Tuesday 21 August 2012

Review of 'Natura' Maple-flavoured frozen dessert

Natura -- Maple-flavoured frozen dessert (vegan)
Overall Rating: 3/5
Summary: the pleasant maple flavour is unfortunately undercut by the icy texture and lack of creaminess. Nutrition-wise, the ingredients are better than other non-dairy frozen dessert brands, such as Tofutti. I may purchase this again if I'm craving maple-flavoured 'ice cream' simply because the Natura brand itself it so very impressive (brand details below).

Where to buy: Metro
Coupon: http://www.nutrisoya.com/rabais.php (sign up to receive; name and email)

Erable

So I mentioned in my last entry that I'd tried Natura's Maple flavour frozen dessert. I bought this from either Metro or Fortino's. I'll have to double-check this (I hadn't had the idea for this blog's creation when I made the purchase). Time for my not-quite-so-expert assessment!

So I've tried Natura's Soy Beverages before (which were delicious from what I can recall) settling for daily consumption of So Nice Unsweetened soymilk. I actually plan on trying Natura's unsweetened soymilk again very soon, for it's low-calorie, high protein edge (80 cals, 8g protein versus So Nice's 60 cals, 6g protein). As someone who's keen on weight-lifting and fitness, protein is always under special consideration when I'm selecting products. Back to Natura! I had very high expectations for this dessert, since I had great experiences with their soymilks in the past. It turns out that although this dessert packs a punch in flavour, it is lacking in a few important ways.

First, a breakdown of the ingredients and nutritional value of Natura's Maple-flavoured frozen dessert:

Ingredients: ORGANIC SOY BEVERAGE (FILTERED WATER, ORGANIC SOYBEANS), ORGANIC CANE SUGAR, ORGANIC COCONUT OIL, NATURAL FLAVOURS, SOY LECITHIN, ORGANIC LOCUST BEAN GUM, ORGANIC GUAR GUM, SEA SALT, XANTHAN GUM.

Nutrition:
Serving: 125 ml
Calories     130
Fat     5g (8%)
     Saturated 4g (21%)
Cholesterol     0g
Sodium     15mg (1%)
Potassium 85mg (2%)
Carbohydrate 17mg (6%)
     Fiber 1g (2%)
     Sugars 16g
Protein      2g
Vit A and C     0
Calcium     4%
Iron     2%

Who can have only a 125 ml serving of ice cream and be satisfied?! Not I!

So, as I mentioned earlier, the maple flavour is pretty intense and satisfying. However, the dessert was not very creamy or soft so I had to let it melt quite a bit before digging in (which seemed to take forever). It was a mission to scoop compared to the Tofutti I had earlier in the week (review coming shortly!)--very hard. So hard in fact that my spoon bent with the pressure!

So the texture of the dessert was icier than it was creamy, which was disappointing and which took away from the flavour. I imagine that a little bit of creaminess would have really enhanced the maple and made this fantastic!

The nutrition isn't bad. It's comparable to other non-dairy frozen desserts, I suppose. I normally try to look out for products with at least 3g protein per serving, but I'm a sucker for dessert, so that rule is often thrown out of the window. I do like that it only has a few ingredients (about 10) and you can pronounce them quite easily (if you're going with that popular rule of thumb). There are no artificial flavours.

You can try Natura's other flavours:
...or you can wait for me to be the guinea pig and report back ;) As a chocoholic, I'm keen on trying the Chocolate flavour, so be on the lookout for that review soonish.

Brand:
  • uses only whole, non-genetically-modified (non-GMO), certified organic soybeans that are grown in Quebec.
  • almost all Natur-a products are certified organic by an independent certification organization that is government-recognized and internationally accredited.
  • all our ingredients and flavourings are 100% natural. They contain no animal by-products and are vegetarian- and vegan-friendly.
  • we do not use any ingredients that contain gluten, and soybeans, rice and almonds do not contain any gluten naturally.

How about a 'song of the day?' I'm into Queer by Garbage today. Enjoy!

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