Favorite Day is a food and beverage brand made by Target that launched in April 2021. It produces over 700 products mostly in the category of sweet and savory. The products are designed to offer premium flavor at affordable prices.
This article will let you know if one of those 700+ products lives up to being “premium in flavor”. Read on for my review of Favorite Day Homemade Vanilla ice cream.
The Review
I was annoyed with this ice cream before I even opened. If you take a close look at the picture at the top of this article, I think you’ll understand why.
The ice cream came with a plastic seal around the lid. However, under the seal the lid was popped up allowing for some of the ice cream seep out.
You might be asking why the hell did I buy it if the packaging was messed up. Well, I did a curbside pickup and didn’t examine my order until I got home.
I guess the lid could have opened during the car ride home but it was about a two mile drive in slow suburban traffic. But, whatever, I was willing to overlook the packaging issues if this ice cream actually tasted good.
This ice cream is surprising delicious for being a store brand. However, it has some flaws and is nowhere near being premium.
First off, it’s called “homemade vanilla” but I don’t know many homemade ice creams that use ingredients like high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and carrageenan. Furthermore, it’s artificially flavored and colored with annatto seemingly to give it a more egg yolk tone for a “homemade” vibe.
That being said, this ice cream does contain real egg yolks which gives it a desirable rich custard flavor and assists with its smooth texture. The sort of pale yellow color of this ice cream helps reinforce in the brain that this a a rich, yolky ice cream.
Do you taste the yolks? I guess if you really think about what you are eating you do. However, to my taste buds any yolk taste is overpowered by the other flavors of this ice cream.
The vanilla flavoring is powerful but doesn’t get in the way of the other sweet and creamy flavors. While artificial flavor is added to this ice cream, the taste is pretty close to real but you can tell its not the real deal.
The ice cream has a nice sweetness level to it. It’s sugary tasting but likely to a level that most people will enjoy.
This ice cream does have a slight watery or icy taste to it. This is a signal that there is a bit a cheapness to its quality. It simply lacks the all encompassing creaminess that other premium vanilla ice cream products contain.
Its texture is smooth and easily scoopable straight from the carton. You likely aren’t going to bend a spoon scooping it or break a cone trying to fill it. I prefer harder ice cream bases but this one is perfectly fine as a budget-friendly dessert.
The Rating
I give Favorite Day Homemade Vanilla ice cream 6.7 out of 10 stars. It is delicious for being a store brand but lacks the quality of many premium vanilla ice creams. It also has ingredients I rather avoid like HFCS and carrageenan.
At around $3.50 per carton this is a decent value pick for a vanilla ice cream. If you add some toppings or use it for something like a milkshake, its flaws
I talked about will be minimize. It’s a solid everyday vanilla if you can get beyond some of its issues such as ingredient quality.
Would I buy it again? Sure, why not. I’m just not going to go out of my way to visit Target just for this ice cream.
Feel free to leave a comment below if you have your own opinion on this ice cream! I certainly appreciate and respect different opinions. I just ask that you give your honest thoughts on it!