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).

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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.

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