I’m on vacation in South Africa celebrating my dad’s 60th birthday (returning on Saturday). I flew from Dallas to Atlanta and from there to Cape Town; and, as I walked from my incoming gate in Atlanta airport to my connecting gate, I passed by a Ben & Jerry’s. It was about 9am at the time, but I couldn’t resist a peek at their menu ;).
I looked around for any sugar free flavors as the last thing I really needed was full-sugar ice cream first thing in the morning. As I peered down the list of flavors, one of them had Splenda: blueberry. So, I ordered one scoop of blueberry and I ate it as I walked to my next gate.
I’ve had sugar-free ice cream before — though I’m not sure I’ve had Splenda-sweetened ice cream. And, while sugar-free ice cream is usually very close to the real thing, this was a disaster. It was as if it was all ice and no cream. As I plowed my plastic spoon into the ice cream, the ice cream merely broke off in chunks — like a rock face — rather than pulling apart like the creamy confection it should have been.
You might expect this sort of behavior from a fat-free ice cream, but that shouldn’t have been the case this time. I can only figure that it was over-frozen as even when I attempted to savor the ice cream, it merely disintegrated in my mouth like an ice cube rather than dissolving creamily. I’ve had Ben & Jerry’s ice cream before and it’s often very good (if over priced). So, it’s not that I’ve given up on Ben & Jerry’s, but I don't think I’ll have their sugar free varieties again any time soon.