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Good vanillas avoid the extreme ends of the taste
spectrum -- overpowering vanilla flavor, or a lack
of flavor and an overwhipped airiness. In between
are many shades of flavor, most of them good in
different ways. Choosing one is a purely
personal thing.

Our taste test of Hawaii-made
ice creams shows that when it
comes to flavor, vanilla offers
all the variety of its
colorful cousins

By Betty Shimabukuro
Star-Bulletin

Vanilla offers no place to hide. Poor craftsmanship can't be cloaked by fancy fruits, chocolate, nuts, coconut or even a sticky layer of peanut butter.

"The true test of anybody's ice cream is the vanilla, because you can't disguise that," says Keith Robbins, owner of Bubbies. "It's sitting out there, naked."

Today we banish that defamatory term plain vanilla. Vanilla is a complex layering of flavors that ideally produces something clean, cool and creamy. A good end result can range from a light concoction with just a touch of vanilla bean to something dense and custardy.

By Craig T. Kojima, Star-Bulletin
Our tasters included, from left, Mark Okumura of
Alan Wong's restaurants, who makes ice cream;
chef Hiroshi Fukui of L'Uraku, who designs
desserts around the stuff; and Starr Quon, a
U.S. District Court secretary, who just
loves to eat it.

We began this foray into the freezer with the simple idea of a blind taste test involving locally made vanilla ice creams. Previous tests like this have given us clear winners in the realms of ribs, veggie burgers and chocolate pie, but this time eight judges turned in opinions so lacking in consensus that the totals were statistically irrelevant.

A failure, was the first reaction. But no, it really proves that vanilla ice cream, among all foods, is a very personal choice involving you, your palate and your acquired taste. It's a true celebration of diversity.

Winner by a nudge -- just two points out of a possible 80 -- was Bubbies Homemade Ice Cream. Yet, examine the judges' comments: "Perfect, good blend of flavor, creaminess," said one. "Quite flavorless," said another.

Close behind was Meadow Gold's premium supermarket brand, Very Special Ice Cream, although it drew the greatest fluctuation in scoring, from a perfect 10 to a miserable 1. "Too rich, too sweet," was one comment. "Not much vanilla flavor, but well-rounded," was another.

One ice cream, one carton -- two tasters, two wildly differing opinions. It was a recurring story.

Just a point behind Meadow Gold came Tropilicious Ice Cream and Lappert's Aloha Ice Cream. A little farther down: Dave's Hawaiian Ice Cream, followed by La Gelateria Italian-Style Frozen Desserts and Flavormania Exotic Gourmet Ice Cream.

Our judges included two chefs who make ice creams -- Philippe Padovani, of Padovani's Bistro and Wine Bar, and Mark Okumura, pastry chef for Alan Wong's restaurants -- and a third chef, Hiroshi Fukui of L'Uraku, a vanilla purist who uses ice cream in many of his desserts and who volunteered his restaurant and freezer for one set of tastings. Nadine Kam, the Star-Bulletin's restaurant reviewer, also lent an experienced palate. The other judges were non-credentialed ice cream lovers, standing in for the rest of us regular folk.

Tasting was in two separate sessions, but in both cases the scoring was oh-so-close.

Vanilla basics

Ice cream begins with a base of sugar and cream, which includes butterfat of at least 10 percent (less than that and it's ice milk). Then come eggs and vanilla flavoring. That's about it. Variations in taste come from the amount of butterfat (Meadow Gold runs at 12 percent; Bubbies at 16), the sweetness level determined by sugar, the ever important flavoring and the maker's technique.

"That's kind of an art," says Ralph Hallquist, Meadow Gold's vice president of sales and marketing. The base may be similar (Meadow Gold provides the base for some local companies, including a special mix for Bubbies), "but we each go to the next step of flavor and processing a different way -- and that's what makes it so fun."

By Craig T. Kojima, Star-Bulletin
Chef Philippe Padovani tries a dish of
vanilla ice cream.

