- 2 days ago
Today on Epicurious, we’ve asked pro chefs Orlando Soto, Caroline Schiff, and Sam Mason to give us their unfiltered, honest reviews of some prominent vanilla ice creams found on supermarket shelves. Which vanilla ice cream packs the most bang for your buck, and which should you avoid at all costs?
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00We've gathered three ice cream experts
00:02to blind taste test every vanilla ice cream
00:05we could get our hands on
00:06to see which ones meet their standards.
00:14Haagen-Dazs Vanilla.
00:17The color is like a super pale yellow,
00:20so not a lot of egg yolk.
00:22It's not the most aesthetically vanilla
00:24looking ice cream I've ever seen.
00:26No vanilla seeds.
00:27Potentially this isn't like the most premium ice cream.
00:31So when it comes to vanilla ice cream,
00:33there's just a couple of things that I'm looking for.
00:35There should be a good vanilla quality.
00:38Seeing those flecks of a real vanilla bean,
00:40that to me indicates something more premium.
00:43You should be able to smell it.
00:45When it comes to dairy.
00:46You want it to be rich.
00:48Full fat.
00:49Obviously I'm looking for a great texture.
00:51A smooth, even melt on the tongue.
00:54It should melt in your mouth quite fast
00:56and that will deliver flavor.
00:58And finally, I am looking for a balanced sweetness.
01:01It's what my kids probably think is the best part about ice cream.
01:06The vanilla here fades very quickly.
01:08It's hardly there at all.
01:09I don't think this is real vanilla.
01:11As far as richness goes, it's pretty thin there as well.
01:15It melts so quickly on the tongue.
01:17It feels like it's really milky as opposed to creamy.
01:21Texturally, it's really not bringing a lot to the table.
01:24It's definitely got some ice crystals in there.
01:26It doesn't really have that luxurious,
01:29belvety mouth feel that I'm looking for.
01:31The sweetness is pretty right on it.
01:33It feels like the amount of sugar you would need to eat an entire two scoops
01:37and not feel like you ate a pound of sugar.
01:40All right.
01:40Oh my God.
01:42Haagen-Dazs, you can do better.
01:44Haagen-Dazs was born right here in New York City in the Bronx.
01:47They made up the name and they wanted it to sound European,
01:52because that at the time signified like high-end luxury.
01:57Five ingredients.
01:59That's really nice to see.
02:00There's no stabilizers.
02:02Which means that the yolk that you can see acts as that.
02:05It's a pretty straightforward product.
02:07The first ingredient here is cream.
02:09That's good.
02:10We want that.
02:10But the second ingredient is skim milk.
02:13And that to me is just making it feel way too light and almost like watery on the mouth.
02:21Once you look into the container, you can see that it has like that hint of yellow in it,
02:26which correlates to the presence of yolk.
02:29So they're using the lestin from the egg yolks as a natural stabilizer,
02:33which in my eyes is a premium trait.
02:36That would be a French style ice cream.
02:38There are two types of ice cream.
02:39There's French style and there's Philadelphia style.
02:42Haagen-Dazs is French style, which contains yolk.
02:45Essentially, you're making a custard before you're freezing it.
02:48Philadelphia style doesn't have any eggs.
02:50One's not better than the other, by any means.
02:52I like the richness.
02:53I like the flavor that egg yolks provide.
02:56But they also have a flavor.
02:58The ice cream itself, the flavor you're trying to achieve,
03:01has to be able to stand up to the egg yolks and kind of overcome the egg yolk.
03:05High level looking at ice cream.
03:07We're talking about fat, sugar, water, and air.
03:12It's really important to balance those four things.
03:15Haagen-Dazs has let me down a little bit here.
03:18Me and Haagen-Dazs have a lot to get through.
03:20This might be in my therapy session this week.
03:26I'm seeing some flecks of vanilla, which makes me very happy.
03:31It looks more vanilla than Haagen-Dazs.
03:34Definitely a shade of white, so I'm not seeing a lot of that egg yolk custardy-ness
03:42that we could have in there.
03:45It's got that same one-dimensional vanilla.
03:47It disappears immediately.
03:48I personally would want like a little more fat in there.
03:51It's rich, but it's not necessarily dairy.
03:54I'm not getting ice crystals, so I really like that.
03:58The texture is light and very aerated.
04:00There are literally bubbles like popping out.
