Craving Creme d'or Sicilia

After buying a 1.5 quart of Dreyer's Thin Mint ice cream at the commissary for US$3 a couple of weeks ago, I can't help but ponder the supermarket ice cream dilemma I'm faced with since moving to Switzerland.

Isaiah and I consume a lot of supermarket ice cream. I take that back, we used to consume a lot of Ben & Jerry's, Häagen-Dazs, Breyers, Dreyer's, etc. It's not that there's a lack of the good stuff here, far from it. We're just too cheap to pay for the good stuff. The budget brands are either mediocre or just awful, so we stay away because we're not that desperate. As for the top quality ice creams, they're great, but they'll cost you (unless you are lucky enough to live in a border city and you just hop on over to France, Germany, or Austria for your fix -- although we do live 10 minutes away from the Lidl in Austria, we're just lazy).

Instead of picking up a new flavor of the frozen stuff every week, ice cream is now a special treat for us, reserved for when certain brands are 20% off at the supermarkets. One particular brand we're crazy about is the Creme d'or Sicilia collection. We've tried the ricotta and marsala, strawberry-basil-lemon, and the orange-almond (not pictured). The texture is dense yet creamy, and the unique flavor combinations are quite complementary and rich.

Although the 20% discount will never compare to the steals you get in the States, the quality of Creme d'or Sicilia is well worth every rappen.

Just to give you an idea of the price differences: 1.5 quarts of Dreyer's in the U.S. will cost you $5 full price. (1.5 quarts is approximately 1.4 L, or 1400 milliliters). Here, 1000 milliliters of Creme d'or Sicilia will cost you $10.50 full price. We're paying more than double the U.S. price for almost 1/3 less ice cream!

5 comments

  1. The price of ice-cream...

    And then, I tend to avoid Creme d'Or (I just don't really like it) and buy Ben and Jerry's for 10 CHF per 500ml.

    Ouch! But so darn good.

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  2. Oh, but have you tried the Sicilia collection?? I haven't tried their regular flavors, so I don't know, but I can attest that if you like more exotic flavors, Sicilia is the way to go!

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  3. 'Tis the season for ice cream! I was frowning at the ice cream section yesterday -- whether it should be an 8-odd CHF 1L tub of ice cream, or 2-something CHF 1L budget ice cream. Hmm. I huffed away and decided I could do without ice cream for the evening.
    Will tackle this dilemma later this afternoon, because darn it, I want me some good vanilla ice cream for the weekend!

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  4. I guess one thing to keep in mind when looking at prices here is that the salaries are accordingly high, so it's not really fair to judge prices 1-1 against prices in the US. It looks like double the cost off the bat, but if you adjust for salary and standard of living then it's actually not that much more expensive.

    I have a pretty standard office job and my American friends' jaws hit the floor when they find out how much I make and how much vacation I have, but again - because of prices and cost living it's not really as much as they think it is. So it's pretty relative in the end... depends on your perspective, I suppose.

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  5. Juanita - I know it's pricey, but Mövenpick is 20% off at Coop this week. Maybe that will help you decide...

    Romy - good point. I hadn't really thought about it that way. It's just a shock to the eyes at first glance, you know?

    I guess since they charge more for ice cream, that's how they are able to pay supermarket clerks so well :)

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