Unilever kills the iconic Breyers Ice Cream brand!

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What?? I have the Breyers Natural Vanilla right here in front of me. It says:

Ingredients: Milk, cream, sugar, tara gum, natural flavor. Same as that Walmart brand. I think it tastes pretty good and the mouth feel, although different than it used to be, isn't bad.

And it is called "ice cream".

I thought you were only complaining about the vanilla flavor where the only thing they added was tara gum.


Originally Posted By: antiqueshell
I did find something surprising at the Wal Mart...well my Mom did...she was browsing the Ice Cream section and amazingly they have a Great Value Brand All Natural Vanilla Bean Ice Cream that is really all natural. All it contains is milk , cream, sugar, vanilla bean and tara gum, now I don't like that additive, but it IS a natural gum and there is NO whey, unlike any Breyers Ice Cream flavors now.

The price is nice around 2.75 /48oz and the flavor is very good, with decent REAL vanilla and a almost rich body to it.

I dislike Wal Mart intensely but I might buy that Ice Cream on a regular basis because it is good and it is something made in the USA. I wonder WHO actually makes it for them?
 
After just having some super fresh, smooth, creamy and rich ice cream out in PA Dutch country, I really dont care to have boxed ice cream from a store again anyway...
 
Originally Posted By: kschachn
What?? I have the Breyers Natural Vanilla right here in front of me. It says:

Ingredients: Milk, cream, sugar, tara gum, natural flavor. Same as that Walmart brand. I think it tastes pretty good and the mouth feel, although different than it used to be, isn't bad.

And it is called "ice cream".

I thought you were only complaining about the vanilla flavor where the only thing they added was tara gum.



I could have sworn that for a time the Natural Vanilla Breyers contained whey as well as tara gum on the ingredient label.

Maybe they revised it during the past couple of years.

In any case the remaining Ice Cream versions like their Chocolate, Mint Choc Chip, and Strawberry, contain whey as well.


And forget about old favorites like Rocky Road, Cherry Vanilla, and Peach...they are all disgusting slimy feeling and warm tasting FROZEN DESSERTS...boo, Unilever can go under.

As for the mouth feel, that tara gum imparts a slippery less icy feel to the products which I DEFINITELY DO NOT LIKE. THe old original version was best. I want to get my ice cream out of the freezer rock hard, and when I eat it I don't want that slight slippery mouth coating feel that the tara gum gives. I see NO reason to use it, heck are they saving a few cents a carton by using that as a filler.

30 years later Johnny can only read a FEW of the Breyers Cartons as well. Change is NOT always for the better.




Also noticed that Breyers has sneakily changed their labels again and it is almost IMPOSSIBLE to tell by glancing on the front label which flavors are Ice Cream, and which are
Forzen Dessert. If you haven't seen the new ones yet, they will be showing up on the shelves shortly. I'm surprised that they can get away with this.
 
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Originally Posted By: kschachn
This change happened a long time ago, where have you been? It still is better than 99% of the other brands out there, and it is neither "horrible" nor "repulsive". Your theatrics are amusing though. The company cites distribution difficulties and no doubt that was a problem.

I agree it would have been better without the added gums and thickeners. We are just going to have to make our own.



This actually has only been gradually happening since last year or so Breyers was gradually phasing in the change over a year.

They got caught by surprise though when ice cream fanatics stated noticing the bad taste, and slimy mouth feel of the new products and when they looked closer and read the label the customers knew they had been "had" by Unilever.

I can tell you first hand, and so can others, the
frozen dessert formula is HORRIBLE. The taste is bad, and the mouth feel is disgusing, this stuff tastes a bit WARM even when frozen. Not to mention that if you let the product sit at room temp it will not completely melt!
 
From what I can tell, they started adding taro gum back in 2009 and then started messing with other stuff as time went on.

You are right about mouth feel though, that is one of the hallmarks of good ice cream. You can tell it instantly when it starts melting on your tongue.
 
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
After just having some super fresh, smooth, creamy and rich ice cream out in PA Dutch country, I really dont care to have boxed ice cream from a store again anyway...


Do you mean made by Amish folks ?
 
Originally Posted By: kschachn
From what I can tell, they started adding taro gum back in 2009 and then started messing with other stuff as time went on.

You are right about mouth feel though, that is one of the hallmarks of good ice cream. You can tell it instantly when it starts melting on your tongue.


Do you know when they started adding the "whey" to it?
 
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Turkey Hill is what I buy and they make my favorite mint chocolate chip and also rocky road and Turkey Hill is cheaper than Edy's. I was never a big fan of Breyers ice cream. Last night I bought a carton of Friendly's mint chocolate chip because it was $1.99 at the grocery store and I thought that was a steal but I didn't know it is "frozen dessert." I rarely buy Ben and Jerry's and Haagan Dazs because it is so expensive but every once in a while they will have a good sale.

In my opinion all ice cream started going down hill once they got rid of the old cardboard block containers.
 
