"The ice creams were purchased near the Chicago Tribune’s Loop location at a Mariano’s supermarket, a Jewel-Osco supermarket in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood, and an Aldi and a Whole Foods Market, both in Evanston. I did not buy membership-only club brands because I wanted ice cream the general public had a reasonable chance of buying. Prices listed are what I paid — some brands were on sale.
This was a blind tasting, meaning tasters didn’t know which vanilla ice cream was which. Each participant in the tasting was asked to rate each brand on appearance, aroma, texture and flavor.
To keep the ice cream as firm as possible, the tasting was conducted in stages, with two or three trays of pre-scooped ice cream brought out from the freezer at a time."
