Who Says Simple Ice Cream Has To Be Bland?

We've moved into an era where simplicity is coming back into style. We want our clothes made out of simple cotton or other natural fabrics. We want to see as few ingredients as possible in our shampoos and body products. And when it comes to food - we want ingredients we can pronounce.

Haagen-Dazs has listened to our desires, and created a new series of ice creams that appeal to our wishes for simplicity called Five. As you might guess from the name, these ice creams have only five ingredients each: milk, cream, sugar, eggs, and an all natural flavor. Surprisingly, you'd think this might be higher in fat or calories than your standard ice cream, but it's not - it's both lower in calories and fat per serving.

Mom Central sent me four pints of Haagen-Dazs Five to taste test: mint, brown sugar, ginger, and passion fruit. No worries about my credentials here, everyone. I can assure you that I'm an ice cream connoisseur, with a long resume of ice cream tasting from all brands. For references, see my bathroom scale.

Looking over the four flavors, I wasn't sure where to start. I've never cared for passion fruit, but I decided it was time to give it another try, since this was probably the only time I've ever had something flavored with real passion fruit. The flavor was intense, and the ice cream was wonderfully smooth and creamy. For only having five ingredients, I wasn't expecting the flavor wallop it gave me.

I still don't like passion fruit, however, so I swapped it for the pint of brown sugar and dug in. WOW. Again, such a simple yet strong flavor. I found the same to be true with ginger and mint as well. I really like that these are so simple - ingredients I can pronounce, real sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup, and no artificial flavors or colors.

The mint wasn't as strong as some of the other flavors, while the ginger was actually too strong for me. But my husband and I put our brains together, and came up with a great recipe: two scoops brown sugar ice cream, and one scoop ginger. Eat it together - the brown sugar mellows out the ginger, and together they taste exactly like a ginger snap cookie. Try it - you'll be amazed.

Overall I love the new Haagen-Dazs Five ice creams. There are seven total flavors: brown sugar, passion fruit, mint, ginger, coffee, vanilla bean, and milk chocolate. You can bet I'll be buying some of the milk chocolate soon for those days when I need a little splurge in my diet.

And you can win a pint for yourself! I've got four coupons for a free Haagen-Dazs ice cream to give to four lucky readers! To enter, leave a comment below sharing your favorite ice cream flavor, and be sure I have a way to contact you if you win.

One entry per household, US addresses only. I'll accept entries until 11:59pm EDT on Wednesday, April 22. Four winners will then be chosen at random using Random.org and contacted after that date.

Good luck!