04:02That tells me there's more air pumped into it,
04:05which is known as overrun in the ice cream making process.
04:10It does enhance some flavors, vanilla probably not so much,
04:12but it also enhances the bottom line, like the profit margin.
04:15Essentially, they're selling you air.
04:18Not incredibly sweet, actually.
04:20I could probably have like two scoops and not feel like I'm completely done.
04:24If I were to guess, I'd say a less expensive brand,
04:27something that's widely available, Breyers.
04:30Breyers.
04:32Natural vanilla.
04:34Breyers.
04:35Yes.
04:35So this is a Philadelphia-style ice cream.
04:37No yolk.
04:38It's not as fatty, super dairy-forward on the tongue, and a little lighter and airier.
04:45Eggs are also a stabilizer.
04:48The natural lecithin in egg yolks does a lot of the work for you.
04:51The problem being is egg yolks are expensive.
04:55To keep its structure, the Philadelphia-style ice cream uses
04:59Terra gum in the case of Breyers specifically.
05:02With that gum, you're able to not get that icy mouthfeel.
05:05You're also able to not let it like melt super quickly.
05:08The gum is basically free.
05:10So, wow, they didn't really spend a lot of money on anything in this thing.
05:13Well, that's why they're a very wealthy company.
05:16Natural flavor means that it's not synthetic in origin.
05:20Sometimes you'll see Vanillin in an ingredient list,
05:24and that is manufactured vanilla flavor.
05:28Much less complex than a real vanilla bean and very cost-effective.
05:33You can get away with a lot if you write natural flavors.
05:37That said, it does have some specs in it, so probably some vanilla.
05:40We don't know.
05:40It's a very solid supermarket brand.
05:44Van Leeuwen Vanilla Bean Ice Cream.
05:47This one's very yellow.
05:48Definitely has some egg in it.
05:50There you can see specs.
05:52This is looking like a little more premium.
05:56This vanilla flavor is really good.
05:58It's still lingering on my tongue.
06:01It makes me want to go back for more.
06:03It's rich, but the fat kind of like melts out, which is characteristic of butter fat.
06:08Texture is great.
06:10It's smooth.
06:11It doesn't feel like there's a lot of air in it, and it's leaning towards like a French vanilla style.
06:18It's very custardy, actually.
06:19So the color might really be coming from it.
06:21The sweetness on this one is absolutely perfect.
06:24It has a bit of salt to it, too.
06:26It helps all of the other flavors come out.
06:28Kind of like makes you salivate.
06:30It's just like a well-made ice cream.
06:32Ah!
06:33It's Van Leeuwen.
06:34This is a New York brand.
06:35They did a great job.
06:37It is a French-style ice cream.
06:40Sea salt.
06:41Look at that.
06:41It just makes it pop.
06:43They do write that it's vanilla extract and vanilla bean.
06:46They just sort of give different notes of the vanilla.
06:49The vanilla extract is kind of like the anchoring flavor, if you will.
06:55That baseline of like, this is what vanilla should taste like.
06:58When you combine it with the vanilla bean, you get those other hundreds of flavor profiles
07:04that the vanilla bean brings.
07:06And you can use a lot less of it because you've faked the funk on the extract.
07:12This is how you make small margins and people happy.
07:15Happy with this one.
07:16That is a delicious ice cream.
07:19Edie's Vanilla.
07:21No specs.
07:23Pale yellow color.
07:25So that tells me there might be some egg yolk in there, which is nice.
07:29Very soft.
07:30This is loaded with stabilizers.
07:35Oh boy.
07:36That's unpleasant.
07:37The vanilla is very subtle.
07:40Fades fairly quickly.
07:41I don't even get richness.
07:43There's something going on with the fat from just how it layers.
07:46Really nice texture.
07:48Super smooth.
07:50It's definitely the sweetest I've had so far.
07:52You can't even discern the dairy.
07:54It's so stabilized that nothing can melt on your tongue.
07:58So it goes down your throat before you even have a chance to decipher what it tastes like.
08:05I want this to be like a big old box.
08:09Edie's.
08:09I can't believe what I put in my body just now.
08:11On the east coast, it's called Edie's.
08:13On the west coast, it's called Dryer's.
08:16Frozen dairy dessert.
08:18Technically not ice cream.
