For this very important taste test we were in search of The Perfect Reese’s Ratio! I really don’t think you can go wrong with any of these Reese’s options, but in the quest for truth and best taste to report back to you, I just knew that this taste test could not be overlooked!

We tested the original Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, the Reese’s Big Cup, Reese’s Miniatures (wrapped in foil), and Reese’s Mini Peanut butter Cups (unwrapped), all pictured. EDITOR’S NOTE: It was my intention to add the Reese’s Easter Peanut Butter Egg to our taste options, however, when I went to check my stash, I discovered they had all been eaten! (Who would’ve done that?!) So we stuck with the four options.

I think it’s important to show you the difference in peanut butter and chocolate ratios for each.

You can see that the Big Cup has some serious peanut butter! With the Miniatures coming in with not quite as much peanut butter and then originals. Let’s check them out side by side:

It may look like the minis have just as much peanut butter as the originals, but they are actually covered in a thicker amount of CHOCOLATE, with just a bit of peanut butter enrobed in the center.

I do realize that taste tests are very subjective and dependent upon what each individual panelist prefers. But that is why I had a LARGER group to discover the truth for you. And the winner won by an overwhelming majority! (Care to take a guess before I reveal the winner?)

THE WINNER (drum roll, please….)

First Place: ORIGINAL PEANUT BUTTER CUPS ARE THE WINNER!!! Yes. I love that the original peanut butter cup won!

But we did have a few judges who disagreed: one voted for the Big Cup (more peanut butter), one voted for the Minis (more chocolate). There was a bit of an argument on the Big Cup…because even though it was a favorite for one judge, another said it was too rich to eat a whole cup at one sitting. I love it when our judges disagree. 😉

Have you given this taste test a try? Which one is YOUR favorite?

Really, you can’t go wrong with any of them! So, why not buy them all to shake things up a bit. (Reese’s did not pay me or compensate me in any way to do this blog post, by the way!)

Second Place: Miniatures (wrapped in foil)
Third Place: Big Cup
Final Place: Minis

I would LOVE to use the minis for baking (think cookies or cupcakes). And when I do, you’ll be the first to know. Wink.

See you at our next taste test!

The Root Beer Taste Test results are finally IN!

We had a little extra fun with this one by offering an online survey before we held the actual taste test. I wanted to see if the results of the survey matched the results of the taste test. Boy, was I SURPRISED!

ONLINE SURVEY RESULTS

The survey began the week before the taste test panel. Thanks to everyone who took our online survey!

And the winner of the survey, with 37% of the votes was A&W Root Beer.
Tied for second place was IBC, Henry Weinhard’s and Barq’s Root Beer.

I thought this was fun because we, as a society, are bombarded with marketing messages constantly. And A&W is a master at their marketing: “A&W Root Beer has that frosty mug taste!” Did A&W win the online survey because of marketing strategy, because it was the best recognized root beer out there? (I would not rest until I found out the answer to this with our live taste test! Yes, I am seriously dedicated to finding the truth for you, dear reader!)

Another interesting note: Barq’s must be working day and night to secure their place in restaurants and soda machines. I see Barq’s more than any other root beer as the choice at the soda fountain. (Although, today MUG was the root beer available at the pizzeria we tried.)

IBC is delicious, as I well know. But I had not heard of Henry Weinhard’s before the survey. In fact, IT WAS NOT EVEN AN OPTION on the survey, but was rather a write-in choice. AND…I had already gathered all the root beer for our taste test panelists, but this was NOT ONE of them! So, what did I do? I ran right out and found Henry Weinhard’s Root Beer to add as a contestant.

TASTE TEST RESULTS

Would our taste test provide the same results as the online survey? Drum Roll, please….

The Winner of our Taste Test was:

A&W Root Beer!! Yes, the taste test reflected the SAME #1 Root Beer as the online survey! A&W is well-loved and the results of both tests showed that.

Note: I searched all over the valley for A&W Root beer on tap. They used to offer it at both A&W restaurants AND at select KFC restaurants. My kids LOVED it when we brought home a gallon of A&W root beer on tap and then served it up in the frosty mugs we kept in the freezer. However, when I called to find it for our taste tests…it was not to be found! The contract with KFC must have ended, because they now serve only MUG rootbeer in their restaurants. 🙁

We had a TIE for SECOND PLACE:

Henry Weinhard’s & IBC Root Beer tied for second place. If you take a look at our online survey: BOTH also came in second place (together with Barq’s…but Barq’s did not place at all with our Taste Test Panelists.)

So far, we are pretty consistent with our choices!

We also had a TIE for THIRD PLACE: (I know, I know…I wanted to hold a tie breaker, but ran out of panelists!)

Mug & Teddy’s tied for Third place. I could not compare to the online survey, but Teddy’s did get ONE vote online.

Interestingly enough, Teddy’s also was one that many judges did not appreciate: They reported that it was “too sweet” or “too strong.”

But we definitely had a DEAD LAST root beer. It was one that was voted as last place by the MAJORITY of the panelists:

Panelists commented that it was “too strong” or had a “weird cherry taste.” So much for using this as a cute Father’s Day gift. (Crafty Bloggers everywhere will shed tears, I’m sure)!

Just look at all those cups! (I used over 100 cups for this challenge…but it was certainly worth it, don’t you think?)
A special thanks to all our judges…I could not do this without you. 🙂

THE WINNER SHALL MEET ANOTHER!

Now that we know A&W is the winning root beer…and we know the winner of our Vanilla Ice Cream Challenge (see the results here)…I think it might be time to introduce the two of them, don’t you agree?

