You can have your sunny-day sorbets, ices, slushes and sherbets. Nine times out of 10, I’d rather have real ice cream. With that iconic foundation of fat, protein and sugar with a veritable smorgasbord of possible added flavors and textures, you could have a different kind of ice cream every day for a year — but that’s not always a good thing. Some flavors are better left on the trash heap of culinary history. When you’re standing in front of the cold case, it can be so hard to choose just one perfect scoop! Let’s talk about the most common varieties. There just happen to be thirty-one, like a certain famous ice cream shop, but it’s a complete coincidence.
2 Birthday Cake / Cake Batter
I like cake and I like ice cream, but somehow birthday cake flavor is the worst of both worlds — the often-sodden cake detracts from the ice cream, and the ice cream overwhelms the cake. To make matters worse, the flavors of the cake and ice cream are typically indistinguishable. Cake batter flavor, in which there is no bogged-down cake but there is fake cake flavor permeating the entire scoop, is similarly hamstrung by too much of a good thing.
Also, I hate sprinkles. There, I said it.
I have had a couple of artisan cherry ice creams that used a lot of real black cherry or tart cherry puree, but usually, cherry ice cream uses varieties that aren’t very interesting, as though they’re left over after the crop has been picked through for maraschino purposes. Or worse, they use the mortal sin of fake cherry flavor. When chilled, some of the woody, tannic flavors that make a cherry pie such a delight are so muted as to be undetectable. The only acceptable version is cherry chocolate chip, and even then, it’s objectively the worst chocolate chip.
I know, I know! You hate the very idea, but have you ever actually tried it? I don’t like raisins, yet I still kind of like this one, and a little controversy over trivial things is what makes life worth living. The raisins are soaked in literal rum, so they’re softer than you may be thinking they will be, and their potent raisin-y nip is curbed by the fat in the cream. Also, they’re the centerpiece of the best scene in 1991’s fifth top-grossing movie, “City Slickers.” Having sautéed sea bass, potatoes au gratin and asparagus for dinner? Don’t forget a pint of this one.
Although I plead with you not to risk the food poisoning that’s possible with eating real raw cookie dough, I understand its delicious appeal. That’s not what’s in cookie dough ice cream, though. The alleged cookie dough bits are too hard, without the fudgy texture of the real deal, and the chocolate chips are all wrong for melting in a bite of ice cream. It’s a great concept, but in execution, it deserves the axe.
This is my favorite pie flavor, but I have yet to find a Key lime ice cream that I thought really worked. The best ones have graham cracker bits, but they never quite reach the summit that is the pie. The cream blunts the zippy freshness of the lime too much, condemning it to be just a shadow of its greatness in pie form, forever a disappointment. If you’re gonna go lime, go sherbet.
The warmth of real cinnamon is a nice foil for cold cream, as long as it’s real ground cinnamon. If it’s only cinnamon oil, it’s like eating frozen Red Hots and belongs near the bottom of the list. On the other hand, if it’s sweetened with maple syrup, it might rise a few notches.
Like the Key lime, lemon ice cream is best served with cookie bits. It’s much more successful than the lime, but if I’m going for citrus of any kind, I’ll usually skip the dairy and choose an ice or slush.
Peanut Butter Cup
If you choose this one at an ice cream shop where they take a full-sized Reese’s cup and chop it into your ice cream of choice, it will sing, but the grocery store variety usually uses mini cups with the wrong chocolate-to-peanut butter ratio, and they also freeze solid, making for an unpleasant bite-back experience. It’s better than cookie dough, though.
The best version has chunks of ripe peaches with a faint pink tinge where the stone inside used to be. Unfortunately, most peach ice cream uses peach juice concentrate, and it ends up tasting canned.
Tour of our 32 Flavors of Ice Cream!
What is America’s favorite ice cream flavor?
According to recent research , America’s favorite ice cream flavor to add to cart is vanilla, making up 30% of all ice cream purchases in 2023. And after that, came chocolate. We polled the entire Parade team to get their take on the best and worst ice cream flavors, from which flavor is the most satisfying to which flavor you could do without.
Which ice cream flavor is best?
While we differ a bit with the YouGov report’s ultimate pick, we believe chocolate ice cream stands the test of time, and a large number still agree that it’s the best flavor there is. Many east coasters, in particular, chose this flavor most often, according to Instacart . 2. Vanilla Vanilla makes a justifiable runner-up.
How many different types of ice cream are there?
While there are obviously thousands upon thousands of flavors around the world (I can’t include all ice cream types ), this list includes 100+ ideas that are popular in the United States. There aren’t many red-colored ice creams that exist. As it turns out, red is a hard color to recreate, especially in homemade ice cream.
What color ice cream is best?
Yellow is a color of happiness and fun. This is also true for these fun and bright flavors. These yellow flavors would be great ice creams to make during the spring and summer seasons. Banana: This rich and creamy ice cream is made with real bananas and optionally stuffed with dark chocolate.