The most popular ice cream flavors in America.
Vanilla and chocolate have been in a two-flavor arms race since the 1780s — but the story of America's favorite scoops is a lot more interesting than the top two. Here's the field guide: what people actually order, where each flavor came from, and where to find the version worth driving for.
Rankings based on published sales data from the International Dairy Foods Association and the National Ice Cream Retailers Association.
- #1≈27% of all scoops sold
Vanilla
Where it came from. Popularized in the U.S. after Thomas Jefferson brought a French vanilla recipe home in the 1780s.
Why the great ones are great. It's the workhorse: perfect à la mode, blends into shakes, and lets high-quality dairy actually taste like something. Real Madagascar bourbon vanilla beans put it in a completely different league than the extract-only versions.
Best paired with. Warm apple pie, hot fudge, espresso affogato.
- #2≈14% of all scoops sold
Chocolate
Where it came from. The first commercial ice cream flavor sold in America — Philadelphia, 1780s.
Why the great ones are great. A truly great chocolate ice cream uses Dutch-processed cocoa AND melted dark chocolate, which is what gives shops like Salt & Straw and Jeni's their almost fudgy density. Anything less tastes like frozen milk.
Best paired with. Fresh raspberries, sea salt, olive oil, a shot of stout.
- #3≈6% of all scoops sold
Cookies & Cream
Where it came from. Invented at South Dakota State University's dairy plant in 1979.
Why the great ones are great. The texture is the whole point — a sweet-cream base that stays soft, studded with chocolate wafer chunks that go pleasantly soggy without disappearing. Under-mixed batches are always better than over-mixed ones.
Best paired with. Cold brew, banana slices, a drizzle of peanut butter.
- #4≈4% of all scoops sold
Mint Chocolate Chip
Where it came from. Created in 1973 by a British culinary student, Marilyn Ricketts, for a competition to design a dessert for Princess Anne's wedding.
Why the great ones are great. The great ones use real peppermint oil (not extract) and shave the chocolate so fine it melts on contact. The neon-green versions are food coloring; the pale-white versions are usually the ones worth the drive.
Best paired with. Hot espresso, brownie edges, dark chocolate sauce.
- #5≈4% of all scoops sold
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
Where it came from. Popularized nationally by Ben & Jerry's in 1984, after a suggestion in the shop's suggestion box.
Why the great ones are great. Modern versions use egg-free, heat-treated flour dough that stays chewy at freezer temp — a small food-science miracle. The chunk-to-scoop ratio is the shop's signature.
Best paired with. Cold milk, brown butter cookies, warm caramel.
- #6≈3% of all scoops sold
Strawberry
Where it came from. One of the original three "Neapolitan" flavors — 19th-century Italian immigrants brought it to the U.S. and it became a summer staple.
Why the great ones are great. There's a canyon between shops that use real macerated berries and shops that use pink flavored syrup. Peak-season strawberries mashed into a cream base are one of the great American desserts.
Best paired with. Buttermilk biscuits, balsamic glaze, black pepper (yes, really).
- #7≈3% of all scoops sold
Butter Pecan
Where it came from. A Southern favorite that took off after Häagen-Dazs launched a version in 1978.
Why the great ones are great. The pecans have to be toasted in real butter and salted — that's the whole flavor. It's the most popular flavor in the American South by a wide margin.
Best paired with. Bourbon, warm pecan pie, a scoop on cornbread.
- #8≈2% of all scoops sold
Neapolitan
Where it came from. Named after Naples, Italy — brought to the U.S. in the late 1800s and standardized to vanilla/chocolate/strawberry.
Why the great ones are great. It's a Rorschach test: how you slice it tells you which flavor you actually love. The one everyone at the family reunion can agree on.
Best paired with. Birthday cake, a spoon per person, no toppings needed.
- #9≈2% of all scoops sold
Coffee
Where it came from. New England's regional pride — coffee ice cream has been outselling chocolate in Rhode Island for decades.
Why the great ones are great. The best batches steep whole espresso beans in cream overnight. It has the bitterness to balance sweet toppings and it turns any milkshake into a legitimate breakfast beverage.
Best paired with. Chocolate syrup, whipped cream, a pour of Kahlúa.
- #10≈2% of all scoops sold
Rocky Road
Where it came from. Invented in 1929 by William Dreyer in Oakland, California — named for the mood after the stock market crash.
Why the great ones are great. It's a full sundae in a single scoop: chocolate base, marshmallows, almonds. When each of the three components is legit, it's unbeatable.
Best paired with. Graham crackers (s'mores!), toasted coconut, hot cocoa.
Frequently asked
What is the most popular ice cream flavor in America?+
Vanilla, by a wide margin — it accounts for roughly a quarter of all ice cream sold in the U.S. Chocolate is a distant second, and cookies & cream sits firmly in third.
Which ice cream flavor is most popular in the American South?+
Butter pecan wins the South by a big margin. In New England, coffee ice cream is disproportionately popular. Mint chocolate chip over-indexes on the West Coast.
What's the fastest-growing ice cream flavor?+
Salted caramel and pistachio have been the two fastest-rising flavors on scoop-shop menus over the past five years, along with anything featuring Basque cheesecake or ube.
Is vanilla really the #1 flavor if it's the 'boring' choice?+
Yes — but 'vanilla' at a good shop means real Madagascar bourbon vanilla bean, which tastes almost nothing like the extract-based grocery-store version. Try a scoop at Salt & Straw, Jeni's, or Bi-Rite and it stops being boring immediately.
Now go find the best scoop near you.
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