I Taste-Tested And Ranked 8 Of The Most Popular Ice Cream Brands — One, Quite Frankly, Blew Me Away

• Turkey Hill

• Friendly's

• Breyers

• Edy's*

*in some parts of the US, you'll know this one as Dreyer's

• Whole Foods' 365

• Häagen-Dazs

• Van Leeuwen

• Tillamook

Let me be very clear that this one shocked me to my core — so much so that when my partner told me I ranked Häagen-Dazs in last place, I thought about tweaking my ranking for fear of the hate I'll likely get. But that didn't seem fair. So let me tell you a little bit about why I really, reaaaally did not like this one.

On top of the seriously disappointing cookie situation, I found the ice cream itself to be totally lackluster. For a brand known for their rich and creamy vanilla ice cream (heck, I've heard lots of people swear that their vanilla is the best vanilla!), I found it to be aggressively hard. Like, so hard I had to chew it — and remember, I took all of these ice creams out of the fridge at the same time to let them thaw a bit.

In terms of the vanilla flavor, it was hardly there. The sweetness level? Also off! I don't love an overly-sweet dessert, but I'd say this one wasn't sweet enough. And perhaps the most puzzling to me was the texture. I found this ice cream to be the least creamy of the bunch, and the texture was borderline icy. It wasn't the icy texture that you get when a pint has clearly been thawed and re-frozen — it was more subtle than that, but it still wasn't very appealing to me. If I had to guess, I'd imagine that it has something to do with skim milk being the second ingredient listed, which has the highest water content of milk varieties...but that's just my two cents.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I genuinely love most of the Whole Foods 365 products, and since their generic line also tends to be pretty cost-effective, they're some of the cheapest groceries I can find in my neighborhood in NYC. They've had some highs and lows in these taste tests (like a mouthwatering salsa but a wildly disappointing frozen pizza), but I'm sad to report that their ice cream is definitely not a winner.

Let's get real for a second: The cookies are supposed to emulate Oreos. Period. Of all the cookies I tasted, these were the furthest from what I expected. They were too soft, not at all sweet, and almost resembled a chocolate whoopie pie. The ice cream itself was also pretty bland, sadly, so pair that uninteresting ice cream with soft, textureless cookies, and I can't say I'd buy this one again.

To give credit where credit is due, I will say that this was the only organic ice cream I tried. So, if eating organic foods is important to you, this one wasn't bad by any means! Truth be told, I'd eat any bowl of ice cream placed before me, but if buying organic isn't a priority for you, I'll happily steer you in the direction of another better (and cheaper) brand.

As a self-proclaimed Edy's (or Dreyer's) lover, this one stings. It was my go-to for a while, maybe because we had it a lot growing up, but I don't think it'll be my go-to for much longer.

I will say that the texture of this one was definitely better than average, and considering the lack of cookies in the Häagen-Dazs version and the puzzling nature of the Whole Foods cookies, I found the Edy's cookies to be pretty pleasant! While they were certainly on the small side, there were lots of 'em. They didn't overhaul my feelings on the ice cream overall, however, so Edy's still falls into the bottom half of the contenders.

I feel like I'm in the 1% of people who have never tried Turkey Hill ice cream before, and I have to admit — it was pretty good! Compared to the worst and best ice cream brands I tried, I think the various elements that comprised this one were pretty middle of the road in terms of their flavor, texture, and perceived quality, which made it a totally solid choice.

I also noted that even though it wasn't "earth-shatteringly" creamy, Turkey Hill's ice cream was certainly the creamiest I tasted up to this point, which was a pleasant and very welcome surprise. With just 10 minutes of resting on the counter before serving, it was pleasantly soft without being a melty mess, and there wasn't any noticeable iciness, either.

Friendly's has a nostalgia factor like none other, but after doing this blind taste-test, I can confirm that, nostalgia aside, Friendly's still makes a pretty mean carton of ice cream. While it wouldn't be hard for me to confuse this one with Turkey Hill (and my overall "meh!" feelings about each are nearly identical), Friendly's budget-friendly price point made it a total standout for me.

An obvious feature to note here is the practically blaring "CONTAINS A BIOENGINEERED FOOD INGREDIENT" stamp on the container's lid. IMO, it's no cause for panic (though I'm certainly no doctor or health professional, so you do you). It's just part of the USDA's new labeling requirements for genetically-modified foods that went into effect in January.

(TL;DR: "bioengineered" = GMO, and yes, there are GMOs in more foods than you probably realize — this new requirement just makes them more obvious to the consumer.)

Confession: I grew up eating Breyers strawberry ice cream, whose sweetness I can't handle as an adult, so I had low expectations going in. And considering the brand was somehow the hardest ice cream to find in NYC (baffling, I know), I already had a bone to pick with them. However, after actually trying it, this one blew me away for multiple reasons — the first being those absolutely unbelievable cookie chunks.

The raves don't stop with the cookies, either. I found the ice cream to be surprisingly creamy and smooth. It was also one of the sweeter varieties that I tasted, but as someone who's sensitive to overly-sweet foods in the first place, you have my word that it didn't bother me one bit.

In my never-ending quest to actually guess the brands I'm tasting, Van Leeuwen  was one of the only brands I got correct, and honestly, I think it was fairly obvious. Van Leeuwen started in 2008 as a small ice cream truck in Brooklyn, New York, and they've since scaled into a much larger operation with ice cream that's available nationwide. Even with that much growth, they've stayed committed to using high-quality ingredients, and that was obvious to me as soon as I got a taste of their ice cream.

The cookies themselves were also just so darn good. The cookies had the slightest hint of salt in them, which really elevated all of the flavors. They even stayed delightfully crisp, which I can't say of many of the other varieties.

Yes, Van Leeuwen ice cream is definitely expensive, and it's certainly the priciest of all the varieties I tried. But in my opinion, I felt like it was well worth the money. It's maybe not the greatest purchase to go alongside a slice of cake or pie (where it's not the main event), but for a standalone scoop of ice cream that'll truly blow you away, I couldn't recommend it more.

I've always known Tillamook as the cheese company. Tillamook cheddar? Simply excellent! But from now on, I'm gonna start thinking of them as the ice cream company. I've seen this carton in the freezer section for many years now and never thought to try it. Now, I'm wishing I could turn back time and only choose Tillamook, because folks, this is hands down the best ice cream I have EVER tried.

In terms of the cookies themselves, I was also incredibly happy with these ones. Like Van Leeuwen's cookies, these ones had a delightfully salty bite to them, which contrasted nicely with the suuuuper fluffy, just-sweet-enough ice cream. The cookie pieces might not have been as massive as those in Breyers, but I still found the amount of cookies in this one to be perfectly acceptable. And honestly, the texture of this one made it worth it no matter the size or amount of mix-ins present. Seriously, folks — the fluffiness of this ice cream simply cannot be described!

(Eating all of this may take me a matter of months, but it is a challenge I am HONORED to accept.)