The most expensive ice creams use vanilla beans and/or pure extract. The least use artificial extracts. The cost range is huge: Tahitian vanilla beans cost $3 each, wholesale, and one to three go in each quart. Pure Tahitian extract goes for $180 a gallon; artificial for $19 a gallon.

Padovani and Okumura swear by Tahitian beans; Robbins says Tahitian vanilla has an artificial taste. He uses Madagascar vanilla extract at $80 a gallon in Bubbies' ice cream. "Vanilla itself is not a very potent flavor," Robbins says. "It should be a subtle, clean taste on your tongue. If you can get that, you've really got a nice vanilla."

Our chef judges were divided on their favorites. Okumura said Tropilicious, with its full-bodied vanilla flavor, is most like his own ice cream. Fukui, who uses Bubbies at L'Uraku, says that brand's lighter flavor is better balanced.

Kam thought the Tropilicious had the best balance of flavor and mouth-feel, but when it came to emptying the bowl, she chose the sharp taste of Lappert's, "probably because it reminded me of the cherries in Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia."

Padovani was the toughest, giving scores as low as 1. "The key to ice cream, in reality -- the epitome -- is to eat it right when it comes out of the machine," he says. It'll spoil you for anything else. Forced to choose, he gave his highest score of 7 to Gelateria.

So forget about the experts guiding us through this.

Among our non-professional judges, the choice was between Bubbies and Meadow Gold, which had the most custard-like flavor of the bunch. This dismantled our prejudgment that a supermarket standard couldn't be as good as an ice cream parlor's choice mix.

Typical snobbery, says Hallquist, although not in those words. He says people underestimate Meadow Gold because it's not fancy in presentation -- it comes in a plain rectangular carton, instead of a cylindrical tub like gourmet ice creams. They may also confuse it with the company's less expensive regular ice cream, which uses "artificial vanilla enhancers" along with natural vanilla and has less butterfat and milk solids.

Meadow Gold is the value of our sampling, about $6 per half-gallon. Most of the others sell for $6-$7 per quart, and Lappert's is the highest at $7.35 per pint, which seems pricey even for Waikiki.

All the world loves vanilla

With all the choices out there, vanilla remains a big seller. It accounts for 35 to 40 percent of Meadow Gold's sales and a fifth of Bubbies' (a lot, considering the 80 flavors in stock on a given week).

The customer is growing more sophisticated, too. Consider that 15 years ago, when Meadow Gold was selling a vanilla bean flavor containing black specks of bean, people were calling to complain about dirt in their ice cream.

Robbins says people's tastes tend to go with the familiar. Those who grew up with inexpensive ice creams flavored with imitation extract may be intimidated by the denser, bolder premium brands.

Call it the Wonder Bread paradox. But there is always hope for quality, Robbins says.

"Sometimes when you educate someone's palate -- it changes."

Try this at home Here's a party idea: Put together your own ice cream tasting, using brands from your supermarket. Here are tips from expert tasters: Scoop up everything at the same time and hide the cartons. Taste the ice cream when it's slightly soft, not frozen solid. Place a small amount of ice cream on the tip of the tongue, then work it back. If you notice the ice creams taste different when you go back for a second bite, take a sip of water -- not iced -- between tastes and perhaps a bite of a soda cracker. This returns the palate to 'neutral' and also warms up the tongue. For fun, have tasters declare their favorites beforehand, then see if their scores correspond later. Perfecting your vanilla Mark Okumura, pastry chef at Alan Wong's restaurants, says experimentation is key to personalizing your ice cream: Start with the vanilla content and the type of vanilla you use. Different beans and extracts vary widely in flavor. Adjust the sugar content to get the sweetness level to your liking. Consider alcohol as a flavor enhancer. Okumura uses Jack Daniels' Tennessee whiskey, about 3 tablespoons to a quart, in his ice cream. It's not enough to make anyone drunk, he says, and as far as booze goes, keep in mind that vanilla extract also contains alcohol.

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