When a woman needs to indulge usually premium ice cream or chocolate or both are involved. With warmer weather just around the corner, let’s talk ice cream.
I only eat premium brand ice cream. I figure if I’m going to take in those calories, it better be the best. Whether it’s to help de-stress in these economic times, meet the demands of a crisis, or just enjoy a treat, I consistently reach for Haagen Dazs ice cream. My favourite flavour is Vanilla Swiss Almond. I love the chocolate covered roasted almonds hidden throughout the rich tasting vanilla ice cream. And I find it’s the perfect ice cream to compliment a warm lava cake or chocolate brownie rather than compete with it.
Recently while on the Haagen Dazs website, I noticed a few other ice cream lines that I have not seen in Canada. The Reserve collection has been available for some time in the US and the Five collection is new this year. If you have tasted either of these collections, please comment below on your experience.
The Reserve collection features unique and rare ingredients from around the world. With ice cream names like Fleur de Sel Caramel, Amazon Valley Chocolate and Pomegranate Chip, I found myself salivating and wishing I could purchase these at my local market. They even provide food and wine pairings for each Reserve taste sensation.
The Five collection is ice cream made with only five ingredients. If you’ve ever looked at the ingredient list of bargain basement ice cream, it’s a long list of ingredients that I don’t recognize or can’t pronounce. The Five line seems it would be pure, fresh and clean to the palette. Again, I haven’t seen these yet in Canada. The Milk Chocolate flavour contains skim milk, cream, sugar, egg yolks and cocoa processed with alkali. That’s it! They have a Passion Fruit flavour (I love passion fruit) but can’t imagine it as an ice cream.
I also discovered a Serving section on their website. They have posted ideas on how to enhance the presentation of your ice cream desserts as well as listing lots of dessert and drink recipes. Most are accompanied with photos which makes everything even more tantalizing. Note to Haagen Dazs: All your recipes should have photos so they are even more irresistible.
The only downside to premium ice cream is the premium price. In the last six months I’ve seen my brand of choice skyrocket in price. In my local Canadian Safeway, Haagen Dazs is now $8CDN or $6.35US for 500ml or a pint. Starting early this year, Haagen Dazs is also rolling out smaller containers for their ice cream. You’ll notice that their pint (16 fl oz) will no longer be offered and instead it will be a 14 fl oz container. That’s just over 12% less ice cream. With less volume that means it’s over $9CDN or $7.15US for that original pint of ice cream. Ugh! According to CBS news, downsizing package volumes is a trend most of the manufacturers are using rather than increasing prices on the previous sizes. The prices for their ingredients have skyrocketed so it feel it’s the easiest way to pass it on to the consumer with the least impact.
A higher price for premium brands helps to curb how often I buy it thereby reducing my caloric intake. With 300 calories for a half-cup serving size, 180 of those from fat, it’s probably a good thing. And besides, who eats only half a cup!
Photos from the Haagen Dazs website
