Top ice cream flavours around the world

There’s not many people who don’t like ice cream. I love ice cream – whether it’s a whippy 99 cone from an ice cream van, or an ice cream sundae. Nowadays I’ll make low carb ice cream which does the job too. Basically if it’s warm weather ice creams should be eaten. But which are the top ice cream flavours around the world, and some other interesting facts

Personal favourite ice cream flavours

In our house we’re split on flavours. The husband is a vanilla fan, but he does really like clotted cream ice cream. Our son is a strawberry ice cream fan…just strawberry flavoured anything really. But he likes vanilla too.

I’m a bit more into other flavours. Mint choc chip, chocolate, or pistachio are favourites, but I’m quite open to trying others depending on what’s available.

Top ice cream flavours around the world

Nowadays there’s such a proliferation of different options including some savoury (ew!), there’s so many to try.

There doesn’t seem to be one definitive lists of favourite flavours, but here’s some of the popular ones in different countries.

World ice cream favourites

Source: Lexham 2021, based on most searched for flavours and Nielsen Massey research

• Chocolate (US)
• Vanilla (UK)
• Mint Choc Chip
• Cookie Dough (especially in the US, Mexico, Argentina and Germany)
• Buttered pecan (sounds amazing although I’ve never seen that over here)
• Neapolitan (France, Italy). We used to love that as children, it was a real treat
• Banana (Philippines)
• Toffee (Iceland, Austra, Bahrain)
• Caramel (it’s really hard to get away from salted caramel flavours in the UK, it’s definitely a trend of the last few years).
• Dark chocolate

Other favourites by country

• Rocky road – Singapore
• Strawberry – Turkey
• Green Tea – Japan
• Watermelon – Netherlands
• Chocolate brownie – Colombia
• Oreo – Kenya
• Coconut – Thailand

On Instagram mentions in 2021, flavours got a bit more out there. I’m presuming because people on Instagram are more creative and want to push the boat out and influence people to try new and interesting flavours.

Vanilla
Matcha
Chocolate
Strawberry
Coconut
Banana
Mango
Oreo
Coffee
Pistachio
Ube
Cookie dough
Avocado
Mint
Pumpkin
Cotton candy
Salted caramel
Bubblegum (shudder especially if it’s blue in colour!)
Peanut butter
Blueberry

Alternative ice cream style desserts

If you’re looking for something a bit different to just ice cream, why not try one of these alternative ice cream style desserts.

• Kulfi – Indian frozen dessert, typically made of condensed milk and ingredients to add flavour such as saffron, cardamom, rosewater, mango and pistachio.
• Viennetta – classic 70s dessert in the UK, with layers of chocolate and ice cream. We used to think this was such a treat, but when I bought one for my son to experience, he wasn’t keen. And I realised that it tastes a bit like cardboard (unless it’s the mint version, then I’d still eat that!)
• Stracciatella – a variety of Italian gelato, consisting of milk-based ice cream filled with fine, irregular shavings of chocolate
• Mochi – Japanese dessert, which is a thin layer of sweet dough wrapped around a centre of ice cream. Mochi is made from a sweet rice flour that is pounded into a soft and chewy texture
• Donadurma – different from western-style ice-creams, this traditional Turkish ice cream is sweet, creamy, stretchy, and chewy at the same time. This stretchy texture is thanks to the inclusion of a starchy root called salep.
• Ice Puter – Indonesian ice cream with a rough texture. The ingredients are coconut milk (santan), salt, sugar, and ice cubes but toppings can be savoury or sweet, e.g sticky rice, sago pearl, breadcrumbs, nuts, jackfruit, avocado slices
• Ube ice cream – Philippines, Ube (pronounced ooh-beh) is a purple yam with a mild, sweet flavor. It tastes slightly nutty, or as a cross between vanilla and pistachio.

Which countries eat the most ice cream?

Source: 2020 Which Country Eats the Most Ice Cream? – WorldAtlas. Ice cream consumption, litres eaten per year, per capita

What are your top ice cream flavours?

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