Ranking The 17 Best Ben And Jerry’s Flavors

In 1978, a couple of childhood friends who took an ice cream-making class offered by Penn State opened up a scoop shop in an old gas station in Burlington, Vermont. They were Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, the masterminds behind Ben and Jerry’s—the brand that would eventually transform into an international sensation.

Ben and Jerry’s has dreamed up scores of creative flavors that have helped set the brand apart since its inception at the end of the 1970s, and as things currently stand, its lineup boasts 4o different offerings that fall under the “Classic” umbrella.

As a Ben and Jerry’s connoisseur, I’ve tried the vast majority of them on at least one occasion over the years, and I figured it was probably time to put that knowledge to use by ranking the best pints you can get your hands on.

17. New York Super Fudge Chunk

I apologize to people who like nuts in their ice cream, but the walnuts and pecans here just don’t do that much for me—and the same can be said for the white chocolate fudge.

Those elements comprise the majority of the ingredients, so New York Super Fudge Chunk was fighting an uphill battle from the start.

16. Coffee Toffee Bar Crunch

Coffee Toffee Bar Crunch is one of the lowest-rated “Classic” flavors on Ben and Jerry’s website (coming in at just 3.7 stars), and I can’t necessarily say I disagree with that assessment.

I’m a sucker for chocolate-covered toffee, but coffee ice cream tends to be one of those things I only need to take a couple of bites of every couple of years before remembering why I don’t make it a point to seek it out.

15. Dublin Mudslide

Dublin Mudslide was one of my favorite flavors when I was growing up, but it’s slowly but surely fallen out of favor over the years.

I didn’t set out to have two coffee-influenced ice creams near the bottom of this list, but I can’t really justify putting this one any higher.

14. Everything But The...

Everything But The… is probably the embodiment of the Ben and Jerry’s ethos based on how many different fillings are incorporated into the ice cream—specifically peanut butter cups, fudge-covered toffee, chunks of white chocolate, and fudge-covered almonds.

I respect the ambition, but at the end of the day, there’s just too much going on.

13. Peanut Butter Cup

I find myself going back to Peanut Butter Cup time and time again, but I do find myself wanting a little bit more every time that I do.

It’s hard to go wrong with a frozen treat that features sizeable chunks of the eponymous ingredient, although part of me feels like the decision to pair it with a peanut butter ice cream as opposed to a cleaner vanilla base that would provide a bit more context was the wrong one.

12. Gimme S'More

In my opinion, there are a couple of Ben and Jerry’s flavors that harness both graham cracker and marshmallow better than the one based on the campfire treat where both of those elements are essential ingredients.

However, if you’re looking for a S’mores fix in ice cream form, you’re not going to be left disappointed.

11. Chunky Monkey

Ben and Jerry’s acknowledged “This flavor isn’t for everybody” when it released its Top 10 for 2024 (it came in ninth), so while there are probably some people who’d put Chunky Monkey a bit higher on their list, I’m not one of them.

Sure, there’s something to be said for a flavor that revolves around banana ice cream (which isn’t exactly found in ample supply in the freezer section), but the decision to pair it with walnut and fudge chunks isn’t really anything to write home about.

10. Chocolate Fudge Brownie

Chocolate Fudge Brownie was the flavor waiting for me at the end of the tour when I made my way through the Ben and Jerry’s factory in Waterbury, and the fact that it will probably never get better than that is probably a reason I’ve never really scrambled to revisit it.

It’s certainly tasty, but it’s also pretty one-note. If you’re a chocoholic, it will obviously appeal to you, but it lacks the kind of creativity that has helped the brand stand out from the rest of the pack.

9. Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

This one requires a little bit of context, as chocolate chip cookie dough has been normalized to the point where most people don’t view it as anything special.

However, it can trace its origins back to Ben and Jerry’s, which whipped up a batch for the first time in 1984 on the advice of an unknown customer who left the idea on their flavor suggestion board during a visit.

