Sarah Moore/Chowhound
Nothing says summer like a cone full of strawberry ice cream. Unless it’s a cone full of strawberry ice cream that is actively dripping down your wrist and onto your shorts, that is. (Anyone else? No?) Good strawberry ice cream just screams hot days, dry fields full of berries, buzzing bees, and fun times — assuming you’ve got the right brand, of course, because let me tell you, it turns out bad strawberry ice cream is a real buzzkill.
In order to determine the best brand, Chowhound gave me license to go buy every example we could find on store shelves and then, well, chow down. On our taste team this time around were the regulars: myself, the husband, the small boy, and the small girl. Our vastly differing opinions on food (and pretty much everything else) lead to both spirited debates and a relatively unbiased ranking of the goods. Speaking of which, let’s get to it.
10. Kroger Deluxe Strawberry Surf Ice Cream
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If your first thought on learning that a full 48 ounces of ice cream retails for only $2.99 is “Huh … that’s not good,” then you’re correct. It is not good. This ice cream tastes less like ice cream and more like a weird, crystallized, dairy-like substance that has a bit of strawberry flavoring and a great deal of Red No. 5. Add to that a terrible aftertaste and an ingredients list that’s like eight thousand items long, and you’ve got a product that simply isn’t worth buying, even for $3.
Of course, Kroger Deluxe has never been good, in our experience. It ranked 11 out of 14 for our chocolate ice cream taste test and 10 out of 13 for our coffee ice cream sampling. Granted, those aren’t bottom-of-the-barrel scores, but neither are they particularly worth eating. So to discover that its strawberry ice cream was majorly “meh” with a strong, undefinable aftertaste did not surprise us. (Also, what’s with the “surf” in the name? Who’s surfing here? And why?)
There is the argument that not everyone can afford to spend more than $3 on a tub of ice cream and that, if you added some cheap sugar cones, it would legitimately provide dessert to a dozen people. But ideally, you can at least go for Dreyer’s, which ranked No. 8 and only cost $3.99 for the same amount. If you’ve got the dollar to spare, spare it.
9. 365 Whole Foods Market Organic Strawberry Ice Cream
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In previous taste tests, Whole Foods ice creams scored okay. Its coffee ice cream snagged the middle spot, and its chocolate got the silver medal out of 14 flavors. So to discover that the strawberry was oh-so-bad was quite disappointing. At $4.19 for a pint, we definitely expected more from the 365 Everyday Value Organic Strawberry Ice Cream.
How did we hate it? Let me count the ways. It didn’t really taste like strawberries, for one thing. I mean, a strawberry ice cream has pretty much ONE job, and it’s already failing. Its ingredient list was also a mile long, which is annoying when we’re basically talking about a concoction of milk or cream, eggs, sugar, and berries. It was melty and creamy enough, but it tasted like we were eating melty, creamy, sugar slurry: the “Soylent Green” of desserts. Frankly, once “Soylent Green” enters the mix, I exit. G’day, mate, I’ll be taking this $4, and buying one-third of a thing of sushi.
8. Dreyer’s Strawberry Ice Cream
Sarah Moore/Chowhound
We don’t have much to say on the subject of Dreyer’s Strawberry Ice Cream except that it’s only $3.99. It does taste better than Kroger Deluxe Strawberry Surf Ice Cream, but that’s not saying much. It is of decidedly low quality — it turns into a weird foam when it melts, likely due to its towering ingredient list.
Did it taste like strawberry ice cream? Kind of. Was it better than its lower-ranked brethren? Yes, owing to it tasting like strawberry ice cream ever so slightly more than the other two brands did. Would we buy it? We would absolutely not buy this brand ever again. Literally, I am struggling to come up with more information for our readers, and all I can say is I don’t have any. You should steer clear of Dreyer’s Strawberry Ice Cream unless your only other choice is Kroger Deluxe.
7. Trader Joe’s Strawberry Ice Cream
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Our family has a lot of faith in Trader Joe’s. Sure, a lot of its products are overpackaged, but we just avoid those. We’ve found Trader Joe’s to be reliable in many other areas, and trust me, we’ve familiarized ourselves with everything from TJ’s Indian food to its complete sauce lineup. We like Trader Joe’s coffee ice cream quite a lot, and its desserts in general tend to be crowd-pleasers. Plus, you get a pint for only $3.79, which isn’t half bad.
