Aldi Product Review: Belmont Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream from Aldi $1.99

My freezer was filled up to the max, but when I discovered that Aldi sold mint chocolate chip ice cream for $1.99, I convinced myself that I could find room both in the freezer and in the grocery budget.

Aldi stores have a couple of different ice cream brands, but I picked out the Belmont mint chocolate chip ice cream, because it called my name.

The creaminess is just right, and the chocolate chip mints have a perfect mint taste that leaves a minty flavor lingering on your tongue long after you have taken your last bite of ice cream.

The Belmont Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream had a very natural flavor and feel to it, and it felt like eating real ice cream. I am a big fan of the low calorie ice creams, frozen yogurt and anything to cut the calories, but once in a while it is good to get your hands on the real kind - the ice cream that take you back to childhood, when ice cream was ice cream with no artificial flavors, - preservatives and artificial sweeteners with names that I cannot pronounce.
I am usually a bit weary of store brand ice cream, and I will admit that I am rather brand loyal when it comes to Edy's and Breyers ice creams. However, I have only had a positive experience with the Publix store brand ice cream, which is why I even dared try the Aldi ice cream.

Aldi Product Feature: Belmont Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

The Belmont All Natural Ice Cream:

• Cost $1.99 for 1.5 Quarts
• Has no artificial flavors
• Has no artiificial colors
• Has no preservatives
• Has no high fructose corn syrup

The Belmont mint chocolate chip ice cream comes in a 1.5 quart (1.42 L) container, which is the same as the new Breyers and Edy's brand ice cream containers that are sold for $5 - 6 per container unless they are on sale.  A serving size of 1/2 dcup contains 170 calories, 8 grams fat (0 grams trans fat), and it has 18 grams of sugar.




The ingredient list:
Skim Milk, Cream, Cane Sugar, Syrup, Corn Syrup, Chocolate Flakes (Sugar, coconut Oil, Cocoa Processed with Alkau Butter Oil, Soy Lecithin, natural flavor), Buttermilk, Whey, Natural Flavor, Guar Gum, Carob Bean Gum and Carrageenan.

Now, when I read an ingredient list I always like to pull it apart and figure out what is really in my food.

The following information was found at Wikipedia:

Carrageenan:
Carrageenans or carrageenins (pronounced kar-uh-gee-nuhn or kar-uh-ghee-nuhn) are a family of linear sulfated polysaccharides that are extracted from red seaweeds.

Gelatinous extracts of the Chondrus crispus seaweed have been used as food additives for hundreds of years. Carrageenan is a vegetarian and vegan alternative to gelatin.

Locust bean gum (LBG, also known as carob gum, carob bean gum, carobin, E410) is a galactomannan vegetable gum extracted from the seeds of the Carob tree, mostly found in the Mediterranean.
 
Locust Bean Gum is used as a thickening agent and gelling agent in food technology. The bean, when made into powder, is sweet—with a flavor similar to chocolate—and is used to sweeten foods and as a chocolate substitute. 




The Belmont Mint Chocolate Cream Ice Cream from Aldi Stores gets five out of five Aldi Spots. This is definitely NOT the last Aldi ice cream that I will try, and I know my kids will be very helpful in exploring new tastes.