Greek Is The Word (Carte D'Or Ice Cream Greek Yoghurt & Honey)

Member Name: snowbunni

Product:	Carte D'Or Ice Cream Greek Yoghurt & Honey
Date:	15/01/08 (142 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Decent honey

Disadvantages: Artificial, Misleading Product Description

'Greek Yoghurt... and Honey', whispered a late-night television advert, in the sort of dulcet tones more commonly associated with M&S sausages. A couple of warm and sunny days later, when I found myself floundering in a frozen food aisle, struggling to appease two small children, I spotted it and popped it in the trolley at once. I suppose I imagined (in a moment of folly) that it might transport me from the aisles...to the isles.

THE LOOK:

Carte D'Or's 'Greek Yoghurt and Honey' is packaged in a 900ml, oval-shaped tub, and in the customarily 'classy' Carte D'Or livery, which is all ostentatious gilt and earnest lettering. The back label seems promising enough...
'Deliciously smooth ice cream made with authentic Greek yoghurt', it proclaims, 'swirled and topped with Greek-style honey sauce and crunchy toasted almonds. Only Carte D'Or Selection gives you inspiring combinations of authentic ingredients for a heavenly dessert experience.'

I remove the lid and peel back a frosted plastic film. Underneath, the ice cream is presented in two plump, swirly mounds, peaks frozen in place, like a couple of whipped-cream alps. A thick drizzling of dark, maple coloured honey cascades and oozes betwixt the creamy peaks, topped by one final, careless scattering of paper-thin, slithered almonds. Admittedly, the overall effect is impressive.

THE TASTE:

The honey certainly looks the part, and an initial tasting confirms that it is most assuredly rich. It has that dense, intense and slightly sickly flavour characteristic of many Greek honeys. Furthermore, it permeates the ice-cream to the very bottom of the tub, so that the final mouthful is as honeyed as the first. This is a nice touch.

As to that scattering of slivered almonds, well, these certainly appear to have been toasted, at some point or other, but any nut sliced this thinly is unlikely to respond well to an unforgiving process of toasting, freezing and defrosting, and both flavour and texture suffer as a result. Consequently, these slivers are soft, subtle and quite frankly insipid.

Most disappointing of all, however, is the ice-cream itself, which is probably best described as inoffensive but unremarkable. It doesn't taste of anything in particular, it is quite simply very sweet, and a good deal sweeter than it ought to be. Why? Well because it is A) accompanied by that sickly drizzling of honey sauce and B) described as resembling Greek yoghurt, which isn't generally sweet at all. In short, 'Greek yogurt' seems altogether notable by its absence here.

Sure enough, a cursory perusal of the ingredients list reveals that 'Greek yoghurt' merits the most apologetic of mentions (1.5%), a frankly meaningless quantity, and presumably little more than a token nod to satisfy those pernickety spoilsports at the Advertising Standards Authority.

The ingredients lists of most processed foods will rarely withstand a great deal of scrutiny, and sadly, this Carte D'Or confection seems a case in point. The contents as listed here are at best disappointing and at worst alarming, especially for a supposedly 'luxury' dessert. To wit, the four main ingredients, in order, are 'Reconstituted skimmed milk', 'Water', 'Glucose-Fructose syrup' and 'Vegetable Fat'. It also contains no fewer than six individual E numbers. A one hundred gram serving contains 207 calories and 8.8g of fat.

THE CONCLUSION:

This certainly looks like a triumph of the ice-cream maker's art, effortlessly indulgent, obscenely rich, almost like something Gastby might have ordered at the Waldorf-Astoria. However, Carte D'Or's Greek Yoghurt and Honey is definitely more tease than taste, and if a triumph at all, merely one of style over substance, or chemistry over quality ingredients.
Carte D'Or ice creams retail at between £2.50 and £3.

www.adorablecartedor.co.uk

Summary: Don't Bother