6 Fast-Food Chains With the Best Soft Serve, According to Diners
Soft serve is not necessarily ice cream, but it sure is delicious. The USDA website explains that ice cream contains “not less than 1.6 pounds of total solids to the gallon, and weighs not less than 4.5 pounds to the gallon” and has “not less than 10 percent milkfat, nor less than 10 percent nonfat milk solids, except that when it contains milkfat at 1 percent increments above the 10 percent minimum.” The majority of fast food chains offer some sort of version, sometimes ice cream, others custard or another branded frozen dessert product. Where can you get the best? Here are 6 fast-food chains with the best soft serve, according to diners.
Dairy Queen
Dairy Queen is very transparent about how un-ice cream its frozen desserts are. “Technically, our soft serve does not qualify to be called ice cream,” the FAQ section of the Dairy Queen website previously stated. “While our soft serve product used to be categorized as ‘ice milk,’ the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) eliminated this category of product.”
Culver’s
Culver’s fresh frozen custard is made with real dairy, farm-fresh milk, cream, skim milk, sugar, corn syrup, and egg yolk, along with stabilizers like guar gum and locust bean gum to achieve its signature dense, smooth, and rich texture. “Think of Frozen Custard as the most premium dessert you’ve ever tasted. Luscious and creamy with farm fresh dairy, it contains less air so it’s denser and richer than ordinary ice cream. And because it’s served at a temperature that won’t freeze your taste buds, you actually experience the flavor longer,” the website reads. “We only use real dairy from American family farms, with relationships that go back over 30 years. We slow-turn our Frozen Custard in small batches all day long. That’s why any time you stop in you know you’re getting the freshest Frozen Custard possible, when it’s at its very best.”
Freddy’s Steakburgers
Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers serves rich and creamy fresh custard soft serve style. “At Freddy’s, rich, creamy frozen custard treats are often what entice first-time visitors and keep guests coming back year after year. To delight the palates of patrons across the country, the velvety decadence of this dish is achieved by the perfect combination and processing of frozen custard ingredients,” they say. All custards are made with milk, egg yolks, and sugar.
Sonic Drive-In
Sonic offers so many “Frozen Zone” desserts on the menu, including shakes and sundaes made with “soft serve.” They don’t even refer to the shakes as “milkshakes.” You can get a 300-calorie Vanilla Cup, a “creamy, vanilla soft serve served in a cup.”
McDonald’s
Head over to the McDonald’s menu, where the soft serve is legendary and formally called a McDonald’s Vanilla Cone. “Our Vanilla Cone features creamy vanilla soft serve in a crispy cone,” they say on their website. Ingredients include milk, sugar, cream, corn syrup, natural flavor, mono and diglycerides, cellulose gum, guar gum, carrageenan, and vitamin A palmitate.
Chick-fil-A
The most popular dessert on the Chick-fil-A menu is actually called IceDream, and it’s delicious. It is just 3% butterfat, barely even soft serve, with main ingredients including milkfat and nonfat milk, sugar, less than 1% of natural and artificial flavors, mono and diglycerides, guar gum, and carrageenan, a thickener. The “delicious, frozen dairy treat with an old-fashioned vanilla taste” is 180 calories and 4 grams of fat per serving, including the cone, and even 4 grams of protein, per the company’s website.