8 Store-Bought Chocolate Ice Creams, Ranked From Worst To Best

Yahoo

16-03-2025

Chocolate ice cream is a popular choice when a craving for sweets kicks in. And it's no wonder: Chocolate ice cream is delicious and highly satisfying. Typically made with a mix of cocoa powder, sugar, cream, eggs, and vanilla, there's no doubt that chocolate ice cream is a classic dessert. That said, there are variations in flavor and texture between different brands, so if you're shopping for the perfect pint of chocolate ice cream, you might want to consider which brand will best meet your preferences.
Some of these differences can be subtle, but others can be quite striking. The level of bitterness from the cocoa can be more or less pronounced. The consistency can be luscious and creamy or riddled with gritty ice crystals. These differences make a big impact on the overall flavor of the ice cream and the level of satisfaction that we experience. To help you get more bang for your buck, I picked up eight different brands of chocolate ice cream at a local grocery store and did some research. Read on to scope out the ranking — the results may surprise you.
Read more: Ranking 12 Fast Food Soft Serve Ice Creams From Worst To Best
Breyers is an old brand that was founded in 1882. Originally, the ice cream was mixed by hand and delivered across Philadelphia in a horse-drawn wagon. Over time, the company branched out to offer its ice cream in stores all across the country. You would think that a brand with this kind of history would be leading the industry, but Breyers was my least favorite chocolate ice cream out of the bunch.
This chocolate ice cream has a watery, icy texture to it. It melts very quickly in the mouth, and, even worse, the flavor feels flat. The chocolate in this ice cream tastes very basic and subtle. This would be fine mixed with other ingredients, like an ice cream sundae drizzled with other elements that can distract from its mediocrity, but Breyers chocolate ice cream is nothing that I would ever go out of my way to purchase.
Similar to Breyers, Häagen-Dazs chocolate ice cream is also a little on the icy side, which is why it's ranked on the lower end here. Ideally, ice cream should be thick and creamy. I understand that most frozen desserts will naturally have some level of ice, but I felt that this chocolate ice cream from Häagen-Dazs needed more cream in the recipe.
Once again, I think this chocolate ice cream is probably best suited for mixing with other ingredients. I could see this being used for something akin to a Dairy Queen Blizzard, mixed with ingredients like Reese's peanut butter cups or maybe some crushed Oreos. The bottom line is that I didn't think this chocolate ice cream from Häagen-Dazs was quite rich enough or creamy enough to be truly satisfying. When I indulge in ice cream and consume a lot of sugar, I want to feel like it's worth it.
The main appeal of Halo ice cream is that it's a bit less unhealthy, due to being a little lower in fat and sugar when compared to lots of other regular ice cream brands. The store didn't have a plain chocolate flavor, so instead I opted for the Halo's chocolate ice cream cake flavor. To judge this ice cream fairly, I removed the cake bits from my spoon so that I would only taste the chocolate ice cream. Unlike Breyers and Häagen-Dazs, Halo's chocolate ice cream has a richer flavor, which is why it's been placed a tad higher in this ranking. At the same time, it was also a little icy, which is what held it back from earning a better spot.
I should also mention that the cake pieces scattered throughout the ice cream were crunchy, which I thought was a little strange. I did not hold this against it when judging the flavor of the chocolate, but I would expect the cake chunks to be more moist and spongy instead of dry and crunchy.
The first thing that I noticed about Baskin Robbins' chocolate ice cream was the color. This chocolate ice cream is much darker than the previous brands in this ranking — the hue is more akin to something like dark roast coffee or hickory, while the others were much lighter in color like caramel or almonds. Eager to see if the flavor of this chocolate ice cream was as pronounced as its color, I tasted a heaping spoonful. Much to my delight, the chocolate flavor was much more striking and vibrant.
