In a series about ice cream on AARPMagazine.com, Supermarket Guru Phil Lempert has been conducting a survey (still open) on America's favorite flavors and varieties of the cool summertime (or anytime!) treat.
Although the poll is still open for voting, here are some results. AARP/SG respondents are more adventurous, and have more discriminating taste buds than most Americans, according to Phil. Vanilla may appear to be America's favorite flavor, with almost 40 percent of ice cream sales, but only 17 percent of respondents prefer vanilla. Chocolate and vanilla tied at 17 percent, followed by butter pecan (14 percent), mint chocolate chip (13 percent), coffee (11 percent), chocolate chip (8 percent), cherry vanilla (7 percent), cookies and cream (6 percent), Neapolitan (4 percent), strawberry (3 percent), and praline (2 percent).
AARP online readers also choose their indulgences more carefully than the general population, as 33 percent most frequently purchase low-fat ice cream, which accounts for only 10 percent of total sales. Premium ice cream took the second place position (30 percent), followed by regular ice cream (28 percent), no-fat (5 percent), soy (3 percent), and gelato (2 percent).
When asked what style of ice cream they enjoy the best, premium ice cream was the No. 1 (45 percent). In this question regular ice cream took second place position (20 percent), followed by low-fat (19 percent), gelato (14 percent), soy (3 percent), and no-fat (2 percent). These answers suggest that if watching your weight and wallet were not an issue, more shoppers would prefer to put flavor first.
And then there are those of us who don’t care about anything but flavor. My suggestion is for work on a really great premium fudge and vanilla flavor. I’ve yet to find one.
