Breyer's breaks my heart archived

One of my favorite ice cream flavors is butter almond. The only company making it these days seems to be Breyer's. I don't buy it that often anymore, but lately I've come to notice that it's essentially tasteless. It used to have a distinctive, slightly salty taste.

Now it just tastes like dreck. I looked at the label on the box, and noticed that it's not even called ice cream anymore - it's "frozen dairy dessert".

Apparently Breyer's has been mucking around with their recipes - so much so that some of their flavors don't even qualify as "ice cream" anymore.

I feel betrayed. Breyer's used to laud themselves for their simple list of ingredients. Now they've become chemical concoctions.

No more, Breyer's. No more.

(and if anyone knows a good source for butter almond, let me know.)

http://consumerist.com/2012/09/11/new-breyers-recipes-when-ice-cream-is-frozen-dairy-dessert/comment-page-1/#comments

We discovered this over the summer on some of our favorite flavors, too. We had the same reaction. Total let down.

You are not alone sir, not alone.

http://breyers-ice-cream.pissedconsumer.com/change-is-bad-20120620326231.html

I'm still angry with the disappearance of Old Philadelphia Ice Cream and their chunky pineapple ... le sigh and apparently you should be angry as well as they did carry your flavor.

http://designarchives.aiga.org/#/entries/%2Bid%3A13452/_/detail/relevance/asc/0/7/13452/old-philadelphia-ice-cream/1

Breyers has long not been what it used to be, and I long ago stopped buying it after they started adding gums to their ingredients. Why not just call it iced gum?

I'm almost positive that Turkey Hill All Natural (the containers with the black-rimmed top) has a butter almond flavor, but only as part of a three-flavor mix with chocolate and vanilla. Turkey Hill All Natural (which has several flavors) and Blue Bunny All Natural Vanilla are the only ice creams I buy anymore, and only when they're on sale.

Interestingly, I just got a coupon in the mail from Turkey Hill promoting their All Natural ice cream, and I'm going to contact them to see if they will consider adding more flavors in that line. I'll specifically mention your hankering for butter almond.

Butter Almond was a Basset's standard flavor ... I think they do have pints and such for sale here and there but don't know if it is produced to the same standard or if it is just licensed for outside of Philadelphia consumers and made poorly.

http://bassettsicecream.com

You would have to travel but

http://bassettsicecream.com/page.php?p=10&zip=&distance=8&state=NJ&op=bystate

At least they have cream in it

http://bassettsicecream.com/uploads/ButterAlmond.pdf

Anyone ever eat a flavor of ice cream called Butter Brickle? I liked that one.

I feel for all of you. Personally, I'm getting tired of having to read the fine print on products these days, because the producers of old stand-bys are hiding how they have changed the products.

Even if it's "natural" that doesn't always mean you're getting what you think you are:

http://www.kqed.org/a/perspectives/R201206180735

Buy an ice cream maker.

Jeni's makes the best ice cream and the Short Hills Kings and Wine Library carry it. I'll bet you would like the Brown Butter Almond Brittle.

http://www.jenis.com/categories/Flavors/

marylago said:

Even if it's "natural" that doesn't always mean you're getting what you think you are:

Who cares if something is natural? Heck, bat sh*t is natural.

Thanks, marylago, I'll have to take a closer look at the labeling on the Turkey Hill ice cream, but I'm reasonably certain that it is what it says it is.

The ingredient list on the Turkey Hill All Natural Vanilla looks pretty legit:

http://www.turkeyhill.com/products/all-natural-recipe-flavors.aspx?pID=494

Heck even Turkey Hill's less then natural ice creams use to be pretty good ingredient wise ... not sure if that has changed or not

Yes, that's why I buy it. I want the ingredients to sound exactly like what it would be if I made it at home: CREAM, NONFAT MILK, SUGAR, VANILLA, VANILLA BEAN.

And drummerboy, it's butter almond and chocolate: Cream, milk, sugar, butter-roasted almonds, cocoa, vanilla.

Whoops, that was just the description. Here's the actual ingredient list for the butter almond and chocolate: CREAM, NONFAT MILK, SUGAR, ALMONDS, COCOA, CANOLA AND/OR COTTONSEED OIL, SALT, VANILLA, BUTTER

Guar gum which is common in commercial ice cream today is a natural ingredient. It is basically just ground seeds.

drummerboy said:

I feel betrayed. Breyer's used to laud themselves for their simple list of ingredients. Now they've become chemical concoctions.

This.