08:20According to the FDA, if an ice cream has less than 10% dairy fat,
08:27you cannot call it ice cream legally.
08:3114 is like, starts getting up near like the premium.
08:34First ingredient is skim milk.
08:36No fat.
08:37So you have to compensate for that.
08:39Skim milk also has high water content.
08:41So you really need some stabilizers in there to prevent ice crystals forming and help it freeze.
08:47The second ingredient is corn syrup, which I could have told you that.
08:51Corn syrup is an invert sugar.
08:54Invert sugars are sugars that are liquids.
08:58They create very smooth textures.
08:59They don't like to freeze.
09:01There's so many ways to screw up ice cream.
09:04Why did I get into the ice cream business?
09:05Not my go-to.
09:07Ben and Jerry's Vanilla.
09:10This is a lovely, smooth scoop.
09:13Air, yeah.
09:15Some specs.
09:17Nice vanilla flavor.
09:19I wouldn't mind a little more.
09:21This is a lower fat percentage, which I'm getting from the mouthfeel.
09:26Not a lot of yolk, if at all.
09:29But the texture on here, very smooth.
09:31No ice crystals.
09:32Melts very quickly.
09:34If I were to guess, not necessarily a lot of stabilizers.
09:38Sweetness-wise, it's pretty balanced.
09:41It's not super sweet.
09:42No way. I'm so sad.
09:44It's Ben and Jerry's.
09:45It's got all the stuff it's supposed to have.
09:47Why does it taste like that?
09:49Skim milk to me just doesn't really make sense in there.
09:51I think for a manufacturer it makes sense.
09:53It's a cheap ingredient.
09:55But then you have to compensate with all this other stuff.
09:58There's two sugars in it.
09:59Liquid sugar.
10:00Liquid sugar means invert sugar.
10:02Feels very smooth because it has that more aggressive and higher amount of sugar.
10:08Sugar doesn't like to freeze.
10:11So it helps prevent ice crystals from forming and gives you quite a smooth ice cream.
10:19There's water in here, which feels weird.
10:22It's adding like some volume to it without adding cost.
10:28I think it's a lot sweeter than I remember it.
10:31If you like went across America and asked people what their favorite ice cream is,
10:37I think that a lot of people would say Ben and Jerry's.
10:42This is so bad.
10:44Turkey Hill, original vanilla.
10:47Nice and thick, very dense.
10:50I can smell vanilla or vanillin from a frozen form.
10:54So that means that it definitely has that like alcohol component to it.
10:58That's literally evaporating into the atmosphere.
11:03The vanilla disappears immediately.
11:06Maybe they forgot the middle.
11:07The dairy is actually not terrible.
11:09It's kind of actually relatively rich.
11:11The texture is okay.
11:12It's got a good bite.
11:13It's not melting.
11:15It's not like super icy.
11:17The sweetness is low.
11:19It has like a yellowish tinge.
11:21Tells me there's probably a yolk in it, but it doesn't taste super fatty.
11:27This one's getting me, giving me the turkey.
11:28That's turkey.
11:29Turkey Hill.
11:30Premium quality ice cream.
11:32When it says premium, that means higher milk fat and higher milk solids.
11:36There's no egg in it.
11:37I was wrong.
11:38And again, it's got some food dyes in it.
11:41Anato is a seed.
11:42It grows in a pod, almost like chestnuts do.
11:45It's red in its form.
11:47When you infuse it into things, you get kind of a yellowish color.
11:52That and caramel color is what's giving this the faux yolk situation.
11:56It really doesn't have a flavor and it's not obviously adding anything to the texture.
12:02Interesting.
12:03They have engineered something that is a really good dupe for a very high fat premium ice cream.
12:09Not my fave.
12:12Talenti Gelata Madagascan Vanilla Bean.
12:15This one is interesting.
12:16It's almost translucent.
12:17It does have specks of water-cold vanilla bean.
12:20Nice and thick.
12:21Hangs on the spoon.
12:23Hopefully that means delicious fat and not stabilizers, but let's see.
12:29The vanilla in here is intense, not necessarily in a bad way.
12:34Like it gives you first and lingering flavor.
12:37So vanilla extract and vanilla bean potentially.
12:41I'm at a loss on this one.
12:42It doesn't have that richness.
12:45It's not pleasant.
12:46It's definitely got like a nuttiness to it.
12:48It's not French style.
