“French,” “homemade,” and just plain
“vanilla” ice creams, we didn’t see any
clear trends. While it’s often thought
that “French” denotes ice cream that
contains eggs, this wasn’t always the
case for the products in our lineup.
We did see one common thread
among products that made it to the
second round: They all had slightly less
sugar. Every product in our fi nal lineup
had 20 grams of sugar or less per ½-cup
serving, while the eliminated products
ranged from 21 to 24 grams of sugar in
the same serving size. Tasters thought
that products with more sugar were
too sweet and that the vanilla fl avor
was more pronounced in products with
slightly less sugar.
With our eight products selected, we
held a fi nal blind tasting. Most of the
ice creams earned high enough marks
that we can fully recommend all but
one of them. And while we noticed that
some products in our fi nal lineup had
prominent vanilla notes, some also had
a slightly “boozy” aftertaste.
The ice creams were made with
both imitation vanilla fl avoring and
real vanilla extracts. We didn’t have
a preference for one style of vanilla
fl avoring, which isn’t surprising since
vanillin—the key compound respon-
sible for vanilla’s fl avor—is molecularly
identical in imitation and real vanilla
extracts. But since pure vanilla extract
must contain at least 35 percent alcohol,
the ice creams made with it were a bit
too boozy for some tasters.
Regarding texture, we looked at
each product’s overrun percentage,
(the amount of added air). Manufactur-
ers add air to ice cream because some
consumers like ice creams with lighter
textures. Producing ice creams with highoverrun percentages is more profi table
than making ice creams with low over-
run percentages because an ice cream
with 100 percent overrun is half air. We
sent the ice creams to a lab to have their
overrun percentages measured, and they
ranged from 21 percent to 117 percent,
a huge diff erence.
Ice creams with low overrun per-
centages are typically dense and silky
premium-style products (such as Ben
& Jerry’s and Häagen-Dazs). However,
our tasters were split on whether they
preferred high- or low-overrun ice
cream. Our winner had a relatively high
overrun percentage (97 percent) but
was still praised for its creamy, smooth
texture; it compensates for the addition
of air by using corn syrup (instead of
sugar) as its main sweetener. Since corn
syrup is thicker than sugar, it gives this
ice cream a smooth, rich texture. Many
ice creams, including our winner, alsocontain added stabilizers, gelling agents,
and thickeners to help keep their tex-
tures thick and silky despite having high
overrun percentages.
Ice creams also rely on fat and sugar
for creamy texture; both substances
prevent ice crystals from forming, and
without enough of either, the ice cream
becomes icy and hard. The amounts of
fat and sugar in the ice creams we tried
varied widely. Our top-rated ice cream
had a relatively moderate 7 grams of fat
and 12 grams of sugar, striking the right
balance for our tasters.
In the end, we named Turkey Hill
Original Vanilla Premium Ice Cream
our favorite vanilla ice cream. Its
relatively high overrun percentage and
use of corn syrup combined to create
a perfectly smooth, scoopable, and
creamy texture that we loved in both
tastings. It also had balanced sweetness
and a prominent, rich vanilla fl avor.Vanilla Ice Cream
Vanilla is America’s favorite ice cream fl avor, but which product is the cream of the crop? by Lauren Savoie
Is the Halo Top Hype Justifi ed?
“Light” ice creams—especially the Halo Top brand—
are having a moment, rising 500 percent in sales in
the last two years. So is Halo Top any good? We found
that, without the fat and sugar of other products, it
was rock-hard straight from the freezer. After about
15 minutes of thawing, we could get an ice cream scoop
into it, but its texture was “mushy,” not creamy, and
still “notably icy.” Our tasters picked up on unpleasant
fl avor notes, likely from the stevia leaf extract used as
a sweetener. If you want low-fat ice cream, Edy’s Slow
Churned, our third-place fi nisher, is a much better bet.NOT RECOMMENDEDHalo Top Vanilla Bean
Price: $5.19 per pint
Overrun: 106%
Fat: 2 g
Sugar: 6 gFat and sugar amounts are based on a 1⁄2-cup serving size.
Our Favorite