- Gifford's All Natural Vanilla Bean looked promising. A vanilla super premium ice cream with 58% saturated fat just sounds like heaven. On the presentation side of things, it was also promising with a milk-jug-type pull around snappy seal and little bean specs shouting "I AM VANILLA!" on the top layer. My plastic spoon folded on itself as I tried to dig out a modest bite...oh yes, this ice cream seemed a worthy opponent. Upon tasting the ice cream, I was mystified. The only taste I found was the aftertaste. I kept trying the ice cream, hoping that my taste buds were playing a joke on me. No luck. The ice cream tasted like a solid, creamy milk. The aftertaste was a nice vanilla. I struggled because the consistency was great, the finish was great, the presentation was great...but shouldn't I be satisfied as I am eating the actual ice cream? This is for the mild vanilla lovers taste buds. For me, I like something a little more outspoken.
- I'm a fan of Gifford's homemade look and I'm also a fan of the fact that they seal their ice cream for the consumer's safety. Gifford's "Vanilla" ice cream has a light blue lid and upon opening that lid there was a little shrinkage, which was likely the grocery store's fault. The ice cream looked good and, like every other Vanilla ice cream on the market, had small flecks reminiscent of a vanilla bean. The taste of Gifford's "Vanilla" ice cream was good and not at all overpowering. It's a good vanilla taste without a bad aftertaste. I did note the presence of guar gum, xanthan gum, and carrageenan, all of which are natural and usually used as thickening agents. Personally, I don't know if they were absolutely needed and it might have been nice for the ice cream to be more "pure," but either way Gifford's "Vanilla" ice cream was just good and I would probably go for something cheaper just because it would be similar.