We Tried 9 Tillamook Ice Cream Flavors And Ranked Them Worst To Best

With household-name, premium ice cream brands like Ben & Jerry's and Häagen-Dazs lining grocery store shelves, chances are you might not have known about another company that joined the confectionery game in 1947: Tillamook. It may be best known for its cheese and butter products that it began making far before the '40s, but in today's day and age, it now has almost 50 types of ice cream available.

According to a 2024 report by Traceone, Tillamook is the most popular ice cream brand in eight states, including Alaska, Wyoming, Minnesota, Idaho, and of course, Oregon, which houses the creamery's headquarters. So while it's evident that Tillamook has successfully planted its foot in the industry of dairy products and frozen desserts, that doesn't mean all of its many ice cream flavors are equally successful in relation to one another. It has many classic and unique flavors that are offered, with many being clear winners over others that just aren't as up to par. A taste test of some of its products, as high-quality as each of them still came out to be, proved exactly that.

There are plenty of creative ways to serve ice cream without a cone, whether it be scooping it with a cookie instead or throwing it into a boozy drink. And while these are delicious alternatives that can help you avoid the melted mess that often ensues when eating ice cream out of a cone, sometimes it's the flavor of the vessel that makes it worth the struggle. Tillamook offers a solution with its Waffle Cone Swirl Ice Cream: a way to enjoy the taste of the crunchy wafer along with familiar flavors of vanilla, chocolate, and caramel.

The presentation of this ice cream is among the nicest on this list. Upon popping the tub's lid open, you're greeted with swirls of color that make it evident you're about to enjoy some of those aforementioned flavors. However, when you actually take a bite — and mind you, I made sure to get a bit of each color in my spoon to be fair — the rose-colored glasses fall off.

Firstly, I couldn't find any "chunks of chocolaty waffle cone" this product is advertised to have, which is a huge bummer, considering the whole point of this ice cream is to provide the flavor and texture of a cone throughout your eating experience. I mean, come on, it's right in the name. And as such, you're left working with a vanilla and chocolate combo (as the caramel wasn't detectable), and even that doesn't hold up on its own. The two classic flavors mix in a way that makes it feel like you're just eating watered-down chocolate. It just doesn't pay homage to the beloved dairy-filled cone you'd get at a fair out of a whimsical ice cream truck.

What more indulgent duo is there than the classic, beloved mix of chocolate and peanut butter? Usually I'd say nothing could beat it, but when it comes to Tillamook's Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream, apparently there are tons of better ways to go.

Its appearance is completely misleading. Looking within the tub, it looks like a plain chocolate ice cream that only reveals streaks of peanut butter once you get the stuff onto your spoon and start licking away. Once you do strike gold, you'll pleasantly find the peanut butter itself has an unmistakable presence and strong taste of something like Reese's Puffs. The chocolate, however, which is meant to be one-half of the entire shebang, leaves much to be desired. There's not much taste to it at all, no matter how hard you search, and that doesn't fly considering it's meant to serve as the base of this product. It's not bad by any means; I just imagine those pulling Chocolate Peanut Butter items off the shelf are looking for an extremely rich, decadent experience, and this doesn't provide that.

I am a chocolate girl through and through, and now that I mention it, it seems pretty obvious with how much I've been nitpicking Tillamook's chocolate-based ice creams. Where the Waffle Cone Swirl and Chocolate Peanut Butter faltered, though, Mudslide finds a bit of success. The intense, in-your-face flavor that I've been seeking still isn't fully achieved in this dessert and therefore wouldn't place that high both here and in my personal ranking of chocolate ice creams, but it's surely a step in the right direction, as this time, I could at least pick up on the chocolate.

Now if I didn't, that would really be a problem since this product is said to consist of "smooth chocolate ice cream with a ribbon of rich fudge and chocolaty chips." And while it does have all three, it's not quite the triple threat it's made out to be. The base is thankfully more chocolate-forward in taste, and I don't have to focus as hard just to find the flavor, but it's still nothing special. The fudge, because it's understandably hardened, doesn't mesh well within this ice cream and is randomly scattered throughout. This makes it feel like a separate, isolated piece of food that shouldn't really be there. It's a bit off-putting, and without much flavor, it just feels like a random disruption to your bite while you're eating.

Mint and chocolate — you either hate it, or you love it. I've been on both ends of the spectrum before, once strongly disliking it, then briefly obsessing over it until it eventually fell behind in the ranks for me over the years. That brings me to today, where it's now a flavor I'm generally neutral about, leading me to be wary but excited to try Tillamook's Mint Chocolate Chip and see if it'd bring back my fondness.

After a bowl of it, I can't say that it did. I should be clear, though, that this ice cream 100% delivers in the flavor it's supposed to — it's just not for me anymore. One bite of it immediately elicited a "woah" out of me, and from there, I was rendered speechless by how identical it is in taste to an Andes Chocolate Mint. This dessert leans in extremely to the "mint" part of its name, so much so that I swear my sinuses and airways felt cleared out with each and every spoon. Tillamook didn't skimp on the chocolate chips either. There's an abundance of them; they're just covered up by the strength of the peppermint. So while it seems I can't go back to the days of yore when this flavor would've worked wonders on me, I can confidently say it's absolutely worth grabbing if you're an avid Mint Chocolate Chip fan, as this will give you the refreshing, cooling sensation people tend to look for. But if you want a more balanced flavor tailored to your preference of how strong you'd like the final product to taste, consider making homemade mint chocolate chip ice cream, instead.