On the list of positives, TJ’s strawberry ice cream was creamy and colorful and had decent strawberry flavor. The color could be the result of food coloring, though the ingredients list says the only coloring agent is natural fruit juice, another positive. On the downside, there were any number of other “natural” ingredients, and the strawberry bits were kind of odd in an unexplainable way. Plus, it was too sweet. Descriptors ranged from “a little on the sugary side” to “cloying,” so make of that what you will.
6. Breyers Natural Strawberry Ice Cream
Sarah Moore/Chowhound
I think my favorite part about tasting Breyers was the kids’ total confusion about why we were eating it “again.” I recall from my own childhood being very confused about the difference between Breyers and Dreyer’s … what bizarre twist of the space-time continuum led to such similar but different ice cream brand names? Were obscure old German families warring over this corner of the market? What’s with the apostrophe on one and not the other? Most importantly, why didn’t the Matrix just merge these timelines at some point?
No matter. It didn’t, so we embrace the chaos, I more than most. Breyers Natural Strawberry Ice Cream reminds me of the vintage ice cream truck treats from the ’80s and ’90s: fake and not quite convincing, but nevertheless fun and tasty. Part of that is because we ate this ice cream growing up, so I always associate seeing it in the freezer with happiness and spoiled children running around. But part of it is that it’s just not half bad, despite landing in the bottom half of this ranking. It’s creamy, mellow, melty in the right ways, and only $5.99 for a big ol’ tub. The only complaint? It tastes more like vanilla than strawberries, which is really missing the point.
5. Tillamook Oregon Strawberry Ice Cream
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First and foremost, it’s only fair to acknowledge our bias: We live in Portland, and anything with “Oregon” in the title gives us a sense of hometown pride that might make us rank an item higher than it otherwise deserves, but hopefully we remained objective here. That said, if someone took a grip of fresh strawberries, mushed them up, mixed them with eggy ice cream, and swirled the whole thing around, you’d get Tillamook Oregon Strawberry Ice Cream, and we think it’s A-okay. Plus, it’s only $3.99.
There are a few downsides, too. It had a little bit of that strange, airy, foaminess going on, which indicates that the manufacturer whipped air into the product to stretch the ingredients. Also, it’s not quite as silky as products such as Ben & Jerry’s or Häagen-Dazs, but usually cheaper, so it’s worth it. There were also a lot of ingredients, so it’s up to you whether you mind.
4. Van Leeuwen Strawberry French Ice Cream
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From here on out, the ice cream choices were unmitigatedly delicious, and we would recommend every single one, with few caveats. It surprised us not at all that Van Leeuwen Strawberry French Ice Cream would be among them, because our experience with the brand has to date been quite positive, with it ranking No. 2 in our coffee ice cream taste test. Strawberry did nothing to dissuade us on that count.
This ice cream has a rich, creamy, eggy consistency, more like frozen custard than ice cream. A quick label check reveals that this is a product of its egg yolk content, which is twice as concentrated as standard ice cream and is what earns it the “French” moniker in its title. With few ingredients and a rich, convincing strawberry flavor, this is a total winner, only ranking as low as it did because the others were better. Which, who can complain?
The only real downside is that Van Leeuwen ice creams are painfully expensive. This one was on sale for $6.11 (on sale! for a pint!), and I’ve seen it for as high as $10 per pint. Who has that kind of money when they’re not being bankrolled for a taste test? Not us, that’s who. Still, if you can find it on sale, grab it and run.
3. Ben & Jerry’s Strawberries & Cream Ice Cream
Sarah Moore/Chowhound
Everyone loves a strawberry cheesecake ice cream (indeed, it was Chowhound’s top pick in a ranking of Aldi ice cream flavors), but one of the things that typically bothers me about this dessert is the cheesecake-esque chunks scattered throughout. Personally, I’m not a fan. The best thing about Ben & Jerry’s Strawberries & Cream Ice Cream is that it tastes like strawberry cheesecake ice cream without the chunks. Although this might be disappointing to the chunk-lovers among us, for me, it was a hit for both myself and the small girl.
