Graeter's Ice Cream - Oprah's favorite

I can count the times I've actually watched Oprah on one hand, but the few times I have watched, I've learned something......about food. Many years ago, I watched an episode where she discussed her favorite iced chocolate drink. It was excessively expensive, but surprisingly easy to make.

The restaurant even gave out the recipe on the show! It's become our go-to chocolate drink and it's awesome. So when I heard Oprah had a favorite ice cream, I listened.

Maybe you're thinking "ice cream is ice cream." Well, on so many levels you are wrong. Low fat ice cream does not compare to real ice cream. And it's full of other not-so great ingredients. Even the full fat ice creams available are mass produced with high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, etc. I have found only one brand sold in all stores that fits the bill of a "good" ice cream.

Is Graeter's in a grocery store near you?  Visit http://graeters.com/locations.aspx to find out. If you live near Columbus, Cincinnati, Dayton, or Louisville/Indiana, you can have it delivered. You can even have it shipped. That may have been weird a few years ago, but I find myself buying all sorts of great natural/organic/homespun foods online these days.

So what makes Graeter's special?

Two answers: real ingredients and the French pot process. Graeter's uses the French pot process to produce just 2 gallons of creamy ice cream at a time. Just like you would at home (if you were an expert ice cream maker!)

Here's what they have to say about their ingredients:


We use ONLY the highest quality ingredients in our ice cream:
• Fresh cream from farms that pledge not to use
  artificial growth hormones (rBST).
• Sweetened with 100% cane sugar.
• No hydrogenated oils, therefore no trans fats.
• Peter’s Chocolate–the inventor of milk chocolate.
• Premium, hand-selected Oregon black raspberries & strawberries.
• 100% Arabica coffee beans.
• Madagascar vanilla beans.
• Oreo® cookie chunks and Heath® toffee.


I had the opportunity to try 6 different varieties of Graeter's ice cream, but there are way more than 6 flavors available. Personally, I don't know why they bother making anything but chocolate or vanilla, but my kids LOVED the strawberry (and I love that it actually contained strawberries!) and mint chocolate chip. 


On that note, the ice cream was really good. We all enjoyed it. It tasted creamy and delicious. My only complaint....I wasn't a huge fan of the chocolate chunks in the ice cream. They tasted a little rubbery to me (as do most chocolate chunks in food products.) 


But the chocolaty essence of the chocolate ice cream was divine. And the vanilla was wonderful. If you want a really good ice cream, with real ingredients, made with attention to detail, you can read more about Graeter's here. 


*I received complimentary samples for review purposes. No compensation was received and all opinions expressed are my own.