17 Unique Toppings You Need To Try On Coffee-Flavored Ice Cream

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There are so many different flavors of ice cream to choose from at the grocery store. Chocolate and vanilla are admittedly a little plain, while a fudge-rippled-unicorn-brownie-blastoff flavor has a little bit too much going on. But coffee? Well, coffee is like the Goldilocks flavor. 

This slightly bitter yet still sweet ice cream is at the top of our favorite flavor list for a reason. Although it has a lot going on in terms of its base flavor, it's still a delectable choice that offers tons of opportunities for toppings and pairings. At a standard ice cream shop, you might ask for it with Oreo cookies, chocolate sprinkles, or a drizzle of hot fudge. While there's nothing wrong with these classic toppings, they can do your coffee ice cream a bit of a disservice — especially since there are so many unconventional and flavorful toppings that will enhance the ice cream rather than detract from it. We've made a list of some of our favorite wacky and whimsical toppings worth adding to coffee ice cream. 

We have indulged in our fair share of Delta cookies over the years — and shamelessly asked for extra packages to take home. It turns out we were just saving them for a special occasion: crumbling them up and adding them to the top of our coffee ice cream. 

For the uninitiated, these cookies, which go by the government name "Biscoff" or "speculoos," are like Christmas in a cookie — there's cinnamon, cloves, and warmth in every bite. Besides these flavors, all of which are complementary pairings for a bowl of ice cream, Biscoff biscuits also offer a delectable crunch that you just don't get from Oreos or regular ol' cookies. 

There are several options for pairing this cookie with your late-night bowl of ice cream. The first is to crumble on the cookies directly. You could also grab a jar of cookie butter, which is essentially speculoos cookies in spreadable form. It's very thick, almost like the consistency of peanut butter or Nutella, so we'd recommend nuking it in the microwave for a few seconds to make it easier to drizzle on your scoop of ice cream. 

Whoever decided eating whole chunks of brownies and ice cream together was a good idea needs to do some reevaluating. While there's nothing wrong with the complementary flavors of chocolate and a scoop of creamy, rich ice cream (especially coffee-flavored), eating the two together is a challenge.  The brownie is so thick and so heavy that it just takes over the entire bite and makes you feel like you need to take a nap after one or two spoonfuls. Brownie crisps (or chips, or thins, or whatever you call them) are a far better alternative. 

These crisps, which can be made at home or bought by the bag on websites like Amazon, have the perfect degree of chocolate flavor and a delectable crunchiness. You can eat them like chips and dip with your ice cream, or crumble the crisps on top of your bowl. They're also an excellent base for a tasty ice cream sandwich — especially one rolled in mini chocolate chips. 

Heath bars are a candy that seems to be relegated to the past. Yeah, yeah, they're really hard and make you feel like you're eating chocolate-covered, toffee-flavored plexiglass. But the sweetness of the toffee, paired with the cloyingness of the chocolate, makes for a decadent treat. Now, close your eyes and imagine that same flavor, but on top of coffee ice cream. 

Toffee has a more pronounced brown sugar flavor, which makes it a more compelling addition to your ice cream than the status quo caramel, which is usually made with white sugar. And, the Heath bar's crunchiness actually comes in clutch here, as it can give your ice cream a diverse mouthfeel. Just make sure that you break it up into small pieces (and chew your ice cream well) to ensure that every bite is filled with toffee goodness. 

You can also whip up a toffee sauce for your coffee ice cream. Sure, the sauce combined with the sweetness of the ice cream itself may be a little overpowering for some, but it gives off caramel latte vibes — and who wouldn't want that from their ice cream?

Hazelnuts are a wholly underappreciated nut. Ice creams nowadays are often riddled with boring nuts, such as almonds and walnuts, and very few incorporate the complex and deeply flavorful hazelnut. If you love adding a splash of hazelnut creamer to your coffee, you'll like the way your coffee ice cream tastes with either roasted or candied hazelnuts spooned on top. Just be advised that the creamer likely tastes like an oversugared and synthetic representation of what hazelnuts should taste like — so the nuttiness may be almost foreign to you. 

You can find hazelnuts in the bulk section of your grocery store or with the other prepackaged nuts. Like pine nuts, hazelnuts have a high fat content and can go rancid relatively quickly, so be sure you give your nuts a once-over before roasting them. For candied hazelnuts, you'll want to cover the roasted nuts in a caramel sauce, then let them sit on a baking sheet to harden. The sugary coating is a great complement to both the ice cream and the nuts. 

Hey Trader Joe's, we have one question for you: What happened to the cold brew coffee boba ice cream? We've never been sadder about a product being discontinued, given that it had the perfect harmony between sweet and decadent coffee ice cream and chewy boba pearls. But we were happy to realize that we can grab a container of our favorite store-bought coffee ice cream, add boba pearls, and recreate this beloved TJ's find at home. Boba pearls, like the kind you find submerged at the bottom of boba tea, have a starchy texture (they're made from tapioca, after all), so they will firm up and become even chewier when you mix them with cold ice cream. 

