@MiamiDAP When I read this to H later, you will make his day, I assure you.
Dairy Queen and Carvel Soft Serve - run away, run far, far away.
Sodium Phosphate
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3278747/
http://www.livestrong.com/article/520620-hazards-of-sodium-phosphate-in-your-diet/
http://www.rodalesorganiclife.com/food/phosphate-foods
Mono and diglycerides i.e. trans fats
http://www.livestrong.com/article/445850-what-is-bad-about-mono-diglycerides/
I do not like chocolate. I do not like ice cream. And yet, one of the very, very few sweets I like is Breyer’s Chocolate ice cream.
Who eats Dairy Queen for their health?
I like ice cream, but I never crave it. I only eat premium or better. I liked the old Harvard Square’s Steves (later Herrell’s ice cream.) I eat soft serve in New England when the places that serve it reopen in the summer. I like vanilla on my apple pie. I don’t like ice cream with cake. I like real fudge sauce and toffee bars mixed in. Coffee ice cream is my favorite flavor. I like gelato when I am in Italy and when I am in France Berthillon’s is worth a detour every day. I’ll generally order whatever the smallest serving size is, and if it’s too big, I’ve been known to let someone else finish it.
@abasket – I’m not into “concoctions” – ice cream purist here, pretty much. So given the choice of a DQ concoction and anything of quality, I’ll go for the latter.
But there’s something about DQ… I don’t know, maybe the taste of childhood? The soft serve stuff goes down SO easy… and a strawberry blizzard – simply a thick mix of vanilla ice cream and frozen strawberries – well, that’s pretty close to paradise.
Which is why I really try to avoid DQ (which, luckily, is mostly in the suburbs, and not in the center of town, where I live.)
And if you don’t know Talenti, you owe it to your ice-cream-loving self to try it. (Technically its gelato.)
I think I eat Dairy Queen twice a year. And yes—it’s the childhood taste of summer vacation. (and look I’m still alive!)
Thanks Michael for that info - just like other foods, I’d like to know what is in my ice cream!
Which was part of my point of posting - to realize that all ice creams are not equal - and to see what people are using their ice cream scoop for.
I do think that toppings can “disguise” or “hide” ice cream flavor - for better or worse. So, sure I like hot fudge - but if it’s a GOOD hot fudge over not so good ice cream - will my palate know??
Then again, if I’m lining up a taste test of plain vanilla - let’s say Vanilla Breyers, Vanilla Haagen Daz and DQ Soft Serve Vanilla…one should stand out among the others, right? All are not created equal for flavor? And to add to that, “nutrition” - sure a good ice cream is going to have cream and sugar - but how much? What type of hidden sweetners? What other non-natural ingredients? And, according to the original article, how much air?
@abasket, you need to invite us to your house for a taste test and then a sundae bar!
I don’t like full fat ice cream at all, I prefer reduced fat versions and best of all is fro-yo. On a hot day, make it sherbet.
The town we used to live in has an independent frozen custard place that ranks way above anything else I’ve ever tried. I can’t tell you how many places I’ve traveled to across the country, only to have people say, “Oh, just try ours, it’s pretty good.” The only thing that remotely reaches this place in taste is gelato in Italy. I’ve had gelato here in the states, but none come near what we had in Italy in small towns and plazas. People here rave about Culver’s… it’s just not that great… not chocolaty enough and consistency is not worth the calories. I used to think Blue Bell was good, but now compared to our frozen custard, it’s just OK.
One of the things I also like about this place is they have a list of ingredients for each flavor, and I can pronounce all the names and know what they are without having a degree in chemistry. It is made throughout the day, fresh daily and actually scoops as opposed to coming out of a machine like soft serve. I think in all the years I ever have gone there, I’ve only gotten chocolate, because well, why mess with perfect. Moving away from that town has many health benefits for me, one being farther away from this frozen custard place!
Moomers Choc-o-Holic, hands down favorite, it was finally warm in the mitten this weekend and I got it after a long cold winter and spring. But like in the early days of Ben & Jerry’s required a trip to Vermont, you have to come to Michigan to get it.