12:50If it had some egg yolks, it might have a better texture.
12:52Icier than any of the other ones so far.
12:55Just a really poorly homogenized product.
12:58I hate being so critical, but I'm getting really good at it.
13:01A little too sweet for me.
13:03That makes sense now.
13:03All right.
13:04Talenti.
13:05Their branding was fantastic.
13:07This is the only one that's packaged like this where you can see the ice cream and you can really
13:11see
13:12the vanilla bean.
13:13It's gelato.
13:14Gelato is always going to be lower fat content than ice cream.
13:18It also generally doesn't have egg yolks.
13:21Mostly milk and not cream.
13:22It's a slower churned, slower frozen product.
13:26A little more air worked into it.
13:28Typically gelato is served slightly warmer than traditional ice cream is.
13:32It's almost at the range of soft serve.
13:34It also says here lemon peel.
13:36Italian product, lemon is a big thing in Sicily.
13:39The essential oils from the lemon probably can enhance the vanilla.
13:42There is real sugar in here, but then you also have the dextrose.
13:46Dextrose has almost twice the effect of like antifreeze.
13:50Like drying water and not letting it form crystals.
13:53It's less sweet than granulated sugar.
13:55A great thing to add to ice creams and gelatos to make them smoother but less sweet at the same
14:01time.
14:02Now that I know it's a gelato, I'm a little less critical.
14:04Not as fatty and smooth as I would like, but definitely like a really lovely flavor profile.
14:13Trader Joe's French vanilla.
14:15It's yellowish.
14:17It's very gummy.
14:18No specks.
14:19Feels dense and smooth.
14:23It's good.
14:24Oh wow, that's good.
14:25The vanilla flavor is really nice even though it doesn't have the aroma.
14:29I wouldn't necessarily call this like high quality vanilla, sort of artificial.
14:33If it is imitation, they've used a very good one.
14:37It's got a richness.
14:38It's creamy.
14:38It's probably got eggs in it.
14:39It's super smooth.
14:41Texturally it's, they're not doing a terrible job.
14:44Definitely some yolk in the vase.
14:46Really dense and creamy and fatty.
14:48The mouthfeel is great.
14:50It's got a nice sweetness.
14:51I think it's going for premium ice cream feel without necessarily being premium ice cream.
14:57Trader Joe's French vanilla.
14:58Super premium ice cream.
15:00Well done Trader Joe's.
15:02Cream is up first.
15:04Milk.
15:04Great.
15:05Egg yolks.
15:06Feels like a more premium ice cream, which it says.
15:10I did not know this was super premium.
15:12So the difference between premium and super premium is fat.
15:15It's quite fatty, which I like.
15:19It's not super vanilla forward.
15:21I wouldn't have it if I was going for like vanilla as in,
15:25as the flavor of the main thing, but a good sweet cream ice cream.
15:28I haven't tried Trader Joe's before and I think it's quite good.
15:32My wife likes them.
15:33I don't, I don't like standing in lines.
15:37Jenny's Honey Vanilla Bean.
15:39This one looks like vanilla ice cream.
15:41I can see the flux all over.
15:43We like to see that.
15:44Does have a good amount of stabilizer.
15:46Not entirely a bad thing.
15:49Oh yeah.
15:49It's tasty.
15:50Very vanilla forward.
15:52The vanilla beans, it seems real.
15:54It's rich.
15:56Really smooth and velvety.
15:59It's pretty high on the, on the sweet level.
16:01It's a little too sweet for me.
16:03There might be a combination of like sugar and invert sugar in there.
16:09That's a good one.
16:10This one's good.
16:11This one's checking a lot of the boxes.
16:15Jenny's Honey Vanilla Bean.
16:17Honey, that's a great addition.
16:19You can taste like a bit of the acidity that honey has.
16:23It's an invert sugar.
16:24One way of thinking of inverted sugars is what we call the folded chair analogy.
16:30So the chair is the same chair, whether it's folded or unfolded.
16:33But by folding it, you're able to fit more chairs into the same space.
16:39Sucrose or granulated sugar is that open chair.
16:42Invert sugar is that folded chair that you can like fit.
16:45It's the same chair. It's made out of the same stuff.
16:47It's just formed differently.
16:49It prevents crystallization.
16:51So for Philadelphia style ice creams, it's very convenient to like remove
16:57crystal formation using a stronger sugar.