There is the small matter of it being $8.99, which was ounce-for-ounce the most expensive ice cream in our lineup. Along with that price comes super-high-quality ice cream, though. As the husband said, “You can tell how good the ingredients are because it actually turns to cream when it melts rather than foam.” All of which is to say, we really could tell that it was extra creamy versus the other flavors, which is important, because it was billed as strawberries and cream, after all. If you wanted to take a summer shortcut, this would be great dumped on shortcakes for an easy strawberries and whipped cream replacement.
2. Alden’s Organic Strawberry Ice Cream
Sarah Moore/Chowhound
You know how bathing in milk used to be a thing? Well, I want to bathe in Alden’s Organic Strawberry Ice Cream. At $10.49 for 48 ounces, that would be even more ludicrous than bathing in actual milk, but the heart wants what it wants because this ice cream is SO good. It was only barely edged out by Häagen-Dazs, because, well, Häagen-Dazs. Even so, it was impeccably creamy, delicious, and flavorful.
Our only complaint, other than having to spend your life savings to experience this, is that the package advertises beautiful chunks. We found one. One measly chunk, which was disappointing given how much this ice cream costs and how much strawberries don’t cost. We’re not talking truffles here, people. However, when you do get a chunk, it’s delicious. Lastly, there were more ingredients than you’d think would be necessary, but we can overlook that.
1. Häagen-Dazs Strawberry Ice Cream
Sarah Moore/Chowhound
Unless you’re going to make fresh strawberry ice cream yourself, this is the best you’re going to do. Häagen-Dazs Strawberry Ice Cream — which was on sale for $3.99 at our local Fred Meyer — is just plain epic. I mean, guys, it’s so good. There are only a few basic ingredients, with tons of creamy strawberry flavor. I know it sounds ridiculous to compare ice cream to something like, say, liquor, where the word “smooth” has real meaning, but it’s just so smooth. As in, it literally goes down easier than the average Kroger Deluxe and Dreyer’s. It just does.
“It is delicious heaven,” as the small girl put it. “It is always amazing, and it always will be.” The grownups couldn’t have put it better ourselves, especially since it actually had the strawberry chunks that Alden’s was missing. Add some crumbled biscuits à la Bobby Flay’s strawberry milkshakes, and your life will be complete.
Note that Häagen-Dazs is sometimes double what we paid for it or more. The best way to get around this is to watch ads at your local grocery store. Usually, when it goes on sale, the store will let you know as long as you get the flyer or have the app. When it does go on sale, discounts can be steep, so we like to stock up on a few pints at a time. That way, we’re covered for — oh, who are we kidding? — the next day or so.
Methodology
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Our methodology for these taste tests is pretty simple: First, buy a buttload of ice cream. (Yes, a buttload. This is a genuine technical term that translates to about 126 gallons, which is approximately how much ice cream it feels like we eat over the course of each taste test.) We bought every ice cream we could find that was made with real dairy, purely strawberry-flavored, and non-gimmicky — e.g., nothing low-fat, protein-packed, keto, etc.
Second, set out every flavor with its corresponding tub so we know what we’re getting ourselves into. Third, taste each flavor together and take detailed notes about likes, dislikes, conspiracy theories, and so on. Fourth, hold spirited debates about where to rank each one. (Fifth, realize that during the course of said spirited debates, you have forgotten to put the ice cream away and everything has melted. Sixth, pawn off melted ice cream to neighbors.)
In terms of how we decided to rank them, we used several factors: creaminess, meltiness, and flavor. Creaminess means mouthfeel, i.e., did it actually appear to be made of cream? Meltiness means what happens when it melts either in or out of the mouth: Did it become thick and creamy, rich and eggy? Or did it turn to weird foam that proved the presence of a lot of air? As for flavor, well, that shouldn’t need explaining. (Tell that to Kroger Deluxe, though, amiright?) In the end, whether or not the ice cream provided that inimitable essence of strawberry was the most important “it” factor, and we treated it as such.
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