I remember years ago when Breyer's had a commercial where a girl tried to read the ingredients of a competitors ice cream and kept tripping up on the chemicals, and another commercial where someone was reading the ingredients and then says "Locust gum!?!" and looks at the camera. So when I recently looked at the back of a package I was disappointed to see that they had become the very ice cream maker that they used to mock.

Zoinks said:

Guar gum which is common in commercial ice cream today is a natural ingredient. It is basically just ground seeds.

Carrageenan is from seaweed. Just because it is "natural" doesn't mean I want it in my ice cream.

Ice cream should be cream, milk, sugar, eggs, and then whatever flavor you want to use (chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, etc).

Making a frozen dessert with gums and stabilizers and then calling it "ice cream" is like calling processed cheese food "cheese." It is, but it isn't.

And on a totally different subject, spellcheck wants to change carrageenan to Narraganset. )

You can get the best quality carrageenan from Narraganset ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-GlBK82nuA

The Edy's slow churned Butter Pecan is actually pretty good and tastes creamier to me than Breyer's. Best c=flavor in the slow churned, if you ask me. I , too, have been extremely disappointed with Breyer's lately- tastes very thin and watery- not creamy like it used to be. I tend to just spend the ridiculous extra $ and stick with haggaan daas these days if I indulge in ice cream (my preferred flavor in HD is chocolate chip)

Locust beans, not locust gum. But that is probably the commercial I was thinking of (yeah, I got some detail wrong but the gist of it right), back when a half gallon of ice cream was actually a half gallon. I think the only true half gallon I've seen recently is Trader Joe's Vanilla.

I've also been going towards HD lately.
I was a Ben & Jerry's fan, but the items they put in (like the brownies) don't seem as good as they used to be.

conandrob240 said:

I tend to just spend the ridiculous extra $ and stick with haggaan daas these days if I indulge in ice cream (my preferred flavor in HD is chocolate chip)

This is what I do. I don't buy ice cream a lot, I'd rather have full fat expensive ice cream that tastes really good once in a blue moon rather than cheap low fat crappy tasting ice cream every week.

When I was pregnant with my first I used to buy the single serving size (1/2 cup) of Haagen Dazs every night at work. Miraculously I somehow only gained 17 pounds the entire pregnancy.

spontaneous said:

Zoinks said:

Guar gum which is common in commercial ice cream today is a natural ingredient. It is basically just ground seeds.

Carrageenan is from seaweed. Just because it is "natural" doesn't mean I want it in my ice cream.

Ice cream should be cream, milk, sugar, eggs, and then whatever flavor you want to use (chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, etc).

Making a frozen dessert with gums and stabilizers and then calling it "ice cream" is like calling processed cheese food "cheese." It is, but it isn't.

And on a totally different subject, spellcheck wants to change carrageenan to Narraganset. )

Exactly. If you were making ice cream at home, would you put guar gum in it? Do you even know where to buy guar gum?

I like the Turkey Hill All Natural (and the Blue Bunny All Natural Vanilla) precisely because they hit the "sweet" spot for me in terms of ingredients, flavor, price, and fat content. I don't want to eat or pay for super high fat ice cream on any regular basis at all, and these other products at least still have a good taste/mouth feel without the outrageous calorie content or expense.

If I were a regular ice cream eater I'd probably go with a different brand. But as is, except for when I was pregnant, I maybe buy about 4 or 5 pints a year at the supermarket.

http://www.graeters.com/nutrition_bpecan.aspx

Graeter's, you can now find it in NJ. Yes, it does have carbob bean and guar gum, but they are far down the ingredient list-all the good stuff is listed first in order of amount in the ice cream.

Outside of my own home made ice cream Graeter's rocks.

CapnMarko said:

Butter Almond was a Basset's standard flavor ... I think they do have pints and such for sale here and there but don't know if it is produced to the same standard or if it is just licensed for outside of Philadelphia consumers and made poorly.

http://bassettsicecream.com

You would have to travel but

http://bassettsicecream.com/page.php?p=10&zip=&distance=8&state=NJ&op=bystate

At least they have cream in it

http://bassettsicecream.com/uploads/ButterAlmond.pdf

Anyone ever eat a flavor of ice cream called Butter Brickle? I liked that one.

Bassett's, from a scoop shop, is the best! They do sell it in pints in Shop Rite (in Essex Green, at least), but the pre-packed frozen stuff, while good, doesn't begin to compare to the scoop shop.

Packaged ice cream, in general, has become dreck. Even Ben & Jerry's, which used to be the gold standard, in my book, of packaged ice cream, isn't as good anymore. For me, it would be worth the drive to Phila. for Bassett's, or, closer, to Denville for Denville Dairy (best in NJ, I'm convinced).

Maggie Moos on Rt 10