I’ll admit it, I have an insatiable sweet tooth. And one of the biggest things I miss in the low-carb lifestyle is ice cream that tastes like ice cream! Fortunately, there are some options available at your supermarket. For this review, we bought and tasted several varieties of Breyers CarbSmart.

First off, it’s important to differentiate between “sugar free” and “carb smart” ice creams. Sugar-free typically means than an ice cream has not had any sugar added to it. However, since milk naturally has about 12 grams of natural sugar (lactose) per cup, even ice creams that contain no added sugar will still be relatively high in carbohydrates (although typically these have between 1/3 to 1/2 the number of carbs per serving as regular ice cream).

Carb smart ice creams have had special processing to remove much of the lactose and are artificially sweetened. I look for brands that use Splenda rather than aspartame because I prefer the taste. These ice creams have less of an impact on your blood sugar because they have fewer digestible carbs.

And now for the nice (and the nasty). Breyers CarbSmart Ice Cream (in a half-gallon tub) is a wash. The Vanilla doesn’t have enough true vanilla taste, and the Rocky Road has a discernibly chalky mouthfeel and aftertaste. (Our grocery store didn’t have Chocolate or Neapolitan, but we will probably skip them.)

What we did find were Breyers CarbSmart Ice Cream Bars. Both the regular and the Almond version taste incredible. They’re sweetened with Splenda, which I far prefer to aspartame because it lacks a chemical aftertaste. The chocolate coating on the bar is more dark chocolate than milk chocolate, which is perfect for taste-buds that have acclimated away from syrupy-sweet confections. The Almond bars also have chopped almonds in the chocolate coating that add extra crunch and flavor. The Vanilla ice cream is quite airy, more so than a traditional bar, but still very tasty. The one downside is that they have a different mouthfeel than regular ice cream bars; since the ice cream is airier, you don’t get quite the same richness coating your tongue as when you devour a full-sugar bar. However, that’s a small price to pay for really tasty ice cream, in my opinion.

At 9 grams of carbohydrates, including 2 grams of fiber, 5 grams of sugar, and 2 grams of sugar alcohol, they’re not an everyday treat, but when you have GOT to have a sugar fix - or if you’re hot from washing the car in the middle of the afternoon, like my husband was - these are an ideal snack.