You could absolutely transform store-bought cookie dough into a showstopping treat with just a couple other ingredients, or you could pick up Tillamook's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough at the grocery store for an equally satisfying confection. Despite the sugar bomb its title makes it out to sound, this product is the perfect balance. It's sweet but not overly so and indulgent without being cloying. For lack of a better way to describe it, this feels like an elevated and more mature alternative to eating raw cookie dough straight out of a tube.

But if you're worried this won't hit the spot in the same way, I'd urge you to give it a shot and try it out for yourself. There are still plenty of big cookie dough chunks that are generously scattered throughout the tub. Almost every other spoonful I had of this ice cream came with a piece of dough as well as chocolate chips. And that makes a big difference, as the grainy yet simultaneously chewy texture of the chilled dough is a wonderful contrast against the crisp of the chocolate chips. Then, mix it with the smooth, creamy ice cream base, and you're in a textural wonderland.

Coming in pretty darn close to Oregon Dark Cherry, which is discussed in the following section, is Oregon Strawberry. With the strong success of these two flavors, I might just have to plan a quick flight to the Beaver State to see what its fruit is really all about. Because if these two ice cream flavors are any real indication of their quality, even an extended road trip may be worth the hassle.

As popular as strawberry flavoring is when it comes to just about anything, from drinks to candies, strawberry ice cream stands in its very own lane. It's a very distinct experience, with a unique melt-in-your-mouth, velvety quality. Naturally, I sought that out in Tillamook's version, and boy did it deliver.

The Oregon Strawberry surpassed my expectations, as not only did it have the aforementioned silky mouthfeel, but it more than lived up to its fruity inspiration. Every bite was bright and refreshing, and somehow, also different, with some spoonfuls tasting either tangier or sweeter than others. That seemed dependent on whether my bite included a strawberry chunk or not, each piece providing an overtly saccharine flavor similar to the strawberry pieces you'd find in a store-bought jar of jam. It was a welcomed complexity that I'd love to experience over and over again.

Neck and neck with chocolate as my No. 1 ice cream flavor would undoubtedly be black cherry. You can imagine, then, how my hands practically shook with excitement as I tore off the ice cream's protective seal and scooped myself a serving. And that elation only rose when I learned that this frozen treat met my high expectations.

Tillamook's Oregon Dark Cherry is a subtler cherry taste than I'm accustomed to in my ice cream, but it was still as delicious as ever. In fact, its mellowed, light flavor (which at the same time didn't feel like it was lacking in any way) is the reason that I could easily eat multiple bowls of it in one sitting. And the cherry on top (literally) is its beautiful shade of a pale pink, dotted with small dark red pieces, which are, of course, the ripe cherries. Aside from adding a bit of chewiness here and there, the actual fruit used within this ice cream quite honestly didn't stand out in any way in terms of both texture and taste. But the dark cherry ice cream base itself was the star of the show from the start anyway, offering a delicate and delightfully creamy delicacy.

Never have I been one to go for vanilla over chocolate. In the age old debate over which of the two reign supreme, I've forever and always loyally sided with chocolate. Tillamook, however, is giving me a run for my money.

The brand offers three vanilla flavors, the one I tried being Vanilla Bean. Tillamook describes it as being "lighter and a little more delicate in flavor" than standard, old-fashioned vanilla ice cream. Maybe I just don't have the best grip of the different types of vanilla because I thought the exact opposite — I was genuinely blown away by the powerhouse flavor I felt this ice cream to have. Even just a teaspoon of it immediately filled my mouth and overtook my palate with the complexity and indulgent taste I so badly wanted from Tillamook's chocolate ice creams. The smooth mouthfeel of this frozen dessert only accentuates its already rich, luxurious flavor. You'll even spot tiny flecks of vanilla bean seeds, which is where all that concentrated intensity comes from. I can now show some understanding for the point of view of vanilla lovers — but only if it's Tillamook's Vanilla Bean we're talking about.

At the time of writing this, I have already gone through more bowls of Tillamook's Peaches & Cream than I'd care to admit. And with every one of those bowls, the utils never once went down. The pure satisfaction I got the first time I tried this product has stayed consistent (or honestly has grown) each and every time.

Tillamook does an utterly perfect job in keeping the elements balanced in its Peaches & Cream ice cream. I was confused when I first popped the tub's lid off and was met with what looked like plain vanilla, but digging the ice cream scooper into the contents revealed itty bitty specks of orange-hued peaches. My doubt was even further stripped away upon taking my first taste, when I was met with the unmistakably bright, almost floral sweetness of a peach. Then, the "cream" part of this dessert's name comes in with the milky mildness that evens it all out. Its flavor is comparable to that of a fruity yogurt but 10 times better. Let's just say, I've found the flavor that'll be calling me down to the kitchen in the wee hours of the night.

This ranking of Tillamook ice cream flavors was determined through a taste test in which I gladly analyzed each product's taste, texture, and use of ingredients. Those that delivered on the flavor and ingredients they're advertised to have, whether it be in the ice cream's name or the description located right underneath, were placed higher in the ranking, while those that were too subtle were placed lower.

Other factors that played a role included the dessert's mouthfeel, as some were creamier or more complex in texture and add-ins than others. Overall, ice creams that I could see myself coming back to for seconds, thirds, and fourths made it into the top spots of the list.