Haagen-Dazs Vanilla

We found the best ice-cream review at Cook's Illustrated, which used 20 tasters to sample 16 vanilla ice creams in 2006. Consumer Reports' last major report on ice cream was in 2002, so long ago that the report has been removed from its website, although the rankings can turn up on other websites. We found helpful ice-cream reviews on the blog Kitchen Addiction and the website of the magazine Every Day With Rachael Ray, but the testing standards were not detailed very well.

Häagen-Dazs Vanilla is chosen most often in reviews as the best vanilla ice cream. A high butterfat content - 18 grams of fat per half-cup serving - and egg yolks in place of emulsifiers (like gum) help give Häagen-Dazs Vanilla the dense and creamy texture that pleased participants in blind taste tests. Another reason for the thickness is a low "overrun" - the term used to describe the amount of air fluffing up the product. Some thought the vanilla flavor was too strong; one reviewer called it "boozy.".Most taste testers say Häagen-Dazs Vanilla is the best vanilla ice cream you'll find in the supermarket, but it you prefer something with less fat, taste-testers also like Breyers Double Churn Light Creamy Vanilla (*est. $5 for 1.75 quarts), which has 3.5 grams of fat per serving (compared to 18 grams for Häagen-Dazs).