The "Häagen-Dazs ice cream" thread
 

Is their anyone else who thinks Haagen Dazs and Ben and Jerry ice creams are bland, over rated and over priced? The supermarkets own brands here in the UK are much better and half the price. What about in your part of the World?

No. I have never had ice cream that I like better than Haagen Dazs. A few equals, but none better. I don't mind paying a bit more for (IMO) perfection.

Edited to add: I find B&Js to be a very different type of ice cream than HD. The only thing remotely similar is the price point.

Haagen Dazs icecream
 

Ben and Jerry's Milk and Cookies is SO DELICIOUS

I'll agree that H-D is nothing special but I like Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia.

Have to agree - I find them over-fatty, over-sweet and way overpriced.

(Although out of the big brand ones, I'd have to say Carte d'Or wins in the blandness stakes...)

Agreed absolutely with the OP. HD and Ben and Jerrys are sickly sweet and almost inedible.

Ironically just had this conversation yesterday with my father, who LOVES HD. I just am not knocked out about it and have had much better, creamier tasting ice cream. And b/c he loves it, that was all I grew up eating and have tried a lot of their flavors. I do love their raspberry sorbet though.

B&J is ok for me, personally love their chocolate fudge brownie.

Haagen Dazs ice cream
 

Read the label and you see that HD not only tastes amazing but it is all simple as it used to be. BJ has a lot of unreadable ingredients and tastes just weird. Personally I like simple flavors. Fudge and peanut butter are not my cup of tea. Blue Bell (US south) makes an amazing vanilla flavor and even some other flavors similar to BJ and it is quite affordable.

And yes I have had better than HD at very local creameries that make their own batches. Unfortunately this happens seasonally.

Ice cream should be made with pure cream, not ravoniflavoids or Yellow 5
And HD is the best mass commercial brand out there.

I love HD.
Ben & Jerry's not so much.

Haagen Dazs ice cream
 

HD makes ice cream. As a purist I love their vanilla. Others make ice skim milk or ice whatever not ice cream. There is a difference. Not to say that you can find some great store brand vanillas. Same with chocolate. HD is nice and rich the way I would expect it to be. With the myriad of all the other possible flavors it gets hard to compare brands.

What ingredients are in those supermarket ice cream?

I am partial to Tesco's Finest Bourbon Ice Cream at the moment, the ingredients are:

Whole Milk,Double Cream (Milk) (34%) ,Demerara Sugar ,Dried Skimmed Milk ,Pasteurised Free Range Egg ,Bourbon Vanilla Extract (0.5%).

Not sure what Alinlondon is referring to as "half the price" without a supermarket discount offer (BOGOF, 3 for 2, 2nd half price, etc.) is pushing it when comparing like for like ice creams with premium ingredients amongst all the supermarkets.

Here's a selection from 3 of the bigger players in the British market:

Waitrose seriously creamy Madagascan Vanilla:
Whole milk, whipping cream (34%), demerara sugar, skimmed milk powder, pasteurised free range egg, sugar, Madagascan vanilla extract (0.5%), Madagascan vanilla powder.
£4 for 500ml


Sainsbury's Vanilla Ice Cream, Taste the Difference
Whole Jersey Milk*(50%), Double Cream* (25%), Unrefined Cane Sugar, Skimmed Milk Powder*, Free Range Egg Yolk, Madagascan Vanilla Extract, Vanilla Powder * From Cow's Milk
£4 for 500ml


Tesco Finest Madagascan Vanilla Ice Cream
Whole Milk, Double Cream (Milk) (34%), Demerara Sugar, Dried Skimmed Milk, Pasteurised Free Range Egg, Sugar, Madagascan Vanilla (0.4%) (Vanilla Extract, Crushed Vanilla Pods)
£3 for 500ml


Haagen-Dazs Dairy Vanilla
Fresh Cream, Condensed Skimmed Milk, Sugar, Egg Yolk, Natural Vanilla Flavouring
£4.50 for 500ml
Hmmmm... Condensed milk (and a hefty proportion at that), no wonder it is so sickly sweet!

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Edit to add
Sorry to miss your latest response, Alinlondon
Tesco brand premium ice cream is consistent with your first post
Nearly half the price of Haagen Dasz and I would agree that the Bourbon Vanilla example has better ingredients (although this can be argued, particularly by those with sweet teeth!)

the death of haagen dazs:

Häagen-Dazs was bought by Pillsbury in 1983. General Mills bought Pillsbury in 2001.[13][14] However, in the United States and Canada, Häagen-Dazs products are produced by Nestlé subsidiary Dreyer's, which acquired the rights as part of the General Mills-Pillsbury deal.[15][16] The brand name is still owned by General Mills but is licensed to Nestlé in the US and Canada.

The best ice cream is that which you make yourself. Nothing from the factories comes close. I've found most of them far too sweet.