17:01So that's also helping it be like really smooth.
17:04That's also a little sweeter.
17:06What honey has also is like a really unique flavor profile.
17:11So tapioca syrup would be kind of like a gum solution.
17:15You know, it's like tapioca is a starch and it kind of brings that stabilizing effect
17:20to the, to the product.
17:21So she doesn't have to use any real stabilizers, which is pretty, pretty badass.
17:26Vanilla bean specs.
17:27And shortly before vanilla extract, you're immediately thinking like,
17:31oh, this ice cream is like premium, premium, premium quality.
17:34I'm going to eat because the vanilla specs are like in a high amount.
17:38I think this is my favorite so far.
17:42Hello top vanilla bean.
17:44This one looks like it was injected with air.
17:48It looks almost like foamy, uniquey, funny texture.
17:51It doesn't weigh a lot.
17:52So maybe on the low calorie side, high air side.
17:56I don't know.
17:57I'm not sure what this is exactly.
17:59This is void of flavor.
18:01You see the specs, but you don't get like vanilla.
18:04This is bizarro.
18:06Very chemically aftertaste.
18:08I can't imagine that any kind of cream is on the list of ingredients.
18:11It's not very rich, but that might just be the amount of air that you have per spoonful.
18:16It's melting very fast.
18:17It's got a graininess to it.
18:19A little iciness, something very unnatural about it.
18:22Halo top comes to mind.
18:24Is this hummus?
18:26Halo top.
18:27Nailed it.
18:28Lower in calories, lower in fat.
18:31I could tell there was something suspicious going on here.
18:35They call it light ice cream.
18:37I don't know if there's a window below that 10% fat content where you can call yourself light ice
18:41cream.
18:42That's something new to me.
18:43A good source of protein, which is probably why it's also like elastic.
18:47Yuck.
18:47The first sugar mentioned is erythritol.
18:50So that's an alcohol sugar like dextrose.
18:53It's less sweet than granulated sugar, but even stronger than dextrose in its texture effect.
18:59Like it's in its antifreeze.
19:01And that's why it's like melting, but still like almost like holding shape with all the gums.
19:06And it also has like a chemical aftertaste.
19:09Stevia leaf, which always to me has like a very sort of distinct kind of chemical-y taste.
19:16When you add these other sugars, the caloric weight is probably lower.
19:21I guess it has to be.
19:21There may be a good alternative for people that have diabetes or any other condition that needs
19:27to circumvent calories for.
19:28I wouldn't eat this.
19:30I mean, the whole point of ice cream is decadence, right?
19:32Like, I just want to eat ice cream.
19:34Just give me my ice cream.
19:35I'll eat the good ice cream and run after it.
19:39Alex, Tahitian vanilla bean.
19:42I'm seeing some specks.
19:43Subtle vanilla aroma.
19:45Dairy melts immediately.
19:46So not a lot of protein, not a lot of stabilizers.
19:50The first icy one, very icy.
19:53Ice is water, so...
19:55If it isn't stabilized in the right way, homogenized or emulsified with fat.
20:00The ice cream might separate into its original formula.
20:04Everything kind of, like, goes by density.
20:07So, like, fat at the top, water in the middle, sugars at the bottom.
20:10You can feel, like, crunchy bits as you're biting into it.
20:14It's all ice.
20:15There's a pretty nice vanilla flavor.
20:17There's not a lot of fat in this ice cream.
20:19It's not rich and creamy.
20:20I almost feel like it's non-dairy because of this, like, coconutty or, like, nuttiness I'm getting.
20:27The texture you're going for in ice cream.
20:29Not quite creamy enough for me.
20:31This feels like the right amount of sweetness.
20:33It might be, like, an artificial sweetener,
20:37but not a potent one that keeps the ice cream smooth.
20:40I think this is a brand that has low fat and or low sugar in its marketing.
20:47I want to say it's not, like, a super premium brand.
20:50Ah, thank you.
20:51Ah.
20:52Alex, A2A2 Dairy.
20:55The packaging is really cute.
20:57Happy cows on there.
20:58Tahitian Vanilla Bean.
20:59Vanilla beans come from several places in the world.
21:01Tahitian reads well.
21:03It looks great on a label.
21:04They're all expensive and they're all very hard to produce.
21:07They're all premium.
