Tasting test: ice cream in a tub

2023 Author: Cody Thornton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-26 19:13

Waiting, loudly requested, after 8 tasting tests (one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight), comparisons between products of the same category, the summer test arrives on Dissapore: the ice cream in the tub.

As an unfamiliar consumer, I thought it would be easier to find the brands (Häagen-Dazs not received), instead it took 7 Super inspections to organize the test, moreover, not all producers make the classic flavors: unobtainable pistachio, this unknown hazelnut, while an irremediably retro taste is depopulated, stracciatella, the mysteries of industrial production. There are also many mix flavors. In the end, since the test is "blind", I asked a collaborator to buy the classic flavors of each brand available in the area (Abruzzo). Objective of the test: to find a taste that is somehow comparable to my beloved artisan ice cream.

THE CONTENDENTS

- Carte d'Or Algida

- Conad

- Counsel

- The Cremeria Motta

- Sammontana

CRITERIA

- Visual aspect

- Consistency

- Taste

The test was carried out "blindly". I remember that I am not a food technologist and that the verdict is objective with personal-affective deviations.

THE VERDICT

# 4 Conad hazelnut ice cream

Format: 500 g

Ingredients: rehydrated skimmed milk, sugar, glucose syrup, coconut oil, chopped hazelnuts 2, 5%, lactose and milk proteins, hazelnuts in paste 2, 4%, low-fat cocoa powder, emulsifiers: mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids; thickeners: sodium alginate, locust bean gum; aromas. It may contain traces of eggs.

Present nutritional values.

Produced for Conad S. C. Via Michelino, 59 Bologna, by Eskigel S.r.l. Via Vanzetti, 11 Terni

– Judgment: assuming that there is hazelnut it is untraceable, the taste buds perceive only the sugar.

– Packaging: the tray is copied from Cremeria Motta without even worrying too much about hiding it.

– Visual aspect: reminiscent of hazelnut ice cream, slightly lifeless.

– Consistency: more than creamy, grainy.

– Taste: you do not feel the hazelnut, taste and aftertaste of sugared almonds are excessively dull.

– Price: € 3.44 / per kg then € 1.72 (on offer) - original price € 6.42 / per kg then € 3.06.

– Price / happiness ratio: appropriate only because it is on offer, otherwise decidedly exaggerated.

– In short: I searched in vain for the hazelnuts on the cover, where did they go?

Grade 4

# 4 Consili stracciatella ice cream a

Format: 500 g

Ingredients: rehydrated skimmed milk powder, sugar, glucose syrup, coconut oil, 5% chocolate flakes (sugar, cocoa mass, cocoa butter, emulsifier: soy lecithin; flavorings), lactose and milk proteins, cocoa lean powder (9.5% in the cocoa ripple corresponding to 1% of the finished product), skimmed milk powder, butter, emulsifiers: mono and diglycerides of fatty acids, thickeners: sodium alginate, carob seed flour; aromas. It may contain traces of nuts.

Present nutritional values.

Produced for Consilia, Piazza Meda 3, Milan, in the factory of: Terni, Via Vanzetti 11.

– Judgment: produced in the same plant as Conad ice cream and you can feel it: the sugar is depopulated.

– Packaging: another tray copied, this time from Algida's Carte d'Or ice cream.

– Visual aspect: it looks like stracciatella, but in short, excessive transpiration transforms the taste into an unlikely mix.

– Consistency: less grainy than the previous sin you immediately become a patchwork.

– Taste: cloying although sugary.

– Price: € 5, 50 / per kg then € 2, 75

– Price / happiness ratio: tall.

– In short: the kingdom of sugar.

Grade 4

# 3 La Cremeria fiordilatte ice cream

Format: 500 g

Ingredients: fresh pasteurized skimmed milk (Italian) (60.7%), sugar, glucose syrup, butter, dextrose, dietary fiber, whey powder, locust bean gum thickeners, guar gum and carrageenan, mono emulsifier - and diglycerides of fatty acids, natural flavor. It may contain traces of nuts and eggs.

Present nutritional values.

Produced by Nestlé Italiana S.p. A. - Viale G. Richard 5 Milan. Ferentino plant (FR) - Laghetto area.

– Judgment: quite creamy, when tasted it is so sweet that it dries up the palate in a moment.

– Packaging: classic ice cream tub, in this case the original of the Cremeria.

– Visual aspect: White milk.

– Consistency: adequately creamy but soft, after a few minutes it releases liquids.

– Taste: delicate, milk is perceived at first, but the aftertaste is strong and excessively sweet. It leaves an excessive softness on the palate. for a moment I thought about tasting a sheet of textured paper.

– Price: € 7, 70 / per kg then € 3, 85

– Price / happiness ratio: more than anything else price / sadness, since it costs more than the other contenders but takes only the bronze medal.

– In short: Fiordicarta?

Grade 5

# 2 Carte D'or coffee ice cream

Format: 600 g

Ingredients: coffee infusion (32%), rehydrated skimmed milk, sugar, glucose syrup, vegetable oil, glucose-fructose syrup, skimmed milk powder, chocolate (1.8%), lactose and milk proteins, natural flavors, emulsifiers (mono and diglycerides of fatty acids), thickeners (sodium alginate), wheat fiber, maltodextrin. Gluten free.

Present nutritional values.

Distributed by Algida, Via Paolo di Dono 3 / A, Rome and produced in the Caivano (NA) plant

– Judgment: coffee too sweet, especially for those like me who drink it bitter.

– Packaging: The very tanned classic of Carte d'Or.

– Visual aspect: without anomalies, smooth surface with a heart of grains.

– Consistency: slightly denser than the contenders.

– Taste: I had higher expectations, the palate struggles to understand the coffee. Here too you can feel the sugar, however it dries up the palate less than the Cremeria. Subtly bitter, pleasant aftertaste.

– Price: € 6, 25 / per kg then € 3, 75

– Price / happiness ratio: balanced.

– In short: everything you want but makes you regret the Grandfather Cup

Grade 5, 5

# 1 Sammontana Chocolate Ice Cream Jar

Format: 500 g

Ingredients: rehydrated skimmed milk, sugar, glucose syrup, vegetable oils, cocoa (6%), partially delactosed skimmed whey powder, chocolate (2%) (cocoa mass, sugar, low fat cocoa), emulsifier: mono and diglycerides of fatty acids; stabilizers: sodium alginate, locust bean gum. It may contain traces of gluten, eggs, peanuts, soy, nuts.

Present nutritional values.

Sammontana S.p. A. via Tosco-Romagnola, 56 - 50053 Empoli (FI)

– Judgment: Less dull than the contenders, balanced, pleasant.

– Packaging: convenient, especially in front of the TV to counteract an attack of depression.

– Visual aspect: shades of chocolate, it is soft and easy to pick up.

– Consistency: adequately creamy and homogeneous, it holds even after a few minutes.

– Taste: intense, the cocoa is perceptible. The impression of excessive softness and sweetness present in all the other trays is attenuated.

– Price: € 6, 96 / per kg then € 3, 48

– Price / happiness ratio: balanced.

– In short: "♫ slightly salty sweet chocolate ice cream ♫"

Rating 6, 5

THINGS YOU LEARN FROM THIS TASTE TEST

Together with the one on jams, the most sweeter, in the sweetest sense, comparison of my young career as a tester. Guaranteed increase in triglycerides. More seriously, so much sweetness comes at the expense of the finest ingredients, so imperceptible that it is hard to hear them. Impressive the drying up of the palate at the end of the test, I drank for the rest of the day.