Peruse the freezer aisle at your local grocery store, and you’ll find several ice cream brands made with the highest and lowest quality ingredients. At first glance, it can be tricky to figure out which ones are of the top-grade variety when they have similar premium packaging and attractive labelling. While comparing the cost of each item can give you a useful idea, this isn’t always a reliable move (some brands have high price points but are packed with thickeners and stabilizers to mimic the consistency of a superior product). The answer is to check two things: the ingredients list and the weight.
The best quality ice creams are made with simple ingredients, such as heavy cream and eggs. It’s the high fat content in each of these components that gives the dessert its luscious quality, smooth texture, and satisfying flavor. Super-premium ice creams need to have a minimum of 15% fat, whereas standard varieties require at least 10%.
Lower-quality ice creams with less butterfat produce a similarly creamy texture without the extra cost by employing cheaper ingredients, such as palm oil, water, and stabilizers, as well as artificial colors and flavors. Analyze the label, and you should be able to discern whether you’ve picked up an ice cream with a short list of quality ingredients or one that’s packed with hard-to-pronounce additives. The weight of your tub of ice cream is another clue. It should feel hefty in your hand in comparison to its size.
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Why are high-quality ice creams heavier than economy versions?
Various tubs of ice cream in chiller
Various tubs of ice cream in chiller — PHLD Luca/Shutterstock
To understand why superior ice creams weigh more, we need to get our heads around something called overrun. This is the term used to describe the amount of air that’s incorporated into ice cream as it’s churned. Vital to producing a smooth, silky, and soft ice cream, the more the overrun, the greater the volume of the ice cream overall. Adding more air reduces the cost of the ice cream too, as the base ingredients take up more space. Standard ice creams can have 100% overrun, but superior ones have much less at 25%-50%. This means that the same-sized tub of a high-quality ice cream with less overrun will feel heavier than an economy version with more.
There are several ice cream manufacturers that produce superior-quality products that are rich, creamy, and designed to melt slowly, such as Van Leeuwen, Tillamook, and Jeni’s. However, in our taste test of the 21 top ice cream brands, ranked by flavor and quality, Häagen-Dazs was named the ultimate champ due to its reasonable price point and commitment to using natural ingredients (the vanilla bean ice cream is made with only cream, milk, sugar, egg yolks, and vanilla). Conversely, the lowest-quality vanilla ice cream you can find in the store is Edy’s.