Glace Vanille 101

It's that time of year when we Must eat ice cream.

As soon as I got my walking sticks/becquille, I was outta here.

Off to get some ice cream.

Chapon on 69, rue du Bac has esquimaux popsicles covered in their own chocolat noir.

I was after a good old fashioned cone. Chapon has an interesting square scoop by the way.

A few doors down at Le Gâteau et du Pain they now have ice cream!

Unfortunately they were not open ;(

Not far off is traditional Le Bac à Glaces so this is a good route to take if you're researching ice cream.

When Louise of Raids Patisserie announced a vanilla ice cream tasting I was in. We were to bring 2 small pots of any of the following brands:

Berthillon, Pascal Le Glacier, Raimo, Pozzetto, Martine Lambert, Le Bac à glaces, Sébastien Dégardin, Liberté / Benoît Castel, Hugo & Victor, Christian Constant, Glazed, La Tropicale.

Living round the corner from Berthillon I knew my assignment, but they do not provide lids for their cups so I went big. A big block of vanille. I prayed it wouldn’t melt in the steamy heat wave we're having .

There were 7 of us and 10 different vanilla ice creams to taste. !

No double dipping allowed. We went through hundreds of little spoons.

Rules must be followed at Louise's. 

First of all SILENCE. We need to concentrate - no chatter among participants. 

We are to judge aroma, mouth feel, consistency, appearance, whatever we deem important.

*= scandalous **= not so scandalous ***= pas mal or good ****= very good indeed *****=heaven on earth and the best of the bunch.

On my left, Julie, a perfume aficionado surely has good taste buds but who can read her fine French handwriting ? On my right, Miguel from Mexique, a baker at Frederic Lalos is also writing in French. Hmmm...

My notes/scrawl tell the tale. Louise will post the final results in detail soon. I can tell you the WINNER was Crème Glacee Absolu Vanille of Le Gateau et la Pain! 89, rue du Bac 75007

I picked up little meringues at Berthillon and brought along  some vanille de Madagascar to sniff. The meringues dipped in the melting vanilla ice cream was definitely 'heaven on earth'.

Is there anything better than melted vanilla ice cream soup? Not in my book. YUM

Our team leader, Louise lapping up vanilla soup.