Haagen-Dazs FIVE

Well, well, well... what have we here?

Ice Cream. Love it.

The big H-D has come up with yet another new slant. The gimmick here, as it's clearly stated on the front of the carton, is that there are only FIVE ingredients. There are 7 different flavors, each sharing 4 of the same ingredients: Milk, Cream, Sugar and Eggs. The 5th ingredient is what distinguishes each flavor from the others - passion fruit, mint, brown sugar, chocolate, vanilla bean, coffee and ginger.

OK, so I can't speak to 6 of the flavors, but who cares? The passion fruit is the only one that sounded interesting enough to try. The ginger sounded interesting, but only in an experimental sort of way. The brown sugar probably has serious potential, but I would need to be in the perfect mood for that type of flavor AND it better not have a sandy, grainy texture or I'm out. BUT, the passion fruit was exquisite. The combination of the fruity flavor of a passion fruit sorbet with the rich, white creamy texture of a sweet-cream ice cream was both unique and gratifying. The experience is hard to describe but let's just say it fools you a bit in that it tastes different than it looks. There definitely is a tinge of purity that can be tasted and the quality is high enough that it makes it well worth the price. Speaking of price, thankfully Haagen-Dazs kept these pints at the same price point as their regular flavors and didn't try to claim some "Premium" price baloney like they did on those Private Reserve flavors.

All in all, I usually do prefer a little crunch in my ice cream but for those people who don't, this new line will be right up your alley. Pure, 5-ingredient goodness.