21:08It's got the real deal in there, plus Tahitian vanilla extract.
21:12So kind of getting, like, all of the notes of that vanilla.
21:16And I really, really like that flavor.
21:18I mean, who doesn't want to go to Tahiti, right?
21:20Clean labels, not a lot of garbage, which they've done a good job.
21:24And it's made with A2 Dairy.
21:25Certain cows produce milk that is less harsh on your stomach.
21:29So people who are lactose intolerant can sometimes tolerate A2.
21:33Which is really nice because everybody should be able to enjoy ice cream.
21:38Texturally, it kind of is working uphill with the lack of any kind of stabilization.
21:44Too icing for me.
21:45I wouldn't try to get it in a scoop in a cone and try to get out on a hot
21:49summer day
21:49because it's not going to last very long.
21:54It is pale.
21:56Diabolical white ice cream.
21:57My guess is there's no egg in here.
22:00Kind of looks like a really awesome, like, lemon sorbet.
22:04No vanilla whatsoever.
22:05Like, I'm getting more artificial.
22:08It's not creamy.
22:09It doesn't taste very rich.
22:11It's a really bad texture.
22:12It's foamy.
22:13It's almost like a marshmallow.
22:14Whatever gum combination is in it is making it very chewy.
22:20Chewy ice cream, if you will.
22:21It's a thing.
22:21The sweetness is okay.
22:23It just doesn't taste very premium.
22:25I feel like there's a rando sugar in here.
22:27I don't guess, but a lower quality and like a more inexpensive one.
22:30This is the biggest box of ice cream we've seen yet, I think.
22:32Aha!
22:32Friendly's vanilla, scooping since 1935.
22:36Very famous for the conehead sundae.
22:38Premium ice cream, so it meets the fat requirements.
22:42Sweet cream buttermilk.
22:44Buttermilk is the byproduct of butter-making process,
22:47so you've like pulled out all the good fats, so it's not fatty.
22:51But the third ingredient is corn syrup, and that's after sugar.
22:55So you're getting a very sweet, like very high sugar-containing scoop.
23:01A bunch of stabilizers in here.
23:03More gum, xanthan, and carrageenan.
23:06The moment you see gum, it does exactly what you think gum does.
23:10It makes it elastic.
23:12It'll help prevent melting.
23:13It doesn't allow the water and the sugar to kind of like bind fully and kind of like start trickling
23:20down the
23:20way ice cream does normally. So gums are important for texture during transportation or like just the
23:26freeze-thaw cycles of every freezer.
23:29They're all plant-based, so they read creepier than they really are, which has always kind of been a bummer.
23:34But the flip side of it is that it makes it chewy as a result, just like gum is.
23:38This just has all stabilizers in it.
23:40We also do want our ice cream to melt a little bit because as it warms up, those flavors start
23:48to come out.
23:49I think for a lot of people, Friendly's is probably quite nostalgic.
23:53But it's not the most like vanilla-forward.
23:55Definitely not vanilla.
23:59365 by Whole Foods. Vanilla.
24:01This is yellow. It's almost the color of the table.
24:03I don't know if it's a natto or egg yolks. We're about to find out.
24:06It's fooled me countless times today.
24:08The vanilla is subtle. I wouldn't mind a little more.
24:12I don't taste vanilla. It's definitely rich.
24:14It's not overly creamy.
24:16Texture-wise, it's on the smooth side, but it's very dense.
24:19This buttery color could be egg yolks and it's French style.
24:24It feels like it has the richness, so hopefully that's coming from the dairy and not stabilizers.
24:31It's not overly sweet.
24:33It does have a really lovely sweetness.
24:35This is a really nice scoop.
24:36Can't be at Whole Foods.
24:38Oh, 365.
24:39Yep.
24:39365 Whole Foods Market vanilla ice cream.
24:42Anato extract for color.
24:44They tricked us.
24:46No yolks, just milk ingredients.
24:51I've never known anato to be used when you weren't trying to fool somebody.
24:57Feels very interesting to be like hoodwinked by commercial ice cream.
25:00But the first two ingredients are whole milk and cream.
25:05So it does have that fattiness, which is really nice.
25:09Kind of middle of the road.
25:11Back to the drawing board for this one.
25:12Not great.
25:15Adirondack Creamery vanilla.
25:17I like the look here.
25:19We've got lots of flecks of vanilla bean.