Originally Posted By: GMFan


In my opinion all ice cream started going down hill once they got rid of the old cardboard block containers.


True!!!!!!

As an 80's kid, that's what I was used to!
 
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
Originally Posted By: GMFan


In my opinion all ice cream started going down hill once they got rid of the old cardboard block containers.


True!!!!!!

As an 80's kid, that's what I was used to!


Interesting you mention that because I agree too, it seems like these asinine companies decided to spend MORE on the carton and subtract quality from the product itself..brilliant!
 
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
Originally Posted By: GMFan


In my opinion all ice cream started going down hill once they got rid of the old cardboard block containers.


True!!!!!!

As an 80's kid, that's what I was used to!


I remember as a kid bending thick metal spoons to get scoops of rich chocolate, strawberry and vanilla ice cream out of the block half gallon sized containers. Does anyone else remember this? These days you can put ice cream in a blast chiller and easily scoop it out with a flimsy plastic spoon. I swear all of it tasted better back then too or perhaps it is just selective memory.

That Breyer's video showing the "melted" ice cream is disturbing.
 
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
Originally Posted By: GMFan


In my opinion all ice cream started going down hill once they got rid of the old cardboard block containers.


True!!!!!!

As an 80's kid, that's what I was used to!
still got those around here at the local fruit and meat markets.
 
No, I just was doing some Google searches and kind of came up on that time period. It is what I remember too, that it has been 3-4 years since I first noticed "gum" in the ingredients.

I was just confused because I only buy the vanilla bean kind. From what I could find they started adding the taro gum to all their varieties at first, then started adding other stuff later (except to the natural vanilla).

I'm not a real big fan of ice cream anyway but as soon as they changed the formula I knew it - as did a lot of people, probably.

Originally Posted By: antiqueshell
Originally Posted By: kschachn
From what I can tell, they started adding taro gum back in 2009 and then started messing with other stuff as time went on.

You are right about mouth feel though, that is one of the hallmarks of good ice cream. You can tell it instantly when it starts melting on your tongue.


Do you know when they started adding the "whey" to it?
 
Just out of curiosity (I don't normally eat ice cream unless safeway is selling their single cup for 58c and I eat it before I leave the store) I check the Bryer's label in Target last night. Most of the normal flavors are still called Ice Cream (strawberry, chocolate, vanilla, etc) but those candied flavor like Snickers, cookie & cream, rocky road, etc are Frozen Desert now.

To be honest, at $3.50 I don't think you can complain much vs the $4 Dryers at the same size. When you compare to the $5/pint Italian Gelato, Hagendaz, Ben & Jerry, or store front Basken Robbins or Cold Stone, you can't really complain about how much they sell for vs how much quality you get.

How many of you would still buy it if they sell for the same price at Hagendaz?
 
Originally Posted By: PandaBear




How many of you would still buy it if they sell for the same price at Hagendaz?


Panda you seem like a decent sort of guy but I often times find you completely unaware that you cannot only look at the analytical aspect of things, and that includes business. Human beings are...human, and other things factor into purchasing choices, and for that matter business decisions to make a success or failure.

I think that issue has been lost on many of today's MBAs and related.

You see a 100 year old product, like Breyer's is more than "just" ice cream. The founders and subsequent owner's built their business success based on a heritage of natural ingredients, and quality. They even used to have a "pledge of purity" right on the cartons, that guaranteed the natural high quality ingredients and satisfaction to the customer. (BTW, I despise the term "consumer" because it minimizes the influence that they have on a business)

Now after a century of those qualities and traits Unilever is throwing them away, like yesterdays trash. However, because people are...people, and not computers, they don't forget, or accept the new inferior, horrible tasting product. For the small savings they get putting chemical [censored] and gums into the ice cream they are LOSING sales so it is not only offsetting it is costing them profits in the long term. You do know it also cost them money to do all this reformulation as well?

Another ridiculous thing is that they said not one word to the customers about the change, instead just printing the words in very small print "frozen dessert" on the label instead of promoting the improved product which the clinics claimed people liked BETTER the the ice cream. LOL

Sure most customers will just stop buying and not communicate their displeasure on the internet, but quite a few will and word gets around.


After all why do you think Unilever is changing the new cartons so that the fact that one flavor is frozen dessert while another is real ice cream is not quickly realized without reading the actual ingredients list on the side in tiny print?

Which is pretty amusing because it costs more money to change things like that as well. More money wasted.

The sad part is that this new generation of bidness man (MBA) only care about the numbers and NOTHING else period and that has and will continue to cause a lot of previously successful companies to fail.
 
Originally Posted By: PandaBear


How many of you would still buy it if they sell for the same price at Hagendaz?



If they went back to the original taste and all natural ingredients (without whey and gums) and without adding more air into the ice cream, and they went back to a half gallon size in traditional square cartons I would certainly pay the same price as you would for a pint of H.D.
 
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