It's not easy to find pre-made boba, but making it yourself with tapioca pearls is pretty simple. Just cook the dried pearls in water, per the package directions, and pair them with a simple syrup for sweetness. Boba doesn't have too much flavor on its own, so you can pair it with an especially punchy or sweet coffee ice cream and not have to worry about distracting from the other flavors at play. 

Crushed pretzels ... on coffee ice cream? This salty snack may seem better suited for a kitchen sink ice cream kind of deal, like one loaded with chocolate chips, peanut butter, fudge, brownies, and, you know, the kitchen sink, but it turns out that it makes a delicious addition to plain coffee ice cream too. Pretzels not only have a delectable crunch but also a little bit of salt. The saltiness amplifies the sweetness of the coffee ice cream, and the subtle savoriness really jives well with the coffee flavor itself. 

Regular pretzels and regular coffee ice cream are a good pairing, but if you really want to take things to the next level, take a mocha approach by combining chocolate-covered pretzels with coffee ice cream — bonus points if said ice cream has a fudge ribbon or some sort of chocolatey component to it. 

There are very few ice cream toppings that can make your coffee ice cream taste more coffee-like — with the exception of chocolate-covered espresso beans. Not only are these sweet snacks one of our favorite toppings to put on chocolate ice cream, but they also work really well with a coffee base. We particularly enjoy using them for ice cream because their flavor is sharp and distinctly bitter. The chocolate coating offers a sweet reprieve from the bitterness, but the biting flavor remains poignant and easy to discern. The coffee beans don't get lost in the ice cream, unlike other sweet toppings. 

You can pair milk or dark chocolate-covered espresso beans with your preferred scoop. If you can't find these beans at your local grocery store, Trader Joe's is a good place to look, as is Amazon. 

The toasted almond DunkaLatte at Dunkin' is a favorite of ours, and we're glad we can emulate that same energy by pairing coffee ice cream with toasted almonds. Toasted almonds offer a delectable crunch and a perfect flavor contrast against the cold ice cream. The nuttiness nestles right up against the layered flavor of the coffee ice cream but does not overpower it. 

Plain toasted almonds are an excellent topping for a sugary-sweet ice cream, but if you're working with a frozen dessert that's more on the bitter side, you could also try adding a sugary coating to your nuts. Grab a bag of sliced almonds and some white sugar, and toast them together until the nuts brown and the sugar starts to give off a caramel aroma. It's easy to burn almonds, especially when sugar is involved, so be sure to keep a close eye on them as they roast to prevent this from happening. 

Cinnamon and coffee are no strangers to one another. The spice has a spicy-sweet flavor, which works well with the ice cream's natural sweetness and helps counteract any bitterness. Although cinnamon itself doesn't contain sugar, it bolsters the sweet notes of the ice cream and can make the flavor appear even sweeter and more complex than it actually is. 

One of the easiest ways to add cinnamon to your coffee ice cream is just to sprinkle some on top and give it a stir (since no one likes biting into a dry mouthful of cinnamon). You can also infuse the spice into other toppings on this list, like a caramel or toffee sauce, or with your toasted nuts to seamlessly integrate the cinnamon into the ice cream — circumventing the dry mouthfeel — and ensure that every bite is filled with spicy-sweet goodness. 

Wet walnuts are an ice cream topping that's seemingly fallen out of fashion. You might struggle to find a jar of this iconic ice cream topping at your grocery store, and you'll have no better luck finding it in a scoop shop — and we don't have any idea why. The combination of chunky walnuts and sweet sugar syrup is really delectable on a variety of ice cream flavors, including coffee ice cream. The nutty flavor is a great complement to the ice cream's sweetness and bitterness, while the sticky syrup is an excellent textural contrast to both the creamy ice cream and the crunchy walnuts. 

Pair a homemade wet walnut recipe (if you can't track down a jar of it) with a heaping scoop of coffee ice cream for a simple, old-fashioned sundae. It's especially delicious topped with whipped cream. If you're sensitive to sweetness, try adding a sprinkle of sea salt on top of the syrupy nuts to balance the bite. You could even nestle a brownie underneath, seeing as how the coffee ice cream and topping would work in tandem with the fudgy, chocolatey flavors. 

Caramel sauce is a standard ice cream topping. But when you add a little splash of booze to it, well, then you have something totally different (and all the more tantalizing). A bourbon caramel sauce combines the sweet and nutty notes of the caramel with the oakiness and vanilla-forward flavor of a quality bourbon. The spirit also cuts through the richness of the caramel, making a more approachable and balanced sauce primed for spooning atop your ice cream. The sweet-bitter notes of the coffee ice cream pair well with both the caramel and the bourbon components, making for a grown-up, sophisticated bite. 

