Dreyer's/Edy's Grand Chocolate

We found the best ice cream reviews at Cook's Country, sister magazine to Cook's Illustrated, which held a blind taste test of seven brands in which Dreyer's/Edy's Grand Chocolate placed second to the denser Ben & Jerry's (*est. $4 per pint). Consumer Reports' last major report on ice cream, including Dreyer's/Edy's Grand Chocolate, was in 2002. That report is no longer available on CR's website, but avid Googlers may find the rankings elsewhere on the Internet. We found helpful reviews from The Detroit News and Pennsylvania's York Daily Record/Sunday News, although the testing was more informal.

Edy's Grand, known as Dreyer's Grand west of the Rocky Mountains, is the top chocolate ice cream in taste tests -- and a good balance between lower fat and flavor. With 8 grams of fat per half-cup serving it has about half the fat content of a "super premium" ice cream like Häagen-Dazs (*est. $4/pint) and thus is not as creamy or rich. Some participants in blind taste tests miss that richness, although they liked the chocolate flavor. One magazine review suggested that because of the lighter texture, Dreyer's/Edy's Grand Chocolate was a good choice for families with children, and in a newspaper review, a panel of four teen-agers had Dreyer's/Edy's Grand Chocolate tied for the top spot. Another review dinged Dreyer's/Edy's Grand Chocolate for having ice crystals, but we found no mention of that elsewhere. If you prefer something with fewer fat and calories, Breyers Double Churn (*est. $5 for 1.75 quarts) gets good reviews but isn't as rich tasting.