Tomorrow, April 30, 2008 is 31 cent scoop night at Baskin Robbins.  Find your local Baskin Robbins ice cream store here.

Haagen Dazs is having a free scoop day tomorrow, May 15 of two of their new flavors.  Find a shop near you. Unfortunately, there’s not one close to me so I won’t be making it out.

I hope that everyone enjoyed their free ice cream cone at Ben and Jerry’s Free Cone Day.

Following in their footsteps, Baskin Robbins is having a 31 cent scoop night on May 2, 2007. It’s in honor of the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. Mark your calendars!

Check back on Monday.  I have compiled a best and worst list of ice creams in 2006.

The holidays are coming. So, I decided to start of list of great presents for ice cream lovers. I’ve got a couple of ideas that I’ll present over the next few weeks. Today I’ll go with the best stocking stuffer: An ice cream scoop. Ice cream scoops are one of those things that everyone has, but most people don’t have the best one. Well, I do. I absolutely love my Oxo Ice Cream Spade. See, ice cream Spades are superior to scoops because you can get so much more ice cream out of the container. It’s wonderful. And I like Oxo because their handles are extra comfy. And I like their red logo. But, I digress. I honestly think that my Oxo Ice Cream Spade is the best scoop out there and that you won’t find a better stocking stuffer. But, if you don’t like the spade, you should check out a few other ice cream scoops that Real Simple rated:

“The Original Zeroll $16

Zeroll’s aluminum scooper, a stalwart that’s been around since 1935, earned a thumbs-up for its effortless rolling motion, which yielded nearly flawless spheres every time. The thick handle is filled with a defrosting fluid that warms on contact with a bare hand, in turn heating the scoop. This, combined with the extra-deep bowl’s beveled edge, makes carving into a carton a cinch. Hand wash.

Best Added-Feature Ice Cream Scoop:
Oxo Good Grips Lever Scoop, $8
Testers tried scoops with a quick-release lever built into the handle (unwieldy for lefties and kids), a windshield wiper–like sweeper built into the bowl (often clogged by chunky ice cream), and a squeeze-operated lever (hard to manage one-handed). This Oxo model beat them all hands down. The soft rubberized handle prevents slips when you’re dealing with hard ice cream (or when your fingers are slick with drippy meltdown), and the clever pop-up lever pushes the scoop right out of the bowl like a catapult: Scoop, pop, and serve. Next! Dishwasher-safe.

Best Mini-Scoop Ice Cream Scoop:
Stainless-Steel Mini Ambidextrous Scoop, $10
Mini scoops are perfect for gelato and sorbet, whose concentrated flavors satisfy cravings with smaller portions. This winning version has a thin metal blade that sweeps inside the bowl when the handle is pressed, unsticking the gelato and delivering a diminutive 1 1/2-inch-diameter globe every time. (With larger models, this type of mechanism often jammed. But here the combination of a smaller bowl and a spring-loaded, full-hand grip overpowered any potential clogs and sticks.) It carves a mean melon ball, too. Dishwasher-safe.”

Some people have asked why I write ice cream reviews. There are two main reasons for my writing ice cream reviews. First, I love ice cream. Second, I want others to be able to make good decisions about their ice cream. There are so many ice cream flavors available that sometimes it’s hard to choose. (Well, I personally think it’s always hard to choose just one flavor of ice cream). When I can’t make a decision about something I read reviews. I go online and look for reviews about any sort of big purchase I’m making. I read Consumer Reports; and in DC we have Consumer Checkbook which has reviews for services like drying cleaning, insurance, car maintenance centers, and doctors. (I definitely want good reviews for a doctor). Anyway, I like reviews. And that’s why I decided to make a website about ice cream reviews. Ice cream is truly a part of American culture. And so is criticism. So, I’ll keep dishing up those ice cream reviews!