For starters, this chocolate ice cream carries notes of subtle bitterness that provide a nice contrast to the sweetness. The consistency of this ice cream is also nice and creamy and lacks the iciness that the previous brands suffered from. All in all, Baskin Robbins chocolate ice cream is a leap in quality and flavor from the previous brands in this ranking.
Signature Select is an in-house brand that's owned by Albertsons. The brand can also be found at other grocery stores owned by Albertsons, such as Safeway, Jewel-Osco, and Vons among others. Before this ranking, I'd never tried Signature Select ice cream before, so I wasn't sure what to expect, but I ended up being pleasantly surprised. The texture of Signature Select's chocolate ice cream is extra creamy. After my first taste of it, the ice cream coated the spoon and the inside of my mouth with a velvety sheen of chocolate, unlike some of the previous ice creams in this ranking that seemed to dissolve quickly.
Similar to Baskin Robbins, this chocolate ice cream also has trace amounts of bitterness that give it a touch more complexity. This ice cream was so tasty that it made me want to explore some of Signature Select's other popular ice cream flavors, like chocolate chip cookie dough and moose tracks.
Tillamook offers a wide selection of dairy products, including cheese, butter, sour cream, yogurt, and ice cream. My first experience with Tillamook was with its cheeses, which are some of the best cheeses I've ever had, so I went into this ranking with high expectations for Tillamook ice cream.
The first thing that I noticed about Tillamook's chocolate ice cream was how easily and smoothly my spoon scooped it up. Several of the other brands in this ranking felt much firmer, presumably due to the iciness that I've described. But scooping up Tillamook ice cream felt more like cutting through butter. Indeed, even the look of Tillamook's chocolate ice cream resembles whipped chocolate mousse. Impressed with its luxurious creaminess, I took my first bite. As it turns out, the comparison to chocolate mousse goes beyond mere appearance — the velvety consistency also reminded me of chocolate mousse. This is seriously delicious stuff, and if you've never had Tillamook ice cream before, I'd highly recommend that you take this as a sign to change that.
Ben and Jerry's is a personal favorite ice cream brand of mine. I usually opt for Ben and Jerry's phish food, which comes with chocolate ice cream, gooey marshmallow swirls, caramel, and fudge chunks. I'd never tried the company's chocolate therapy flavor before, so this was a new experience for me and I was excited to see how it fared.
Ben and Jerry's chocolate therapy is made with chocolate ice cream, chocolate cookies, and swirls of chocolate pudding ice cream. Looking at the ice cream, you can see the darker ribbons of chocolate pudding ice cream throughout the pint. Tasting the ice cream, I noted the subtle textural differences between the plain chocolate ice cream and the chocolate pudding ice cream. The chocolate pudding ice cream has a stickiness to it that's similar to fudge. As the plain chocolate ice cream melted in my mouth, the chocolate pudding ice cream lingered a little longer, leaving behind its richness. This was really delicious and I think any chocolate lover would deeply enjoy Ben and Jerry's chocolate therapy.
The best chocolate ice cream that I tasted from the bunch was from Umpqua. I'd never had Umpqua before, so this was a real surprise for me. I loved everything about this chocolate ice cream. Like Tillamook, it has a whipped, mousse-like texture but it's even more luscious and creamy, which is partly why it placed higher in the ranking.
What really stole the show was its amazing flavor. This chocolate ice cream has a richness and a complexity that goes above and beyond the other brands that I've tasted. The mixture of sweetness is perfectly balanced with a touch of bitterness from the cocoa. It's ultra velvety and luscious, far exceeding the creaminess of the other brands that I tasted for this ranking. Umpqua's chocolate ice cream tastes perfect all on its own; it doesn't need to rely on any other ingredients or toppings to lift it into greatness. If you love chocolate ice cream, you're sure to love Umpqua, so do yourself a favor and give it a try.
Each ice cream flavor was judged based on its flavor and texture. The ice cream flavors in this ranking were sampled and closely examined multiple times. Tasting notes were jotted down during the sampling sessions and referred to during the writing process.
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