Edy's/Dreyer's Rich & Creamy Grand Vanilla Review
Testers declared this brand "generic" and "standard." One said this is the ice cream parents would buy their kids and another said it reminded him of an elementary school cafeteria.
If you're looking for a "generic" vanilla ice cream that won't detract from the toppings you're going to pile on, Edy's Rich and Creamy Grand Vanilla would be a good choice. In our blind tasting of five cheap ice creams, our panelists found Edy's Rich and Creamy to be "run-of-the-mill" and "standard." Still, some declared it extremely sweet with an off-putting artificial vanilla flavor.
Edy's Rich and Creamy Grand Vanilla boasts a yellowish-white color that looks as though there's egg yolk in it, as if you had made it yourself. Actually, the color comes from annatto, although one taster said it looked "custardy." The mouth feel was another story altogether. Although this cheap ice cream appears to be as rich and creamy as its name implies, it didn't possess the smoothness that our tasters expected.
Much about our panel's assessment of Edy's Rich and Creamy Grand Vanilla can be explained by the ingredients list. The excessive sweetness may stem from the presence of corn syrup and molasses in addition to sugar. It obviously contains cream, which, with the addition of whey, confers on the texture whatever degree of creaminess Edy's Rich and Creamy Grand Vanilla musters up. The ice cream also contains vanilla extract, which is included in the "natural flavors" grouping.
Edy's had its beginnings in California as Dreyer's (it still sells under that name on the West Coast), where it was a small producer whose claim to fame was the formulation of Rocky Road. Edy's/Dreyer's is now owned by Nestle.
