vanilla ice cream taste test: the results!

Last week, I recruited some lovely ladies to be my taste testers for this month's blind taste test, vanilla ice creams.  There were nine of us girls in all, and we sat at a long dinner table outside in the garden, long after the sun had set, determined to find the best grocery store brand of vanilla ice cream available in the metropolitan Kansas City area.

The contenders, you ask? 

Blue Bell, Haagen-Dazs, Blue Bunny, Shatto, and Breyer's.

Each of the girls were asked to vote, on a scale of 1-10 (1 being just plain awful and 10 being knee-weakening good) on the taste of each vanilla ice cream sample.  Although the girls knew beforehand which brands would be represented in the taste test, they were not aware of what brand they were eating as they sampled each ice cream.

And the results?

Blue Bunny got the highest rating, an average of 7.21 out of 10, and was the favorite of a suprising majority (5 out of 9 girls ranked it as their top flavor).  They wrote that the flavor was fresh and the texture was thicker than most of the other ones they tried.  One taster, however, complained about it's "fake taste".  Overall though, a big yums up!

Haagen-Dazs, in second place, was close behind with an overall average rating of 6.36 out of 10.  The girls commented that it was light, and tasted more like natural vanilla.  However, some tasters thought that it was natural to a fault, and that it lacked flavor.

Breyer's, with an average rating of 5.86 out of 10, came in third place.  It was the favorite of two of the girls, and got points for fresh, natural flavor, creaminess and the visible vanilla bean specks.  However, it lost points with some of the tasters for being too bland.

Shatto, came in fourth with an average rating of 5.08 out of 10.  Tasters complained that it lacked flavor, but they enjoyed its beautiful, pale white color.

Blue Bell, in fifth place, managed to wrangle an average rating of 4.29 out of 10.  Although some tasters enjoyed its rich, creamy texture, some complained that it was overly sweetened, eggy, fake tasting, and plagued with icy bits.

The point of these taste tests is to make sure we really know what we like, and that we're not just buying something for the brand or the packaging.  I was surprised to discover myself that Blue Bunny was my personal favorite.  It's a brand that I never would have expected to make the top of my list.

Until next time, enjoy your newly scrutinized vanilla ice cream brands, and don't forget to question your own brand loyalties every now and again.