If you're making your own bourbon caramel sauce at home, be sure to warm it up enough so that it's easy to spoon on top of your ice cream. Doing so creates a great temperature contrast between the hot sauce and the cold ice cream. The duo is tasty enough to enjoy alone, though you could also kick the nutty notes up a notch with a sprinkle of pecans or walnuts. 

Coconut is often thought of as a very abrasive flavor, especially when it comes to ice cream. We, too, have fallen victim to some coconut ice creams that taste like sunscreen. However, as long as you use it as a topping (rather than an ice cream base) and are intentional with your flavor pairings, you'll find that coconut actually brings a lot of complexity and nuance to your ice cream. Toasted coconut flakes, in particular, add a beautiful contrasting nuttiness to your coffee ice cream, as well as a toothsome texture. Toasting mellows out the raw flavor of the coconut, instead turning it into something sweeter and caramel-adjacent. 

You don't need to add too much toasted coconut to your coffee ice cream to really get a sense of its flavor. Another option is to integrate the toasted coconut into other compatible toppings, like granola; this would be ideal if you're not the biggest fan of coconut in the first place. But if you are all for this tropical fruit, try making an ice cream sandwich and rolling the sides in this ice cream topping. 

Chai spices weren't on our radar until relatively recently, and now that we've experimented with them in many recipes from muffins and cakes to ice cream, we can confirm that they are worth knowing about (and using). Most chai spice blends combine cinnamon, cloves, star anise, allspice, nutmeg, and sometimes ginger. This aromatic mix is an essential component of a chai drink, but the blend can also be used to add a warming edge to foods like coffee ice cream. The natural sweetness and creaminess of the ice cream work like the milk and sweetener in a normal cup of chai, while the coffee adds a "dirty" component — and who wouldn't want to eat dirty chai ice cream? 

While you can add the chai spice directly to the top of your ice cream, if you're after a slightly less abrasive flavor, try adding it to another topping. For example, you can make a simple cookie, streusel, or granola crumble spiked with chai spice to deliver both crunch and warming flavor. 

Move over peanut butter, there's a new sheriff in town: tahini. This beautifully nutty condiment is an excellent addition to your bowl of ice cream because it offers the same richness as a nut butter but without an overly dominant flavor. If you were to add a scoop of peanut butter to your coffee ice cream, you would drown out almost all of the flavor of the coffee. Tahini, on the other hand, offers a rich mouthfeel and nutty undertones, which work with the coffee ice cream rather than against it. 

The easiest way to add tahini to your ice cream is just to drizzle it on top. If you're okay with a little sweetness, you can try mixing it together with maple syrup to thin it out and make it easier to pour. Tahini is in good company with other Mediterranean-inspired toppings, like chopped pistachios, as well as flaky salt to cut through the richness. 

Dubai chocolate is having a moment, but it's not just chocolate that's a great pairing for pistachio. Although it might sound a little odd, seeing as both pistachios and coffee ice cream have very dominant flavor profiles, the grassiness of the pistachios is actually an excellent foil to creamy, rich coffee ice cream. If you've ordered a pistachio latte at Starbucks (or made one at home), you're already in the know. 

There are several ways to combine pistachios with coffee ice cream. Add a handful of roasted nuts or, if you're all about the creaminess, consider using pistachio paste or butter instead. You can use honey or date syrup to thin it out and add a sprinkle of flaky sea salt on top to balance its richness.

You may be more used to eating bacon with eggs than with ice cream, but don't let the novelty scare you off. Bacon, specifically candied bacon, is an excellent salty-sweet topping for your coffee ice cream. The maple and the coffee are a match made in heaven — thanks to the syrup's oaky and sweet flavor — while the bacon offers a delectable savory and crunchy contrast. 

Making glazed or candied bacon is easier than you think. You can coat your strips of bacon in maple syrup and bake them on a wire rack in the oven until they're snappy. If you want to play up the sweet flavors even more, try adding cinnamon to your glaze or sprinkling walnuts or pecans on top of your strips before baking for an extra nutty touch.

Ice cream toppings can be about both form and function, which is where toasted marshmallow creme comes in. Sure, you may find marshmallow topping on the menu at an ice cream shack, but we doubt anyone is going to take it to the next level and toast it. The bitter, charred flavor of the creme, compounded by its sweetness, makes it a compelling and flavorful ice cream topping, especially for an already bittersweet flavor like coffee. 

You can toast the marshmallow creme in many different ways, but a torch is the easiest one. You don't want to burn the everliving daylights out of your creme — just enough to give it a toasty look and slightly caramelized flavor. If you love s'mores, you're going to love this coffee ice cream topping.