Ice Cream Tasting

A group of us from my work have started a series of "tasting" parties. We started with the typical wine tasting where everyone brings a bottle of wine in a brown paper bag and we blind taste tested them to see if expensive wine really is better than the cheap stuff.

We had a blast and asked ourselves -- why stop there? So we didn't. We've tasted cheese, pizza, chocolate, salsa and now.... ice cream.

The rules:
Bring 1 pint of vanilla ice cream in a brown paper bag. It can be gellato, homemade, soy or from an ice cream shop but it must be plain vanilla.

The results:

1. Ben and Jerry's (54 out of 70): By far the best ice cream of the night. Most people agreed that there was a consistent vanilla bean flavor which nicely balanced the amount of cream.

2. Julies Organic (50 out of 70): Julie's stood out for its creaminess. It was less sweet and had a more mild vanilla flavoring. Comments included "creamy custard feel" and "very creamy."

3. Haagan Daaz (44 out of 70): Haagan Daaz did not hold its own in this competition. It didn't have any quality which stood out. Comments by the tasters included: "satisfying" and "Good but not that great"

4. Safeway Select (39 out of 70): Safeway Select is our local grocery store brand. Many people were able to guess. It had a pleasant consistent flavor but was a little more watery and plain than the branded ice creams.

5. Soy Dream (37 out of 70): We had a soy lover in the room (which may have skewed our results) Testers could tell it was soy but not immediately. Soy Dream has a strong vanilla flavor and is curiously creamy (creamier than Safeway).

6. Davis Creamery (27 out of 70): Very disappointing show for our local creamery. I wonder if we got an off batch. It unfortunately had a bitter after-taste which everyone commented on.

7. Rice Dream: (19 out of 70): If you're not doing dairy, do Soy! Rice dream was pretty watery and didn't have a very strong vanilla flavoring.