5 Best Ice Cream Brands Made With Real Milk And Cream

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The joy of eating ice cream made with pure milk and cream — no additives or milk solids — is incomparable. It tastes rich and fresh, and the vibrant flavor of each ingredient shines through. Few things are as good as the original ice cream recipe: milk, cream, sugar, eggs, and a flavoring like vanilla, cacao powder, or strawberries.

Unfortunately, few tubs in grocery store freezers contain only milk and cream. Many have ingredients like whey or guar gum that can cheaply replace a portion of the milk fat and make the texture airier and creamier. These substances can also have a negative effect, though; the taste can become dimmer and more processed to some palates. As such, many shoppers prefer products closer to the traditional recipe, but finding them can be frustrating. I read labels on more than 40 brands of ice cream and uncovered only a handful that stuck to just five or six simple ingredients.

I decided to come up with a go-to list of the ice creams that I (and other shoppers) could trust to have the purest, most straightforward ingredients. It's not enough to just have the right things on the label, though — the products I chose also had to taste amazing, and not just in my opinion. I looked for good reviews and high ratings in online forums. In other words, I set out to figure out which brands sell the best-tasting ice cream made with pure milk, cream, and no monkey business.

Häagen-Dazs contains simple ingredients and is more widely available than other brands on this list. You can usually find Häagen-Dazs nearby no matter where you are in the U.S. Grocery store chains like Walmart, Target, and Kroger keep it in stock. Even towns without grocery stores have access to this ice cream at pharmacies, dollar stores, and convenience stores — Walgreens, 7-Eleven, and Dollar General all sell it.

The ingredients in Häagen-Dazs can be tricky, though. One Redditor suggested sticking to plain flavors if you prefer just milk, cream, sugar, egg, and flavoring. It's true — most wilder varieties contain additives and fillers. Fortunately, there are at least seven kinds with six ingredients or fewer: chocolate, vanilla bean, coffee, strawberry, vanilla, rum raisin, and matcha green tea. Chocolate peanut has eight, including a traditional ice cream base, cacao, peanuts, peanut oil, and salt.

This brand has avid fans. Vanilla bean received a 4.53-star average on Kroger's website. On Reddit, one commenter said Häagen-Dazs's coffee flavor is the best they've found. Others praised the chocolate and strawberry. Several wrote that the simple ingredients are the reason they love it. The higher density and greater weight come up as well since contributors thought these qualities pointed to better ingredients and less air whipped in. Finally, this ice cream can be a less expensive option, with prices ranging between $0.30 and $0.50 per ounce, depending on the store and sale prices.

Van Leeuwen is famous for its unusual, unique flavors, and some of them keep the recipe simple with just a traditional ice cream base and flavoring. For example, strawberry matcha latte and Earl Grey tea both have short ingredient lists composed only of things you probably keep in your kitchen. If you want something plainer, Van Leeuwen's vanilla and strawberry are also made with milk, cream, and no fillers. This company offers more extravagant flavors, but those sometimes contain ingredients like rice or tapioca syrup and coconut oil.

Van Leeuwen is not as universally cherished as Häagen-Dazs — rather, this ice cream evokes strong responses from people, both positive and negative. On one hand, this brand is idolized on a Reddit thread where users had a multitude of answers when it came to the best flavors. But on the other hand, there is a separate thread where people claim that the brand has gone downhill recently. They write that it tastes less intense and duller, and that there are more fillers mixed in. Yet, Thrive Market's community has bestowed an astonishing 4.7-star rating on Van Leeuwen's vanilla. 

The high price of this ice cream (at least $0.50 per ounce when it's not on sale) may cause consumers to feel pickier about the quality and taste. That could lead to more complaints on Reddit. Finally, Van Leeuwen can be difficult to find, so fewer people have tried it. Kroger sells just a few of its flavors, as does Thrive Market.

The milk and cream used in Ice Cream for Bears are not just any old dairy products; they come from grass-fed cattle raised on farms that use no-till practices, compost, and rotational grazing. The brand also only uses honey (not cane sugar) as a sweetener. It's clear that clean, simple labels are important to the company since the website is extremely transparent about exactly what's in each of their flavors. The home page has a horizontal bar where visitors can scroll through the offerings. Underneath each one is a list of the ingredients typed in large print.

