Skip The Big Names When Buying Peanut Butter Ice Cream — These 2 Stole The Top Spots

Big-name ice cream brands are often tried-and-true favorites for availability, price, and classic flavors. They've also come out with nuanced options to compete with a growing demand for specialty flavors offered by smaller, premium brands. Peanut butter ice cream is one such flavor popular brands like Häagen-Dazs and Ben & Jerry's offer, but we think you should skip them in favor of the smaller brands.

In a tasting of eight store-bought peanut butter ice cream brands, McConnell's Fine Ice Creams and Jeni's Ice Creams placed first and second, respectively. They beat Häagen-Dazs, Ben & Jerry's, and Reese's peanut butter ice cream flavors by a long shot due to their sophistication and complexity. Jeni's Salted Peanut Butter with Chocolate Flecks blends salty, nutty peanuts into the ice cream foundation, making for a peanut-forward flavor. You still get a milky, dairy richness from the cream, while the chocolate balances both the dairy and earthy peanut flavors.

McConnell's takes the top spot, with a rich, creamy peanut ice cream foundation along with a ribbon of peanut butter and dark chocolate flakes that provide an even more exciting textural experience. Plus, the ratio of add-ins to ice cream is spot on, while the dark chocolate really amps up the overall complexity of the flavor profile. Both small-brand peanut butter ice creams offered a more elegant, less sweet complexity thanks to the salty and savory peanut-forward ice cream base.

Jeni's and McConnell's outshine big names with their tantalizing peanut butter ice cream offerings, but how do they fare overall? The answer, according to other taste tests done here at Tasting Table, is surprisingly well. Jeni's may not be as well-known as competitor premium brands like Häagen-Dazs and Ben & Jerry's, but it still outranked both of these brands in a round-up of the very best ice cream brands. McConnell's didn't make the list of best ice cream brands, but it did, along with Jeni's, make the list of the 10 best new store-bought ice creams of 2026. And in the case of the 2026 roundup, each brand was represented by a completely different ice cream flavor; McConnell's Sticky Miso Toffee Ice Cream and Jeni's Appalachian Acorn Pie Ice Cream won our taste tester's heart.

It appears that unique specialty flavors are both brands' forte, as more basic flavors didn't fare as well. To that effect, McConnell's ranked second-to-last in a tasting of chocolate ice cream brands. While Jeni's made it to a respectable fourth place, it was with a more specialized dark chocolate ice cream, which still came behind bigger names like Häagen-Dazs and Whole Foods Market 365 Organic brand. Still, for peanut butter lovers, McConnell's and Jeni's reign supreme, and they both offer a chocolate element to boot.