Kosher Gourmet Reviews Sorbet

Sorbets are a great alternative to ice cream. Sorbets are made from fruit puree mixed with other ingredients. A serving of sorbet is generally lower in calories than ice cream and you get many of the vitamins from the fruit used. Since there is no milk used in creating a sorbet, you can serve them after a meat meal. French often serve sorbets between courses to cleanse the palette. With a good sorbet, you should be able to taste the fruit.

Legend has is that Alexander the Great was one of the first to eat a sorbet treat by combining flavorings with snow.

We looked at sorbets from Double Rainbow, Haagen Dasz, Ciao Bella, Pierre’s and Sharon’s Sorbets as well as pareve ice creams from Double Rainbow. All sorbets were pareve except for Haagen Dasz which was OU-D.

A group of 5 sat and spent nearly 2 hours tasting sorbets and pareve ice creams (poor us!) We did not know which sorbet was which so as not to have any preconceived notions on which was the best. We judged them on the following criteria: taste, color, consistency (smoothness), and price.

All sorbet servings are ½ cup and there are 4 servings per pint. No sorbet had any calories from fat.

Lemon Sorbet

Excellent:

Ciao Bella lemon sorbet It was very tart. If you like lemon, this is great.

Calories/serving: 140

Pierre’s Lemon Sorbet
Comments were: Milder lemon flavor than other lemon sorbets Very creamy. Rich Lemony flavor. Yummy! It had a decadent taste.

Calories/serving: 150

Very Good

Sharon’s Sorbet Lemon Sorbet
Comments: Less lemon taste and sweet. The yellow color is appealing

Calories/serving: 75

Raspberry Sorbet

Excellent:

Ciao Bella raspberry sorbet.
Had the fullest flavor of all 3. It had a tart taste

Calories/serving: 100

Sharon’s Sorbet Raspberry Sorbet
Moderately fruity. Creamy and delicious

Calories/serving: 80

Very Good:

Pierre’s Raspberry Sorbet
Creamy with a mild flavor

Calories/serving: 150



Mango Sorbet

Excellent

Sharon’s Sorbet Mango Sorbet
Creamy and mild.

Calories/serving: 75

Very Good:

Ciao Bella mango sorbet
Strange mango flavor. If you like mango taste, this is for you.

Calories/serving: 107

Passion Fruit Sorbet

Excellent:

Pierre’s Passion Fruit Sorbet
Creamy and mild. Yummy, nice consistency.

Calories/serving: 150


Very Good

Ciao Bella passion fruit sorbet
Bland, milk tropical aftertaste

Calories/serving: 92

Sharon’s Sorbet Passion Fruit Sorbet
Very tart

Calories/serving: 80 for ½ cup

Other Flavors

Excellent:

Double Rainbow Mango Tangerine Sorbet
Nice blend of flavors. Beautiful colors

Calories/serving: 120

Very Good

Haagen Dasz Acai Sorbet
different, rich flavor, a bit gritty, Nice color

Calories/serving: 120

Good:
Double Rainbow Marion Blackberry Sorbet
Rich berry flavor

Calories/serving:

Pareve ice cream

Excellent:

Double Rainbow Soy Chocolate Chip Mint.
I decided to throw in a pareve ice cream to see how it compared to our dairy flavors. It had a very minty flavor and was excellent. The highest compliment it received was it does not taste pareve

Calories/serving: 200

calories from fat: 90

Double Rainbow cinnamon caramel Soy Cream
tasty, had a flavor of spiced cinnamon. Would serve with apple pie

Calories/serving: 190

calories from fat: 90

Comparing the companies that created lemon, raspberry, mango and passion fruit sorbets:

Ciao Bella had the truest taste of fruit. The first ingredient in all their sorbets was the fruit itself. No corn syrups were used. In various flavors there was a considerable amount of vitamins – their passion fruit had 30% of daily value of Vitamin A and 13% of vitamin C. The lemon was quite tart and the raspberry tasted like raspberries.

Pierre’s sorbets were more impressive than their ice creams. The creaminess we tasted is probably due to stabilizers and other ingredients. In addition, they had a mild taste of flavor probably due to the fact that the 1st ingredient listed is water, and they use fruit purees rather than actual fruit. Their products were the highest in calories due to the usage of corn syrups in the purees used as well as the additional sugars and corm syrups used. In addition, the passion fruit sorbet also contained food coloring and many of their products contain little to no vitamins. For example, their raspberry sorbet contain no vitamins vs. Sharon Sorbet which had 15% of one’s daily value of vitamin C and Ciao Bella which had 15% of one’s daily value of vitamin A.

Sharon’s Sorbet had a nice line of natural tasting products. Like Ciao Bella, they list fruit as the first ingredient and do not use chemicals or corn syrups.

Double Rainbow We enjoyed Double Rainbow’s soy ice creams very much. Both flavors were top rated. We also enjoyed their sorbets even though they did contain other ingredients such as corn syrup as well as fruit purees. We felt it is worth the trip to Trader Joe’s to buy this product line.

Haagen Dasz we were not very impressed with their upscale sorbet flavor.

Overall we feel that these are a good alternative to ice creams as well as a good item to serve at a meat meal. If you like a strong fruit flavor Ciao Bella is our 1st pick and Sharon’s Sorbets a close second. If you like a more milder flavor, Pierre’s will do but you will be eating a product with higher calories,

Where to buy and get more information:



Ciao Bella www.ciaobellagelato.com/ Cost: $3.99/pint. Available at local supermarkets. Certified Kosher by Star-K

Double Rainbow www.doublerainbow.com Available at Trader’s Joes. Cost: $3.99/pint Certified Kosher by the OU


Haagen Dazs www.haagendazs.com/ available in local supermarkets. Premium Reserve available at Super Stop & Shop or soon at their web site Cost: $4.50/pint Certified Kosher by the OU

Pierre’s www.pierres.com/ Cost: $3.99/quart Available at local supermarkets like Shop Rite Kosher Certified Kosher by the OU


Sharon’s Sorbet www.sharons-sorbet.com Cost: $3.99/quart Available at local supermarkets Kosher Certified Kosher by the OU