The Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Flavor We Ranked Number One Is A Star In Its Own Right

Choosing the ultimate Ben & Jerry's flavor is no small feat. It's hard to pin down an exact number, as some flavors double up, for example, with a regular and a non-dairy or ice cream bar version, but it suffices to say that Ben & Jerry's has more flavors than you'd think.

Chowhound set out to rank nine of those ice cream flavors, and the one that came out on top was The Tonight Dough, apparently inspired by Jimmy Fallon, which mixes together chocolate and caramel ice creams with both peanut butter and choc-chip cookie dough and chocolate cookie swirls. What were the reasons for this? Firstly, the dual ice cream flavors melded well: While the caramel wasn't super evident on its own, it had a great synergy with chocolate that just wasn't there in lower-ranking flavors. While our reviewer was concerned there'd be too much going on with all the components, the mix of Oreo-like cookie pieces and chewier dough worked a treat, especially when all the parts came together in one bite.

This was one of the key judging criteria, too. Flavors that seemed like a hodgepodge ranked lower, and to rank well, an ice cream had to be free of extraneous ingredients that didn't fit in. It should be noted that the ranking only considered signature Ben & Jerry's flavors with relatively unique combinations of ingredients, and not those that lean too close to classic flavors like chocolate or cookie dough; variations like the dairy-free ice creams were also left out, as were discontinued Ben & Jerry's flavors.

There's no shortage of other Ben & Jerry's reviews and rankings out there, and when it comes to The Tonight Dough, it seems to prove the idea that taste is subjective, as there's no straightforward consensus on it. One review from when the flavor was first released in 2015 gave a thumbs-up to the cookie swirl, but gave it a below-average rating, arguing that the overall combination was too sweet. This does still fit partly with Chowhound's verdict, as our writer did imply it was one for the sweet toothed.

On rankings, it seems that The Tonight Dough fares well. One ranking put it at an impressive first place out of 39 flavors, for mixing all Ben & Jerry's flavor staples into one pint; meanwhile, another ranking put it dead last for smooshing together too many different components. Overall though, it seems to generally land in the upper-middle zone of rankings: 11th out of 32, fourth out of 10, sixth out of 17, and eighth out of 25. There are definitely similar comments that repeatedly crop up. On the positive side, it's a flavor that offers something for everyone, but on the downside, this leaves it open to accusations of doing too much or trying to appeal to too many different tastes all at once. Perhaps the most useful advice is that it's really a flavor for someone who wants a serious wallop of chocolate.

Curious about which flavor to avoid? That would be the New York Super Fudge Chunk, at least according to our writer: While the chocolate ice cream is tasty, the added fudge-coated nuts just don't quite fit in, particularly when it comes to texture.