Wednesday, April 15, 2009

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!

15 comments:

Kristina said...

Unlike you, we are huge fans of passion fruit in this household! Would love to give this a try...

julie said...

Ohh, brown sugar and ginger sound like awesome flavors. Of course, mint is always a thumbs up in my household.

Anonymous said...

I love anything with chocolate or peanuts...although, that brown sugar flavor sounds YUMMY!!!

Katyshops at comcast.net

Meg said...

I'm anxious to try any of them, even if this defies everything we're working for on Hot By BlogHer.

My very favorite ice cream ever is Better Batter at Maggie Moos. I could make babies with it, it's so good.

Tela said...

I've been dying to try some of this after reading about it around the blogosphere. Would love to try some!

rebeccaeee said...

Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate. Although now I want to try the passionfruit ice cream. Once upon a LONG time ago, I was served passionfruit mousse for dessert on a long airplane flight and it was to die for. I'd be willing to give the ice cream a fair try!

Amy said...

I'm a big fan of the bright green mint ice cream, so I'd love to try a "healthier" version! Mmm!

Trish said...

Oooh, the milk chocolate sounds yummy!

Amelia Sprout said...

Ginger, coffee, mint, chocolate... I wouldn't be able to make up my mind.

Wendy said...

This sounds great since my mom just developed a nut allergy and we couldn't even buy ice cream on vacation without checking ingredients--and those lists are way too long (and mysterious) on most ice cream.

I love a really good strawberry ice cream, though my favorite treat is to make a banana split at home w/vanilla and fruit. I would love to try your gingersnap combo though!

Wendy

J.L. Danger said...

I WANT ALL OF IT. NOW!

Jenn (dish) said...

My nearly four-year-old would be ALL OVER the ginger ice cream (he also likes hot pepper, go figure). My personal fave is cookies and cream made with GS Thin Mints. I once also found a cookies and cream made with mint ice cream that gave a similar flavor--yum!

Jenn (dish) said...

Sorry--the comment above went through without my e-mail, and I will *not* be denied ice cream.
:-) If you pick me, you can send an e-mail to pittquilter at yahoo dot com. Thanks!

Beth @ TheAngelForever said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Beth @ TheAngelForever said...

Big fan of Cookie Dough ice cream here. Of these the mint sound delicious. Thanks for the fun opportunity.

the_angel_forever at yahoo dot com