The top 3 ice creams from our tasting
The most expensive products in the ice-cream freezer didn't top our judges' list. The three favourites in our tasting – Pam's Rich & Creamy French Vanilla, Cadbury Creamy Vanilla and Tip Top Light Vanilla – were reasonably priced at around $2-$3 a litre.
Pam's Rich & Creamy French Vanilla was the only product labelled as "French" vanilla in our tasting, but several ice creams (including the top-rated Cadbury Creamy Vanilla) had the intensity of colour and flavour you'd expect from a French vanilla ice cream.
Our judges thought the low-fat Tip Top Light Vanilla was just as good as a full-fat standard or premium ice cream. They described it as having "clean flavours, good levels of vanilla, and a light, fluffy texture".
Milk naturally contains the sugar lactose, so even low-fat ice cream can contain as much (or more) sugar as standard and premium ice creams.
New Zealand Natural Zilch was the only low-sugar ice cream in our tasting. It’s a reduced-fat ice cream with artificial sweetener added. Zilch had only 4.8g of sugar and 4.6g of fat per 100g but it failed to impress our judges: they described it as having "cardboardy, old fridge flavours and a watery finish" – rather “zilch” all round.
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