"Noble patricians, patrons of my right, defend the justice of my cause with arms; and, countrymen, my loving followers, plead my successive title with your swords."
- Shakespeare, Saturninus in "Titus Andronicus"
Thursday, October 5, 2006
Let's discuss something serious for a moment, shall we? What's your favorite ice cream brand? I buy Edy's most often, and I prefer it to Breyers. Edy's vanilla or their cream in general tastes richer, creamer, thicker than Breyers. Is it better or even noticably different than the locally churned Mayfields or Texas-based Blue Bell? I don't know. I may like those brands equally.
But what about you? Do you prefer the grocery store brands, the high-end ones, or the ones mentioned above?
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Comments on "The Best Ice Cream Vote":
2. Hunter Baker
- 10/05/2006 4:38 pm EDT
I have to go with an old, old favorite. Don't know if they even make it any more because my stores don't carry it. It's Borden's French Vanilla. Yellowish color, smooth as silk.
For something current, I love Bruster's Ice Cream. Available only at their stores. Favorite is Mint Oreo.
3. Diana
- 10/05/2006 9:57 pm EDT
Costco's Kirkland brand is the best ice cream I have ever tasted in my life, and since it only comes in vanilla (and I'm a slave to chocolate), that's saying a lot. When I first discovered it I gained 15 pounds in a month! I can't buy it very often...
4. Phil
- 10/05/2006 10:21 pm EDT
That's funny, Diana. I haven't had Kirkland. What about chocolate flavors? Cheap tasting chocolate ice cream can taste pretty bad.
Hunter, we haven't had Bruster's until recently. Now there's a store not far from my house. I want to go sometime soon.
5. blestwithsons
- 10/05/2006 10:39 pm EDT
My favorite vanilla is Breyer's Natural Vanilla
But my favorite ice cream of all time is Ben &Jerry's Heath Bar Coffee Crunch. Oh my...
And the only proper chocolate mint is Baskin Robbins.
6. Anne
- 10/05/2006 11:59 pm EDT
Right now my favorite is Starbucks Java Chip. Second favorite is Ben & Jerry's New York Superfudge Chunk. Gotta have chunks and chips in my ice cream!
7. Phil
- 10/06/2006 9:32 am EDT
I like Breyer's Natural Vanilla better than their other vanillas too, especially the French Vanilla which if I remember correctly tastes a bit artificial.
I'm with you on the chunks and chips, Anne. I love lots of junk in my ice cream. I need to get come Java Chip soon.
9. Michael
- 10/06/2006 12:01 pm EDT
Is this strictly for ice cream you buy at the store, or does soft serve from a restaurant count? A nearby ice cream stand called the "Purple Cow" has this "Flavor Burst" ice cream which is really, really, really good.
As a two year resident of Texas some time ago I'd vouch for Blue Bell (it had very amusing commercials, too), and a more local brand called "Promised Land Dairy".
10. Omie
- 10/06/2006 12:29 pm EDT
At least every other month, "Jake" and I make our pilgrimage to Brewster's off Jenkins and East Brainerd for his small cup of ice cream. Dogs eat 4 free. Shhhh! The best kept secret in town.
Still loyal to our local Mayfield's Homemade Vanilla. Love the funny story Scottie Mayfield tells on himself about trucking his big cow, "Betsy," through Alabama on his way to the "Rick and Bubba Show" and the troopers stopped to ticket him. Our THP would know better than to ticket an ice cream icon.
11. Phil
- 10/06/2006 1:15 pm EDT
Michael, we don't have to stick to store-bought products, but local stores have limited influence. I have never ever come within ten miles of the Purple Cow. It reminds me of how rotten it is to spend too much on cheap ice cream at a tourist spot or too much on a tiny scoop of it.
When I was growing up, there was a little place up from our church called the Double Dip Depot (train theme, you know). It gave you huge scoops for the regular ~$1 cone, possibly twice as big as Baskins-Robbins cones. Naturally, it went out of business.
14. Phil
- 10/07/2006 9:30 am EDT
Ha! I did yesterday. I had planned to buy a quart of something, but I have four girls who don't agree on flavors. No nuts for one, no fruit for another, no chocolate for Mommy. It's a challenge, so we got separate cones--Birthday Cake, Chocolate, Strawberry, White Turtle, and Coffee Ripple. I'm glad the youngest one could eat for free. Small cones are usually too much for her.
I had the Coffee Ripple, which could have had a little more coffee flavor, but it was good. I don't feel I fully appeciate Brusters ice cream though. I need more experience with it, heh, heh.
16. judy
- 10/12/2006 10:28 pm EDT
Hudsonville Ice Cream. YUM. I know it's made locally (west michigan), but I'm not sure how far it travels.
Blue Moon Hudsonville Ice Cream.
It is WONDERFUL.
21. Gary
- 01/30/2009 5:51 am EST
I have always liked the ice cream from the parlors, but I have noticed that they're too expensive for my budget, $6 a cone... I don't think thats very reasonable with 4 children all wanting ice cream. I never liked the cheap supermarket brands, they're awful!
22. Phil
- 01/30/2009 9:14 am EST
I agree on the cheap brands. I remember eating Flav-o-rich brand chocolate or something as a kid--absolutely awful, like those waxy Easter bunny candies.
23. Greybeard
- 01/30/2009 9:36 pm EST
As I type, I've just finished a bowl of Wally World's Great Value brand Strawberry Ice Cream that was on sale this week for $2.50 a half gallon brick. I topped it with a line of chocolate sauce and a second ring of Milky Way flavoured fudge. I must have very indiscriminate taste buds in that I found it very nummy. It may have helped that this was the first dip from a new carton with the cellophane freshly removed. History has shown me that future servings from this box will be much harder and less creamy.
24. Phil
- 01/31/2009 10:09 pm EST
Well, those toppings are going to influence, even override, the flavor of the ice cream, and all cheap brands are not created equal nor are all cheap flavors. I think tasting five different cheap brand chocolate ice creams would give you a sense of their innate quality, b/c chocolate seems to be harder to make well and cheaply. Strawberry may be much easier, and Great Value may be much better than PET or the store brands. I hear Publix store brand is pretty good.
25. Greybeard
- 02/01/2009 1:30 pm EST
I used to love Hy-Vee for their store brands. (everything but pasta. Still gotta stick with name-brand pasta or it will be sticky.) Unfortunately I am now 2-300 miles from the closest Hy-Vee store. When I moved from SE South Dakota to NW Minnesota some years back, I visited every grocery store in Grand Forks and then wrote a letter to HyVee asking, begging, pleading with them to open a store in the Grand Cities. It's not that far from their northernmost store in Watertown. They, of course, replied that they welcomed my input, but could not disclose their future location plans.
Leave a Comment:
Confession: Although I enjoy ice cream, the difference between good and bad stuff is pretty much lost on me. I buy a store-brand light ice cream and am perfectly happy with it. I say that neither with boasting nor shame. It's just me, and you all know my tastes are not those of real persons, living or dead.