The Absolute Best Store-Bought Strawberry Ice Cream Packs Major Flavor With Only A Few Ingredients

In Neapolitan ice cream tubs and on most bare-bones menus, you'll find the same trio: chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry. They're classic — ask someone their favorite, and odds are it's one of the three. Chocolate is indulgent and vanilla is safe, but strawberry is the pink sheep of the family. It's creamy, fruity, and way prettier to look at than the other two.

If strawberry ice cream is your go-to, you clearly have great taste. But you also know that not every scoop of strawberry ice cream tastes just right. As fans of the fruity flavor, Chowhound decided to conduct a tasting and ranking of popular store-bought strawberry ice creams. For fair comparison, each version we tried was a true strawberry ice cream — no sugar-free, low-fat, or plant-based variations. The perfect spoonful of strawberry ice cream should be rich, creamy, and suffused with fresh-tasting strawberry flavor. Thin and drippy, overly icy, and overwhelmingly artificial-tasting ice creams got scooted towards the bottom of our ranking. Many brands managed to get it right. One brand managed to set the standard for what a great store-bought strawberry ice cream should be. That brand was, of course, Häagen-Dazs. 

It doesn't really seem to be a debate that Häagen-Dazs is up there amongst the best store-bought ice cream you can find in general. Its strawberry ice cream, in particular, is rich, creamy, and packed with authentic strawberry flavor that we couldn't get enough of. And did we mention you can count its ingredients on one hand?

In Chowhound's ranking of premium ice cream brands, Häagen-Dazs was pretty high up, so it's no surprise that the brand can nail the basics — it earned similarly high praise in our rankings of chocolate and vanilla bean flavors.

What makes it so much better? To set the stage: The worst strawberry ice creams we tried were artificial-tasting and loaded with ingredients, including high fructose corn syrup and corn syrup, gums, dyes, and other ingredients. Häagen-Dazs' version, however, had essentially the least amount of ingredients possible to make a tasty ice cream. 

The Häagen-Dazs strawberry ice cream ingredients list consists of just cream, skim milk, strawberries, sugar, and egg yolks. This constitutes a pretty high fat percentage, especially in comparison to other, worse-tasting versions. This is what gives it that ultra-creamy texture — the egg yolks actually create a smooth, custard-like consistency. Those bright flecks of fresh strawberry chunks push it over the top, delivering an authentic flavor that's hard to beat in the freezer aisle. Häagen-Dazs notably also makes a point of highlighting its commitment to high-quality ingredients — and the difference shows in every spoonful. It can be pricier, but we think real strawberry chunks are worth the few extra bucks!