Now that the tara gum and other additive controversy has taken hold, I have made a point to check labels when at the supermarket. Not long ago I was at Whole Foods and noticed that their Breyers Natural Vanilla didn’t have tara gum in it. I immediately purchased it. At home I compared it to the Breyers Natural Vanilla I already had in my freezer (with tara gum). The containers look virtually identical (though not quite). However, the expiration date on the more recently purchased ice cream (without tara gum) was 6 months earlier than the date for the container with tara gum. This lead me to conclude that either a) the ice cream I had gotten without tara gum was made before the ice cream with tara gum and had just been distributed later b) the ice cream without tara gum goes bad more quickly than that without and/or c) Whole Foods can still get the ice cream without the tara gum. Quite frankly, I have no idea what the answer is. I can, however, tell you the difference in taste as I tasted them side by side (in a blind taste test so I didn’t initially know which was which).

Breyers with tara gum tastes different than that without. No question. It is creamier, but not it a good way. It has an artificial texture to it. You know when you’re eating the inside of an Oreo or Twinkie and you just know it isn’t natural, it’s got a lard-ish texture, creamy, but in a sticky way. That’s what it feels like– a little sticky. It also tastes slightly less intensely vanilla. I’m not sure if that is because of the tara gum or a new freezing method. Breyers Natural Vanilla with tara gum doesn’t taste like Breyers Natural Vanilla anymore. It reminds me more of the yellow-colored artificial vanilla ice creams. It’s not nearly as bad as those, but it’s not very good. Unilever needs to bring back Breyers Natural Vanilla Bean without tara gum.

From now on I am going to start buying Turkey Hill Vanilla Bean. I don’t know how extensive their distribution is in DC I have only found it at Shoppers. But, it doesn’t have tara gum and tastes much better than the new Breyers. Actually, my top choice for vanilla would be Haagen Dazs Vanilla Bean. Unfortunately, that has too many calories for a daily scoop. What other gum-free vanilla ice cream brands have you found that you would recommend?

The ice cream container on top contains tara gum, the one pictured below it does not.

First off, thank you to those who have encouraged me to keep posting, even if it is less frequently. With grad school starting, I really have been extremely busy. And, ice cream is expensive. And I have class at night when I’d usually post. And, well, I’ll stop with the excuses. Ultimately though, I did decide to break in the “daily scoop” goal. I still have ice cream fairly frequently, but not everyday and not always a different flavor.

But, I will start posting my reviews again. I will post some reviews this weekend of flavors I’ve had in recent weeks. And on Monday I’ll post the second article about Breyers “Natural” Vanilla. It will be a taste test of Breyers with and without tara gum.

Thanks for remaining faithful readers.

Remember cute Breyers commercials where the little boy reads the back of a non-Breyers ice cream container and can’t pronounce the artificial ingredients? Then he picks up a container of Breyers and can pronounce all of the ingredients because there are only four well-known natural ingredients: milk, cream, sugar, natural flavors. Well, now there is a fifth: tara gum. No, it’s not as scary to pronounce as cargenceen and gaur gum; but it’s not the simple ice cream that was formerly advertised. Tara gum is a new ingredient that Breyers has added to their ice creams to make them creamier.

Admittedly, when I first reviewed Breyers Natural Vanilla ice cream it didn’t even occur to me to look at the ingredients. A commenter informed me that the Breyers Natural Vanilla recipe was no longer as simple– tara gum had been added. Sure enough, I looked at the ingredients on the package and there it was. Since then, I have spent some time investigating this new addition to Breyers ice cream and will discuss my findings in a 4 part series. Today, in the first story of the series, I will outline the basics about tara gum and detail Breyers response to some questions I asked them. In the upcoming weeks I will post a taste test comparing Breyers All Natural Vanilla with and without tara gum, specify odd ingredients in other brands’ ice creams, and conclude with a story about the future of ice cream ingredients.