Italian process ice cream, aka gelato, also has a low fat content. It’s really ice milk. I have not found a commercially prepared gelato that I like, since they stabilize it with guar gum and to my taste it ruins the texture and interferes with the flavor. We had a great gelato place nearby, but it changed when a new owner decided that making it fresh daily cost too much. So he started with the guar gum. To my taste, soft serve and gelato should have similar textures.
I have a pint of Talenti’s Black raspberry chocolate chip in my freezer right now. Yumm! Standard go to’s are Traders Joe’s chocolate or vanilla with a bit of homemade fudge sauce (melt a 2 to 1 ratio of chocolate chips and cream in the microwave.) Molly Moon’s here in Seattle is fabulous, but I don’t get there often (and the line is always so long when I do!)
I’m an odd duck here. I really don’t like hard ice cream…at all. But I love good frozen custard…the kind with 35% butterfat. I prefer plain old vanilla…but sometimes get a chocolate and vanilla twist.
When in NJ…I get vanilla and orange twist…tastes like a cremesickle. Yum!
And East Coast Custard in Cleveland? Yum yum yum!!
I don’t like Dairy Cream at all. I DO like Culver’s (but I always get vanilla) and I love Rita’s for frozen custard. I got turned off on places like Maggie Moo’s (sort of a Steve’s successor) because the portions are simply too big. I’m a big eater, but I just don’t need a grapefruit sized serving. We went to Jeni’s a couple of weeks ago and it was fabulous, and I didn’t feel like the portion was too much. I think airy, cheap ice cream is a waste of calories and time.
We make our own peach ice cream in the summer (raw eggs, which I know is a no-no, but we do it anyway) and it is fabulous.
I don’t buy anything from the store. When I go visit my home town I buy a half gallon of chocolate from our local place Superior Dairy. No other chocolate ice cream has ever come close to being as good.
I do like some gelatos from our local places here in LA.
Culvers fan here in Culver’s territory. Talenti has suddenly caught my attention in a major way. I like it rich, and by the spoonful. B&J’s, of course!
Yummm…one of my favorite subjects! I’m sort of overboard about it, actually, and eat ice cream at least every other day. (Huh. I wonder why I’ve developed a little tummy pouch? I guess my body is telling me that I can’t keep this up without consequences now that I’m 44. Darn. 
)
Like @musicamusica , we are lucky enough to live near some spectacular ice cream places (Graeters, Jeni’s, Whit’s, and, further north, Mitchell’s), and I am even more fortunate that one of my D’s works at one (with deep discounts), so we go out for ice cream and very rarely buy it from a store. (This was true even before my D started working there–it’s just much less expensive for us now, thankfully.) I don’t even buy the pints from my favorite ice cream stores; I like to get scoops at the counters. My favorites are Graeters (love those chocolate chunks), Mitchell’s (far for us now) and Jeni’s (love those unique flavors; don’t love the high price–we don’t get it as often). Whit’s is fantastic when I’m in the mood for soft serve, which is not really often. That’s one time I love just plain vanilla in a cone. Otherwise, I get a myriad of flavors (only 1 or sometimes 2 at a time) in a cup, often with hot fudge, very occasionally with whip cream (only because it’s homemade, and that’s the only kind I like). Jeni’s doesn’t warrant hot fudge; its flavors are different enough without it, and it’s expensive enough without it. All 3 of my favorite places are high quality, high fat, high yumminess.
I don’t like frozen yogurt and view it as a cheap (no matter how expensive) knock off of the real stuff, I still like DQ once in a great while, and I’ll eat Breyer’s or stuff like it if it’s around–who am I to refuse it at parties or at someone’s house (even my own if my H bought it, which doesn’t happen often)? Lol. As I said, I’m an ice cream snob who likes her ice cream to be Premium/Super Premium (terms I didn’t know until I read the article, btw). I’ll take the other stuff in a pinch, though.
@sabaray, I LOVED Steve’s ice cream.
If I get it at the store these days I get B&Js or Hagendaaz (sp?)
Just today I had a medicinal PINT of B&Js Caramel Sutra Core, or some such thing, with almonds mixed in. I really don’t buy ice cream much these days, because I seem to have trouble Not eating the entire pint. But I have a shoulder injury, had to get a painful cortisone shot, and almost passed out in the Drs office. I deemed it an event worthy of the huge splurge.
I also really like Talenti Mediterranean Mint gelato.