Few desserts are as perfect as ice cream when strolling around on a warm summer evening.  Not only is ice cream portable, it also comes in a dizzying array of flavors – Baskin Robbins has created 1,000 flavors alone!

When choosing, I tend to lean toward any flavor combination that includes chocolate, key lime or pumpkin.  Given the variety of choices for ice cream, what would you guess are the top selling ice cream flavors in the US?

According to the International Dairy Farmer’s Association, who tracks this sort of thing, the top five ice cream flavors are:

1. Vanilla (26%)
2. Chocolate (12.9%)
3. Neapolitan (4.8%)
4. Strawberry (4.3%)
5. Cookies n’ cream (4.0%)

Not sure who’s buying all that vanilla ice cream, but if you like trying new flavors, here are some recent introductions by Ben & Jerry’s and Haagen-Dazs. 

• Mayan Chocolate (H-D) – Dark chocolate with a hint of cinnamon
• American Pie  (B & J) - Apple Pie ice cream with apples and pie crust Pieces
• Neapolitan Dynamite (B&J) – Cherry Garcia and Fudge Brownie, side by side
• Black & Tan (B&J) – Cream Stout swirled with chocolate
• Vermonty Python (B&J) - Coffee liqueur ice cream with a chocolate cookie crumb swirl & fudge cows
• Strawberry Kiwi Swirl - Chunky Strawberry sorbet swirled with kiwi sorbet
• Sticky Toffee Pudding (H-D) - rich vanilla ice cream swirled with a sticky toffee sauce and morsels of moist, brown sugar cake 

Having lived in Vermont, I’m partial to Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. If you happen to be in northern Vermont, be sure to stop by the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream factory in Waterbury for a unique tour and sample some freshly made ice cream.  Yum!

Ben & Jerry’s web site  |  Haagen-Dazs web site