Years ago a reporter asked me to name some supermarket foods I wouldn’t be embarrassed to serve to
company.

Frozen Dairy Dessert

Frozen Dairy Dessert

Breyers Viennetta was one of my answers. Each flavor contained attractively layered folds of ice cream and crisp dark chocolate. It was elegant, convenient and tasty.

This week, a publicist approached me with the exciting news that Unilever is bringing Viennetta back for the holidays. She wrote,

“With a suggested retail price under $3.00, this frozen dessert cake of soft, rippling vanilla or chocolatey waves and crackling chocolatey layers allows hostesses to present a casually elegant dessert that won’t break the bank.”

Wow, I thought, this Viennetta is less expensive than the previous version. Not!

The original 15-ounce version was made with yummy Breyers Ice Cream; this 12-ounce one is a frozen dairy dessert, available until February 2009. That means instead of ice cream, this Viennetta consists of — nonfat milk, sugars, whey, cocoa, propylene glycol monoesters, cellulose gels, mono and diglycerides, locust bean gum, polysorbate 80, guar gum, natural flavor and carrageenan.

I would never think of serving this chemical version of Viennetta.  But — in hopes that the folks from Unilever are reading this — I’ll ask,  how about bringing the Breyers ice cream version back?