Skip to main content

Ice Creams: The Creams of the Crop



By ConsumerReports.org

Exotic choices such as Boston Cream Pie (Ben & Jerry's), Birthday Party (Blue Bunny), and Amaretto Almond Crunch (Häagen-Dazs) might turn heads, but vanilla and chocolate are still the nation's favorite ice cream flavors. Our trained tasters tried 13 vanillas and 11 chocolates with various amounts of fat.

Seven rated Excellent, and six of those are Häagen-Dazs or Ben & Jerry's; the seventh is Archer Farms Belgian Chocolate (Target).

Häagen-Dazs Vanilla Bean ($1.13 per ½ cup serving) topped the list of vanillas, for having a big dairy and real vanilla taste. It comes at a price, though, in the amount of 270 calories and 17 grams of fat per serving. Ben & Jerry's Vanilla ($0.97 per serving) and Häagen-Dazs Five Vanilla Bean ($1.13 per serving) took the other vanilla top spots. Ben & Jerry's has 230 calories and 14 grams of fat, while the Five Vanilla Bean has 220 calories and 11 grams of fat.

Among the Excellent chocolates, testers found that Archer Farms Belgian ($0.33 per serving) has an intense, complex chocolate flavor enhanced by bits of dark chocolate. It has 230 calories and 14 grams of fat per serving. Häagen-Dazs Five Milk Chocolate ($1.11 per serving) has 220 calories and 12 grams of fat, while Haagen-Dazs regular chocolate ($1.16 per serving) has 260 categories and 17 grams of fat. Ben & Jerry's ($1.02) has a strong chocolate flavor but is a touch icy, according to testers, and has 250 calories and 14 grams of fat.

Lower-rated ice creams are less creamy and less flavorful, with flaws such as an artificial taste or gumminess. It seems to be harder to make a high-quality vanilla ice cream than a high-quality chocolate. The chocolate flavor might help mask mistakes.

The tastiness of the top-rated products comes at a cost — they're full of calories and fat. And most are pretty pricey, 97 cents to $1.16 per half-cup serving. But Archer Farms costs 33 cents per serving.

Bottom line
For a special treat, try one of the top-rated ice creams. If more healthful fare is your goal, and anything cold and sweet will do, try a light or fat-free ice cream, which has far fewer calories and less fat.

Häagen-Dazs Vanilla Bean ($1.13 per ½ cup serving) topped the list of vanillas, for having a big dairy and real vanilla taste. It comes at a price, though, in the amount of 270 calories and 17 grams of fat per serving. Ben & Jerry's Vanilla ($0.97 per serving) and Häagen-Dazs Five Vanilla Bean ($1.13 per serving) took the other vanilla top spots. Ben & Jerry's has 230 calories and 14 grams of fat, while the Five Vanilla Bean has 220 calories and 11 grams of fat.

Among the Excellent chocolates, testers found that Archer Farms Belgian ($0.33 per serving) has an intense, complex chocolate flavor enhanced by bits of dark chocolate. It has 230 calories and 14 grams of fat per serving. Häagen-Dazs Five Milk Chocolate ($1.11 per serving) has 220 calories and 12 grams of fat, while Haagen-Dazs regular chocolate ($1.16 per serving) has 260 categories and 17 grams of fat. Ben & Jerry's ($1.02) has a strong chocolate flavor but is a touch icy, according to testers, and has 250 calories and 14 grams of fat.

Lower-rated ice creams are less creamy and less flavorful, with flaws such as an artificial taste or gumminess. It seems to be harder to make a high-quality vanilla ice cream than a high-quality chocolate. The chocolate flavor might help mask mistakes.

The tastiness of the top-rated products comes at a cost — they're full of calories and fat. And most are pretty pricey, 97 cents to $1.16 per half-cup serving. But Archer Farms costs 33 cents per serving.

Bottom line
For a special treat, try one of the top-rated ice creams. If more healthful fare is your goal, and anything cold and sweet will do, try a light or fat-free ice cream, which has far fewer calories and less fat.

Copyright © 2006-2010 Consumers Union of U.S., Inc. No reproduction, in whole or in part, without written permission.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Best scents to help you relax and stay alert

By: Allie Firestone, 10/15/08 3:03 PM Fall is chock-full of scents, and that’s one of the reasons I love it. Picking up on the huge variety of smells—whether it’s pumpkin pie, freshly-baked cookies, or spiced apple cider—is something I recently realized that I take for granted. Scientists say that humans can distinguish over 10,000 different odor molecules. Turns out, while it doesn’t require any conscious thought, our ability to pick up on a scent involves a sensitive and complex function that has powerful effects on our memory and behavior. How else can I explain how one whiff of pumpkin immediately conjures up thoughts of trick-or-treating and holiday gatherings? Scientists dedicated to tracking the complex relationship between smells, our behavior, and our moods have found that certain scents trigger feelings, including those that help us relax and fall asleep and those that perk us up and keep us alert and focused. Sleep and Relaxation Looks like I’m not the only one tossing and t...
2 comments
Read more

Anti-cancer foods

Posted by: Zap Mon, Sep 29, 2008, 1:44 pm PDT Source: Yahoo Health It turns out that a healthy diet can help to override any cancer-prone genes you might have at work in your body. "Nutrition has a bigger influence on cancer than inherited genes, which means you could significantly reduce your odds of the disease through diet alone," explains Joel Fuhrman, M.D., author of Eat for Health (Gift of Health Press). OK, OK. I know what you're thinking right about now: She's going to tell me I have to eat kale at every meal. Not so! I mean, for the record, you should always eat as many fruits and veggies as possible, because they will dramatically lower your odds of ever hearing the dreaded diagnosis. But there are many other, less rabbity ways to eat away at your cancer risk. Add whole grains to your diet. My two faves, aside from a thick piece of freshly baked whole-grain bread? Oatmeal with a pinch of cinnamon for breakfast, or brown rice with a chicken and veggie stir-f...
1 comment
Read more

Heart Healthy Fish - Health Benefits of Fish

July 6, 2010 Do fears about mercury keep you from reeling in the health benefits of fish? If so, you could be missing the love-your-heart boat. For most people, the healthy fats in fish provide a huge benefit to your heart and overall health -- even with a little mercury. Skeptical? Get this: Eating one to two 6-ounce servings of omega-3-rich fish each week reduces your risk of dying from heart disease by 36 percent! And your all-cause mortality rate drops by 17 percent. Soon-to-be or currently breastfeeding moms need to be especially careful to avoid excess mercury. Still, most people can do their heart and body right by eating one or two servings a week of omega-3-rich fish that is relatively low in mercury. Unfortunately, most fish contain some mercury, thanks to industrial processing. But the less time fish spend simply living in a mercury-laden environment or eating other fish containing mercury, the lower the contamination levels will be. So for low-mercury fish, we're talkin...
1 comment
Read more