Into the Breyer patch

If I haven't been writing about ice cream as much here, it's because I've reached a point where there doesn't seem like so much new stuff out there to discover. When I was a single girl, it always seemed like there were way more new flavors being produced than I ever had time to try. But now that there are three of us here, it seems like we go through the flavors three times as fast and now we can say that we've tried just about everything that interests us. It doesn't help that there are many brands and subbrands that I've sworn off because they contain propylene glycol: Edy's Fun Flavors, Turkey Hill Light, and Breyer's Blasts, for instance.

But in recent weeks, Breyer's ice cream has been on sale at our local Kroger.  As I mentioned above, I'm avoiding all the Blasts flavors because of the propylene glycol, which leaves us with the all-natural flavors.  I can tell from their website that there are a ton of these still being produced, but our local store only stocks a few of them, and what we find ourselves buying most often are plain old chocolate and vanilla.  We've found the chocolate to be wonderful, and the vanilla...

Well, the vanilla is more complicated than it would seem at first glance, since Breyer's has not one, not two, but four different kinds of vanilla.  We've tried two of these so far.  Natural vanilla seems to be the baseline flavor, and it is a very strong, light-bodied vanilla with visible flecks of vanilla bean.  I love this ice cream but can only eat it by itself, as it seems a waste to put chocolate sauce or other toppings on it.  Not to fear, though.  The other variety we've tried, homemade vanilla, is a much more traditional, denser type of vanilla with a less prominent vanilla taste.  This kind is fine by itself but even better with chocolate sauce or served with a la mode desserts.

We are so taken with these two varieties that it's hard to find an excuse to even try the other two, French vanilla and extra-creamy vanilla.  However, in the interest of journalistic integrity I may eventually be induced to do so!