Another valuable thing about this brand is that it offers a range of flavors — not just the plain ones — with clean ingredients. That sets Ice Cream for Bears apart from brands like Van Leeuwen and Häagen-Dazs. For example, cherry chip, mint chip, orange cream, cookie dough, and cookies and cream are some of the mouthwatering options. 

Unsurprisingly, Ice Cream for Bears is popular with grocery reviewers and Redditors. Shoppers on Thrive Market gave the vanilla a jaw-dropping 4.8-star rating. Redditors made comments about the unique and creamy texture of this brand as well as how they appreciated that it didn't taste as sweet as traditionally sweetened brands. The only downside is that at around $0.60 per ounce, this is the most expensive brand on this list. Anyone who wants to try Ice Cream for Bears can find it at Costco, Kroger, or Thrive Market.

Straus Family Creamery, in addition to making fantastic ice cream with only milk, cream, and other basic ingredients, is the only brand on this list that is also 100% certified organic. Land stewardship and ecology are important to the owners of the company, but that hasn't distracted them from making great ice cream. Comments on r/icecream show that people especially adore the mint chip, strawberry, and vanilla chip flavors. Then, there's also a 4.6-star rating for Straus' vanilla on Thrive Market. This company makes it clear that businesses can care for the environment, make great ice cream, and also thrive.

Straus offers a few more complex flavors and keeps the ingredients in them just as simple and clean as in the plainer flavors. For example, the lemon cookie  — which is not available from any of the other brands in this article — and the caramel swirl are enticing. Like Straus' other flavor options, both are also gluten-free.

If you're looking for it, you will find Straus Family Creamery ice cream on Thrive Market and Whole Foods, where it costs around $0.45 per ounce. 

Value shoppers will appreciate Specially Selected ice cream. At under $0.15 per ounce, it has the lowest price tag of all the ice creams on this list by a huge margin. Yet, it maintains its appeal with a simple ingredient list, fantastic flavor, and creamy texture.

The fact that Specially Selected is an Aldi store brand makes it different from the other products on this list. Frequently, Aldi stocks two flavors of this ice cream: chocolate and vanilla, although others may be available seasonally. Both flavors contain only five ingredients: milk, cream, cane sugar, eggs, and either vanilla extract or cacao powder. If those two flavors aren't your favorites, you could always add popular ice cream toppings like chopped pistachios, sliced strawberries, a spoonful of peanut butter, or crushed raspberries to create your favorite.

Specially Selected ice cream has managed to create a stir online and has a following. At the time of writing this, Instacart added a special "popular item" flame label to the listing because of the number of people who order it from Aldi.  Redditors have mentioned how bold and delicious the vanilla flavor is and said that it is nearly as good as Haägen-Dazs for less than half the price.

There were two things to determine: first, which ice creams contained only milk and cream, and, second, which tasted best. I started by making a two-page list of every ice cream brand sold at Walmart, Target, Aldi, Meijer, Kroger, Whole Foods, and Thrive Market. Then I used their websites and, occasionally, their brand pages to read the ingredient labels on vanilla ice cream. I picked that flavor because ones like cookies and cream or moose tracks tend to have longer ingredient lists and more additives. If the label included any components like whey, palm oil, tapioca syrup, or guar gum, I crossed them off my list.

Next, I needed to figure out which of the remaining ice creams was the best. I did that by looking at reviews left by shoppers on grocery store websites and reading through r/IceCream on Reddit. Only products with 4-star ratings and above remained. Redditors' comments helped clarify which characteristics people most appreciated about a particular brand.

There are a couple more aspects I looked at for each product on my list. I considered the value and mentioned it. Does the quality of the ice cream justify the price tag? Some brands cost significantly more than others, but reviewers don't necessarily think they taste better. Finally, I mentioned how easy it is to find each brand. Knowing about a product with high-quality ingredients and delicious flavor doesn't do any good if it's not available where a shopper lives.