Which Chocolate Ice Cream is Best?

It was long overdue, but we finally held our chocolate ice cream taste test. No, we didn’t have a pregnant woman picking the ice cream this time… though we did have a pregnant woman as a panelist. And if you don’t know that reference, you should really read our vanilla ice cream taste test.

Setting up the taste test

For our chocolate ice cream taste test, we decided to test the same brands as our vanilla ice cream taste test. And let me tell you, it’s a good thing we didn’t want to test more brands. It was actually difficult to find just plain chocolate ice cream. The “chocolate and….” option is very popular….chocolate and peanut butter or fudge or turned in to Moose Tracks. We’ll just have to have even more ice cream taste tests with these different flavors… BUMMER.

We still wanted to test just plain chocolate ice cream, for the same reason we chose vanilla ice cream, creamy peanut butter, no pulp orange juice, or cheese pizza. If you like the base, you should also like it once your “topping” of choice is added in.

Despite there not being too many just plain chocolate ice creams available, apparently people like chocolate ice cream because we ended up with over 30 people in our house, including a bunch of kids! And we had only notified everyone 2 days prior… people cleared their schedule because they wanted to participate. We only had 15 panelists actually voting in the chocolate ice cream taste test. People just wanted to eat some chocolate ice cream!

In order to serve everyone, and keep the ice cream cold, we scooped it all out into Dixie cups prior to people showing up, and kept the cups in the freezer. Panelists then picked up their cups all at once, and could taste in whatever order they wanted. 

(To see how we keep all our taste tests unbiased, as well as see all tests ever, click here.)

The Contenders

So what brands did we end up testing? I’m glad you asked, random person on the internet. In order of cost, least to most expensive (number is price per ounce):

Safeway

Blue Bunny

Tillamook

Dreyer’s

Breyers

Before we get to the results, all panelists said that they would not be upset if served any of these brands. However, after tasting/ranking, one brand really separated itself from the pack, and one brand was a clear loser. Just look at the point spread:

You can see, brand E dominated and was clearly a favorite. It had 2/3rds of the 1st place votes, making it the highest voted 1st place out of all of our tests so far.

So who won?

Chocolate Ice Cream Taste Test Results

5 – Breyers (B)

4 – Dreyers (C)

3 – Blue Bunny (A)

2 – Safeway (D)

And the winner is:

1 – Tillamook (E)

Insights

Tillamook won the Vanilla Ice Cream Taste Test too!

Interestingly enough, the 4th place finisher (read, not last place), Dreyer’s, didn’t get a single person to vote for it as their 1st place.

Last place (by far), Breyers, still got one person to vote it as their favorite. So I guess you can’t completely write them off.

Breyers was the most expensive, and came in last place too.

Safeway still holds on to their reputation as being a top finisher, coming in second. And was the cheapest ice cream in the competition! Bargain hunters, there’s your winner! Although Tillamook (1st place) was third cheapest.

Comments from the panelists

We like to include the comments so you can see which chocolate ice cream you might like to try, and always find it fascinating to look for trends. For instance, in our orange juice taste test the brands with more bitter comments did better. In this taste test, it looks like the creamier brands fared best.

Tillamook: super smooth, creamy, best blend, least air, sweetest, very creamy (creamiest), extra sugary

Blue Bunny: smooth, sweet, melted fast, meh, chocolatey, rich, creamy, dark, silky, watery

Breyers: harder/crumbley, undermixed, artificial, more cocoa flavor, somewhat artificial tasting, watery, grainy, less scoopable, 

Dreyer’s: darker chocolate, richer, most chocolate, very dark, rich deep chocolate, weak flavor, too chewy, slightly more bitter (as in dark chocolate vs milk chocolate)

Safeway: smooth, creamiest, consistent blend, creamy, tasty, 2nd creamiest, not as much chocolate flavor, too creamy, meh, chocolatey

Do you agree with our findings? Are you going to try a new brand? Let us know in the comments. Or I guess you can just always go with Tillamook; even Lt. Dan would have liked it!