Tara gum is a natural ingredient from the tara tree, a plant commonly found in South America and Africa. Studies have shown it to be safe for human consumption. New Zealand and Australia Food Standards approved it as did the World Health Organization. However, the results of these studies were not entirely positive, as tara gum is indigestible and causes various problems when consumed in high quantities (>5%) by rats and dogs. Though, most humans will not consume this amount of tara gum and should not have anything to worry about.

Due to my curiosity about tara gum I contacted Unilever (the parent company of Breyers) with a number of questions about the product. These questions included:

When tara gum was first added to Breyers ice cream?
Is tara gum (or a similar substance) added to all of the Breyers ice creams or only
certain flavors? Also, is it added to other Unilever brands, such as Ben and Jerry’s?
Is there any plan to add tara gum to other brands of ice creams in the future?
Does the addition have anything to do with the Double Churned ice cream that is now being
sold?
Why was it decided that tara gum should be added to the ice cream?
Have you received complaints about the new additive?

A PR representative from GolinHarris got back to me with the following response:

In response to your questions regarding the use of tara gum in its ice cream, Breyers is proud of its all-natural heritage. It’s a position we take very seriously and one we work hard to maintain. We value the confidence our customers have in our products and go to great lengths to ensure exceptional quality and great taste.

So when consumers expressed concern over the texture of our products, we responded. By adding a natural gum to Breyers All Natural Vanilla ice cream, we’ve helped to protect the product’s texture while staying true to our all-natural commitment. We use tara gum from natural plant sources to help Breyers ice cream stay creamier and more enjoyable for longer periods of time.

Because ice cream is temperature-sensitive, this addition has further allowed us to ensure the ice cream’s quality throughout it distribution. As you can imagine, ice cream’s taste and texture can be unfavorably affected if exposed to temperature fluctuations during shipping or storage. Our customers describe the problem as ice cream with a “gritty” or “grainy” texture. In fact, growing distribution and increased handling of our ice cream in the marketplace has indeed resulted in greater chances for temperature abuse and heightened potential for texture problems.

Clearly, Unilever’s/Breyers response didn’t address the majority of my questions, which made me think that they’re not completely convinced that tara gum fits into the category of traditionally “natural products.” So my curiosity about this mysterious ingredient intensified and I decided more research was necessary. Stay tuned for my findings as I explore and analyze the ingredients of non-Breyers ice creams. Is this tara gum phenomenon is unique to Breyers or is it an industry-wide trend?

For those of you who have been waiting for my report on the Tara Gum now found in Breyers Ice Cream, I will be posting Breyers’ response on Monday.  It will be the first in a 4 or 5 part series discussing the issue.  Following the first part, I will examine other brands’ ingredients and conduct a taste test between the Breyers Natural Vanilla with Tara Gum and the Breyers Natural Vanilla without.  (I found a carton at Whole Foods that must have been made before they began adding Tara Gum.)  So, please stop back on Monday for the beginning of what I hope to be a very engaging topic.

A recent email I got from the Nestlé email list:

Hello Ice Cream Lovers!

Nestlé is inviting you to help raise money to fight cancer in a way that really sticks out.

The Sticks of Hope program invites anyone who loves ice cream - be it on a stick, in a bowl or straight out of the carton - to join in the fight against cancer.

How? By sending a message of encouragement (via a virtual frozen pop stick) to kids at City of Hope Cancer Center.

For each message that is sent, Nestlé will donate 25 cents to City of Hope. The money will be used for pediatric cancer research, treatment and education.

It’s a great way for kids and adults to get involved in the search for a cure. You can send your favorite joke, an inspirational quote or a short message of support. In less time than it takes to finish a frozen fudge pop, you can join the cause.

Go to sticksofhope.com and see how a small message can make a big difference.

So just go to the website and send a stick. If you have no one to send it to just send it to me at Elizabeth @ adailyscoop.com and I’ll be happy that another 25 cents was donated to the cause.