25:23Like when you would see a TV spot and then they would scoop it.
25:26This has that look.
25:32This has a really pleasant flavor.
25:34True vanilla flavor.
25:35Kind of floral, like maybe Tahitian or something like that.
25:38Longer lasting flavor than the other ones.
25:40The dairy feels like nice and rich.
25:44It's got a great texture.
25:45Velvety smooth on the tongue.
25:48Sweetness level is perfect.
25:49It's got some salt.
25:50It's dynamic.
25:51Definitely.
25:52This feels very premium.
25:54It's really great, actually.
25:55This might remind me of what I thought Hagenauz was supposed to be.
26:00Adirondack.
26:00Yes.
26:01Delicious New York State local brand.
26:05That's why it's called Adirondack.
26:06Cream milk, sugar, nonfat dry milk, egg yolks, and vanilla extract.
26:10That's exactly what you want the label to say.
26:12Special blends of vanilla beans from Tahiti and Madagascar.
26:16To me, Tahitian vanilla is like a little more like
26:19brighter, lighter floral Madagascar.
26:22It's a little more robust.
26:24Really beautiful flavor.
26:26Pretty tasty.
26:27These guys are great.
26:29McConnell's RR Lockhead Vanilla Bean.
26:32This is one of the most vanilla ice cream aesthetics I've seen.
26:35Lots of visible vanilla bean.
26:37It looks very creamy.
26:40No Faconato look.
26:42This is the best vanilla flavor we've had yet.
26:45Whoever's making this and is using actual vanilla beans is...
26:48Fat content's very high.
26:50Very smooth.
26:51Texture's great.
26:52I think it's the right amount of sweet.
26:54This is a higher, if not finer tuned, ice cream.
26:58Really lovely.
26:58This is really good.
26:59No!
27:00McConnell's, you guys, I tell you, you did good.
27:05RR Lockheed proprietary Madagascar vanilla beans.
27:09RR Lockheed.
27:09This guy, he's a vanilla guru from Madagascar.
27:13They've differentiated their vanilla.
27:15It ain't just Daesh and it ain't just Madagascar.
27:17You're gonna...
27:18It's got that guy, the guru.
27:19It's got the guru's name on it.
27:20There's no stabilizer added to this other than the yolk,
27:23which functions as a stabilizer in this case, and the tapioca starch.
27:27Tapioca starch is functioning as a stabilizer to retain water,
27:32to fix it in place and swell, which is what fiber does.
27:35It's less stretchy.
27:37Literally just cuts and it melts at a good rate.
27:40This is a top-notch ice cream.
27:42It's one of my favorites so far.
27:45Telemark vanilla bean.
27:47It has a couple of specs here and there.
27:50The color is pretty white, so I'm gonna say there's no egg in here.
27:56You kind of think immediately, oh, this has like more milk than like butter fat.
28:00That's a little like taffy.
28:02It's nice.
28:03It's a very like natural vanilla flavor, which I really appreciate.
28:07It's not super rich, but it has enough fat that it churns.
28:11It has a really nice smooth mouth feel.
28:14Lighter by way of air.
28:15Reminds me of the halo top.
28:17Sweetness on this one is high.
28:19I think the sweetener is not all sugar, like just cane sugar.
28:23It doesn't have the things I like about ice cream.
28:25Is it Tillamook?
28:27Tillamook.
28:28Tillamook is west coast.
28:30Made with extra cream.
28:31Yep, cream is the first ingredient.
28:34It's a strange concoction of dairy products and sugar.
28:37Terragum and guar gum.
28:38Not such a terrible thing, especially when ice cream is traveling.
28:42A little stabilizer is a great insurance policy.
28:45It's reading good.
28:46Cream skim milk, milk, sugar, egg yolks.
28:49It was underwhelming.
28:51It's so crazy to me that it can have all the right ingredients
28:54and just not the right proportions.
28:56I really like it.
28:59Favorite day, homemade vanilla.
29:02It seems eggy.
29:02Very buttery yellow.
29:05Very pretty.
29:06Is it yolks or are they fooling me with annatto?
29:10Doesn't really have the vanilla thing going on.
29:13I think vanilla extract.
29:16It tastes rich.
29:17It's very creamy.
29:19There's no ice crystals.
29:20It's custardy.
29:21Good texture.
