The Best Popular Ben & Jerry's Flavor Isn't Half Baked Or Americone Dream

Strolling the grocery store freezer aisle in search of a delicious pint of ice cream is overwhelming. With an abundance of options ranging from old-school to gourmet to vegan, it can be difficult to narrow down your selection. But sometimes it's good to stick with a brand that's been beloved for decades like Ben & Jerry's. In our ranking of 11 popular Ben & Jerry's flavors, it wasn't an out-of-the-box flavor like Chunky Monkey or Coffee Toffee Bar Crunch that earned the top spot, but rather a tried-and-true classic flavor: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. 

Ice cream wasn't always the plan for the Vermont-based duo of Ben and Jerry, but we're eternally grateful that the two men wound up in the ice cream business. In fact, Ben & Jerry's actually was the first company to put cookie dough into an ice cream, based on a suggestion by a mystery fan in 1984. With a simple base of vanilla ice cream that's dotted with small chunks of chocolate chip cookie dough, there isn't much to hide behind in terms of taste and quality in this flavor of Ben & Jerry's. 

Our reviewer loved the simplicity of the overall flavor, noting that the dense cookie dough bits are "pleasantly gritty" and include more pops of hard texture from ample amounts of the tiny chocolate chips that become hard when frozen. These multi-textured gobs of frozen cookie dough contrast beautifully with the silky smooth vanilla ice cream. Our tester also noted that the cookie dough actually tastes like real cookie dough "with a caramelized flavor that's hard not to love." 

A pioneer in the world of exciting pints of ice cream, Ben & Jerry's is known for some wacky ingredient combinations as well as flavors inspired by pop culture like Stephen Colbert's Americone Dream. Americone Dream and Half Baked did not fare quite as well in our ranking, receiving sixth and fifth places, respectively. Americone Dream, another vanilla-based flavor with caramel and chocolate-covered waffle cone pieces, wasn't a favorite of our tester, but they still enjoyed the more subtle flavors of the pint. Half Baked boasts not just cookie dough but also brownie pieces in a base of both vanilla and chocolate ice creams, and is great for those who crave a multitude of textures in one bite, but our tester found it a bit too sweet for their taste.

Fans online share our reviewer's sentiments, with one comment on the brand's product page saying, "this ice cream is creamy, rich, sweet, smooth, and a full of delicious cookie dough pieces and chocolate chips." If you're looking for a way to improve on the classic Ben & Jerry's flavor, you could always drizzle chocolate syrup on top of a scoop or two in a bowl, or even some salted caramel if you're seeking a slight savory note. For those craving even more texture from this old-school flavor, a sprinkling of extra miniature chocolate chips or a crumbled up, fully baked chocolate chip cookie would make an excellent topping that would still mirror the ice cream's simple flavors.