I will start by saying that, although I am a diabetic, I rarely by 'diabetic' products as I know from the research done by Diabetes UK that they are generally not worth the money. It is usually better to eat the 'ordinary' equivalent but in moderation. In fact if you eat some diabetic products such as chocolate the sweeteners used in them can have a quite severe laxative effect.

It is much better to eat a generally low fat, low sugar diet with an occasional treat.

I have, however, tried vanilla ice cream that has been specially made for diabetics on a couple of occasions and found it to be watery, tasteless stuff so when I saw Franks Diabetic Ice Cream in the freezer at Tesco's I was in two minds whether to even bother trying it to be honest. Anyway Dave suggested that it might be worth a go so I decided to give it a whirl.

The container (so you know what to look for in the freezer!)

It is sold in a traditionally shaped oblong, plastic one litre container with a tab on the corner which you need to break off in order to open the tub. This costs £1.73 which is comparable with the other vanilla ice creams in the freezer so I didn't feel that I was being asked to pay a premium for the 'special' diabetic ice cream, which is sometimes the case with this type of product. The label on the top is quite plain with just the name of the manufacturer and the contents description on a creamy coloured background. Incidentally I got mine from Tesco's but it also available in Asda although I can't vouch for the other supermarkets.

The appearance

The ice cream is a pale cream in colour, which was a good start, as the other diabetic vanillas that I have tried have been white and didn't look at all creamy! In fact they didn't really look much like ice cream to be fair - more like a white, unnatural sorbet.

With this one there was also a nice fragrance of vanilla which wasn't synthetic in any way so I was impressed and looking forward to tasting this.

I got a spoon to scoop out some of the ice cream and it was what is now known as a 'soft scoop' texture and it appeared to be very creamy. It looked like a high end creamy vanilla ice cream.

The taste

Now appearance and fragrance are all very well but let's be honest it's the taste that has to be right isn't it? Well, I am pleased to say that it is gorgeous!

It is quite simply a delicious, creamy vanilla ice cream. It isn't too sweet and there is no nasty aftertaste that you occasionally get with the sweeteners used in 'diabetic' products. To be honest you would be hard pressed to distinguish this from any good quality creamy vanilla ice cream.

I have tried this with fresh fruit; it is particularly nice with pineapple, and I also like it with just a little drizzle of maple syrup over it for a real treat.

Nutrition

The nutritional information per 100g of ice cream is as follows:
Energy 163 calories
Protein 3.4g
Carbohydrate 17.9g
I am guessing that most of this is sugar!
Fat 7.7g

The company

Frank's is a company based in Dyfed and they make their products using the finest Welsh ingredients. They don't only make diabetic ice cream either, I have just taken a look at their website at www.franksicecream.co.uk and they have a nice range of flavours available in the ordinary ice creams and are currently developing a range of diabetic flavours too.

Apparently Frank's have been making ice cream for over 80 years and have won regional, national and international awards. They have also won the 'Champion of Champions' for 'Britain's Best Ice Cream'. If the diabetic ice cream is anything to go by I shall now be looking out for more of their flavours to try!

In conclusion

This is easily the best diabetic ice cream that I have tried and whilst I am happy to eat ordinary ice cream in moderation I would certainly buy this again purely because it tastes so good. I would still only eat it as part of a healthy diet as I think that eating it in quantity just because it is especially suitable for diabetics wouldn't do me or my blood sugar any favours!