Originally posted by Suave
Where in heck do you live that you can't get ice cream that is better than bluebell?
I live in bluebell country, it's basically generic icecream that you can get at any 7-11 type store. Very grainy, bad lingering aftertaste, lots of air, very low milk fat, lots of artificial flavoring. I don't even think that blue bell vanilla has vanilla in it.
It's basically a southern version of carnation ice cream. I don't know why people like it so much.
I call BS on this. The butterfat in Blue Bell is comparable to any other premium ice cream. BTW, by government standards, frozen dairy products made with low fat milk MUST be labeled as "Light Ice Cream". The overrun (amount of air in the product) is comparable or better than any other premium ice cream. Blue Bell uses no more 'artificial' flavoring than any other premium ice cream on the market. Which vanilla are you talking about? Blue Bell makes a Homemade (Blue Bell originated this flavor in 1970), French, Natural Vanilla Bean (with plenty of ground vanilla bean SHOWING in the product) and 3 "health claim" vanilla products...Homemade Vanilla Light, Country Vanilla NSA (No Sugar Added) and Vanilla Bean NSA.
As for icy product, this is caused by heat shock (.ie the product has been slightly melted and refrozen). Try shopping at a store with decent freezers and you might see a difference.
BTW, comparing Blue Bell to super premium products is not a fair comparison. Super premium products are high fat, low overrun products. Basically lots of fat with little air, it makes for a more dense product. The only super premium product that I have ever tried that was not very good was the trash that Adkins put out a couple of years ago.
As a clue for anyone that cares, butter fat in ice cream has little impact on flavor. Its main function is to create a smooth texture. Exceeding the butter fat needed for good texture just means that you consume more fat. It doesn't mean the product tastes better.
As for aftertastes, most of the time an aftertaste will come from the preservatives added to the product to increase shelf life. This is true of most warehoused products, .ie store brands. While Blue Bell does not claim that preservatives are not in the product, they do use the minimum needed to try to insure that the customer receives a quality product. BTW, wanna see what you are eating? Next time you get a bowl of ice cream from the freezer, take about half a scoop and put it on a saucer. Leave it on the counter for about 20 minutes. If you comeback to see a bile of cottage cheese looking crap in a puddle of oil...it's chocked full of preservatives. If you come back and see lots of air bubbles, it has a high overrun (lots of air). Another way to check overrun is to take a half gallon of the product to the produce department and weigh it. Generally speaking, a half gallon of Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla will in at about 60% of what a 4 quart pail of store brand product weighs.
Nirvana, a map showing the areas where Blue Bell is available can be found at
http://www.bluebell.com . If you can't get it, I can recommend some Dreyers/Edys products. Within Blue Bell territory Dreyers has made a producted called "Homemade Brand". This line is comparable to Blue Bell and is much better then their Grand. They started making this as a direct competitor to Blue Bell when they moved into the Texas market. It didn't help and they are discontinuing the product. If you are willing to pay for it, you can have Blue Bell ship product to you....but, it ain't cheap.
Here is the link....
http://bluebell.com/icecream_order.htmOh, as for the "Carnation" crack...since Blue Bell put them out of business here years ago...it's kinda hard to validate that statement.