29:22I think I eat past the flavor and I really like the composition of the ice cream itself.
29:28The sweetness is really good.
29:30Pretty balanced.
29:31It doesn't take much just to add some vanilla to these things.
29:34They really do.
29:34Yes, they do.
29:35Favorite day.
29:36I should have known.
29:38This is Target store brand.
29:40Okay.
29:41A homemade vanilla flavored, yum ice cream.
29:45It's ice cream.
29:45It's not a frozen dessert.
29:47So that means it's got enough fat, which I can taste that.
29:51It says homemade, but package laboratory experiment.
29:55It has quite a bit of stuff here.
29:58Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
30:00I can't read all this.
30:02There's 900 ingredients in here.
30:04This is impressive.
30:05But a lot of them are repetitive, which is kind of weird.
30:08This repeats water like five times.
30:10First few ingredients are straightforward, what we want to see.
30:14We've got milk, cream, sugar, custard base, some preservatives.
30:19This is the opposite of clean labeling.
30:21That's insane.
30:22I just can't imagine this factory's storage of ingredients.
30:26Vanilla is not listed in the ingredients.
30:29It just says natural flavor.
30:32How do you put homemade on this?
30:33In what world does that even translate to what this product is?
30:37All that being said, this is a nice tasting vanilla.
30:43They somehow ended up with a great texture, which I'm blown away by.
30:47Now let's see which ice creams our experts liked the most and the least.
30:51From a guy who owns an ice cream company,
30:54I don't think I've ever eaten that much ice cream in one sitting.
30:57One of my favorite ice creams I tasted today was McConnell's,
31:00because they had lingering both front and floral vanilla flavor.
31:04The texture and the amount of vanilla bean and the quality of the dairy
31:10was just above and beyond.
31:13Clean label, few ingredients.
31:14That's the kind of ice cream that you can go back to because it's not too sweet.
31:18I loved the Adirondack vanilla ice cream.
31:21That was French style, so it had the egg yolks in it.
31:26There was very good vanilla flavor.
31:28Super creamy.
31:30Texturally, formulation was very well balanced.
31:33I also really liked Jenny's.
31:36Texturally, it was awesome.
31:38The vanilla bean with the honey, I loved that.
31:41I thought it was so interesting and smart to use a different kind of sweetener in there that has
31:49its own flavor profiles.
31:51One of my favorite things about ice cream is having that salt profile.
31:55It was really creamy and it had a beautiful richness to it.
32:00At the end of the day, Jenny's just really conscious of the ingredients she puts in her ice creams.
32:04I also really like Van Leeuwen's vanilla ice cream.
32:06This ice cream was rich tasting, but not super fatty.
32:10A very good vanilla, very good dairy profile, very clean.
32:14As for the ice creams that I didn't enjoy as much, I wasn't a big fan of Friendly's.
32:20Too artificial flavoring and the texture was off for me.
32:24It just didn't have enough fatty deliciousness in there.
32:28I like to think of it as like that necessary evil.
32:30It's very nostalgic.
32:32It is at a great price point and it makes many, many, many people happy.
32:37I just might not be one of those people.
32:39The halo top kind of fell short for me as well.
32:41I don't want anything that is like diet-y, low calorie, low fat.
32:49You know, I don't really want to feel good about myself when I'm eating ice cream.
32:51I'm kind of fine with, you know, being in the empty bathtub, maybe the shower running.
32:56It just didn't have quite the right flavor or texture.
33:01Those alternative sugars had an aftertaste that I didn't really like.
33:05I also wasn't a fan of Turkey Hill.
33:07The vanilla disappeared.
33:08The texture was off and had too many gums going on.
33:14As a pastry chef, ice cream is one of my favorite things to make.
33:17And I kind of think the simpler, the better.
33:20What you want to do is to try to lean towards a few ingredients.
33:25Cream first or milk first.
33:27Look for ones that say ice cream as opposed to frozen dessert,
33:33because that's not technically ice cream.
33:36But at the end of the day, if you like it, then it's good ice cream to you.
33:42But I feel like if you just take it home and don't eat the whole thing,
33:45you might as well throw it out.
33:46It just sits there.
33:47It's going to get all freezer burnt.
33:49Eat it. It's a portion.
33:50So this is me, an ice cream professional,
33:52telling you that you can eat the entire pint of ice cream in one sitting.
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