It might not be the most exciting option in the lineup over 40 years later, but it’s still one of the better versions of the flavor that you’ll come across after all that time.

8. Strawberry Cheesecake

I’ve always viewed Strawberry Cheesecake as a nice change of pace that serves as a refreshing contrast to the busier Ben and Jerry’s flavors that seemingly stemmed from a quest to shove a bunch of different ingredients into the mix.

The cheesecake ice cream has just the right amount of tang, and the decision to go with a graham cracker swirl instead of larger pieces was a masterful one that allows the chunks of strawberries mixed in to stand out instead of competing with the flavor that really rounds everything out.

7. Chubby Hubby

Chubby Hubby is a bit of an OG, as the flavor was first released in 1994 after some Ben and Jerry’s employees pranked a colleague into believing it existed prior to making it a reality.

There might be a little too much peanut butter going on, but it does pair pretty well with the pretzels that provide a nice salty contrast to the overall sweetness.

6. The Tonight Dough

Ben and Jerry’s currently sells two flavors with ties to late-night talk show hosts. They are both regulars in my ice cream rotation, and while I’ve internally viewed them as neck-and-neck, this is the first time I’ve had to officially pick one over the other.

The Tonight Dough (created in 2015 in the wake of Jimmy Fallon’s ascension to the throne Jay Leno stole from Conan O’Brien at NBC) is ultimately the runner-up by a very narrow margin, and I can’t really blame anyone who would rank it ahead of the option I’ll get to in a second.

There is a lot going on—you’ve got chocolate and caramel ice cream with chunks of chocolate chip and peanut butter cookie dough on top of a chocolate cookie swirl—but it more than works.

5. Americone Dream

Stephen Colbert was still the host of The Colbert Report when Americone Dream came out in 2007, and the fact that it both remained unchanged and kept going strong in the wake of his departure for the soon-to-be-defunct Late Night is a testament to what it brings to the table.

The chocolate-covered waffle cones that are embedded in the vanilla ice cream might be my favorite Ben and Jerry’s mix-in, and the caramel swirl helps elevate what is a fairly barebones ice cream to a truly delightful level.

4. Milk & Cookies

Milk & Cookies is basically just Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough on steroids. Ben and Jerry’s says it boasts the “most euphoric assortment of cookies” any of its ice creams have ever featured, and it’s hard to argue with that once you take a bite.

3. Cherry Garcia

Cherry Garcia can be a bit divisive, as it’s probably not going to be the first pint you grab if you’re not a huge fan of the fruit that takes center stage.

I normally fall under that umbrella, but I still have to give credit where credit is due to the Grateful Dead-inspired ice cream that debuted in 1987 and was consistently the top-selling flavor before it was dethroned by another offering we’ll get to momentarily in 2013.

It’s only three ingredients—cherry ice cream, cherries, and fudge flakes—but sometimes that’s all you need.

2. Phish Food

Ben and Jerry’s is probably Burlington’s most notable export, but the college town was also the birthplace of Phish, the band that inspired the flavor that was first whipped up in 1997.

The delectable combination of chocolate ice cream, swirls of marshmallow and caramel, and some texture in the form of chocolate chips shaped like fish is very, very hard to beat, although there is one competitor that managed to end up doing exactly that.

1. Half Baked

It’s been 25 years since Ben and Jerry’s added Half Baked to the lineup and ushered in the new millennium with what has consistently become its best-selling flavor (it’s held onto the crown for over a decade).

The only thing I can really knock Half Baked for is a lack of textural diversity; the chocolate chips in the cookie dough do technically check that box, but they’re not exactly robust.

However, when you combine that ingredient with the sizeable brownie chunks that are complemented by a mix of chocolate and vanilla ice cream, you get what many people understandably consider to be the G.O.A.T.

I probably would have put the peanut butter version of Half Baked somewhere in the Top 10 if it wasn’t for its fairly redundant nature, but I’ll also take the original every day of the week.