We shall combine the two to make the BEST ROOT BEER FLOAT ever. And we’ll invite our panelists to come and see if they agree. And now, dear reader, I invite YOU to try these at your house and see if YOU think it is the best root beer float you’ve ever had! Then, report your findings back here on this blog post.

Another Successful Taste Test! (I can’t wait for the next one!)

Linking up with Lil’ Luna (I’m number 438! Ha! Someone’s got to be a little more on top of things….)

Until then,

Oh, this taste test was so fun! But I might have gotten a *little carried away with this one. We had ELEVEN competitors in this taste test…yes, that’s ELEVEN different brands of vanilla ice cream that our judges had to taste. {Life is hard sometimes!}

And here’s what we found: Not all vanilla ice cream is created equal.

For this taste test I looked for titles like: vanilla, Homemade Vanilla, Old Fashioned Vanilla, All Natural Vanilla, Natural Vanilla, etc. (No french vanilla in this taste test. No frozen yogurt. No gelato.) And I also wanted high-end brands and generic to be fully represented, as well as everything in between.

The idea was: if you were serving vanilla ice cream as dessert to some important guests, which vanilla ice cream would you serve?

I purchased a special MINI ice cream scoop for this event…I figured 11 tiny scoops of ice cream would equal about 1 regular scoop or so…not enough to give all the judges a stomach ache! There would be no casualties after tasting ALL this ice cream!

See all those silver cups in the photo above? Those were all labeled with a number 1-11, the ice cream was given a corresponding number, and those were delivered to the judges. We also supplied water and the judging form.

Let me introduce you to all the contenders (with approximate retail prices for each):

1) Kroger Brand Generic Artisan Vanilla Bean Ice Cream. $3.49 for 1.5 qt. (48 oz)

2) Turkey Hill Homemade Vanilla. $5.49 for 1.5 qt. (48 oz.)

3) Graeter’s Vanilla. $5.49 for One pint (16 oz.)

4) Ben & Jerry’s Vanilla. $4.49 for one pint (16 oz.)

5) Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla. $6.99 for half gallon.

6) Blue Bunny All Natural Vanilla. $6.49 for 1.75 qt.

7) Baskin Robbins Vanilla. $4.99 for 1 qt.

8) Haagen-Dazs Vanilla. $4.79 for 14 oz.

9) Breyers Natural Vanilla. $5.99 for 1.5 qt.

10) Dreyers Vanilla. $5.99 for 1.5 qt.

11) Tillamook Old Fashioned Vanilla. $5.99 for 1.75 qt.

One thing I’ve found while conducting all these taste tests is that not all the judges always agree. In fact, there was some debate over which ice cream was TRULY the best. But in the end, the majority ruled and the winner was declared. So here are the top 3 choices (who’s got the drumroll?):

CROWNING THE WINNERS:

Tillamook makes a delicious cheese (one of my favorites!) but I had never tasted their ICE CREAM before, so I was quite surprised that it took first place. [Note: The only place I was able to find Tillamook was at Bashas.] Baskin Robbins has always been a favorite since I was a kid, but I NEVER choose vanilla when I go there (have you tasted their World Class Chocolate and Gold Medal Ribbon?! Wow). And Dreyers is a well-reconized brand, so that was expected, however one judge reported that it tastes like “store-bought syrup.” Other judges reported that it was “creamy and had a great ‘real’ flavor.”

THE LEAST FAVORITES:

The lowest rated ice cream brands were:

Turkey Hill got zero votes. Zero. The judges found it was “too bland,” “tasteless,” and “boring.” Another surprise was Blue Bell rated one of the lowest! One judge said “Yuck!” But I’ve always thought Blue Bell was one of the best around. They do also carry a Vanilla Bean flavor…so maybe that one is much better than their homemade vanilla? (Can someone report on this?) The Generic brand was rated on the low end as well, but to be fair, one judge loved it for it’s creamy consistency.

DEDICATED – BONUS REPORT

After our taste test, I decided I’d better try some of my highly rated brands again. Yes, I know what you’re thinking: “that girl is dedicated to her craft.” And it’s true. In the interest of reporting accurate and true results to you, dear reader, I opted to taste a few again and try them against each other. I did this bracket style: the winner of the first competed against the winner of the second, and so on. And I kept coming up with the SAME WINNERS time after time. So I thought I’d better give to you the Editor’s Top Picks:

My winner each time was Haagen-Dazs. And before this taste test I DID NOT think I even cared for that brand. They must have changed something, or perhaps my taste buds are getting more refined with age?! I also really enjoyed Graeter’s (Linda’s top pick) and Ben and Jerry’s. But let’s be honest here: who chooses VANILLA Ben & Jerry’s when they have all those other tempting and interesting flavors? Not me. I’ve never even tasted their vanilla plain before.

EDITOR’S LOW PICKS:

To give you the complete picture: other low picks from me and a few other judges were Breyer’s (I know, I thought that was a favorite! But when pitted against these other competitors, it tasted artificial and “off.”) and Blue Bunny (also artificial). I shed a little tear over this one because Blue Bunny has one of my current favorite flavors: Bunny Tracks!! Have you had it? Oh, so delicious.

Please share YOUR favorite Vanilla Ice Cream…or go out and try our winner(s) and let me know what you think.

So there’s the report on Vanilla Ice Cream. It was a pleasure to bring this report to you (really!) and I am open to suggestions for future taste tests. Just comment below.

Stay in touch to hear about our next taste test upcoming: ROOT BEER! It was meant to be: what could be better to create with the REMAINING vanilla ice cream than root beer floats? See you next time.