I Tried 7 Chocolate Ice Creams & the Best Was Rich and Creamy

I consider myself an ice cream connoisseur and have been known to indulge in an after-dinner bowlful—or after lunch, who's judging?—even in the dead of a New England winter. Though my favorite way to consume the frozen delight is in a fresh cake cone swirled high with a soft-serve twist showered in rainbow sprinkles, I haven't yet invested in an at-home soft-serve machine to make that a regular occurrence. So when the craving strikes, I'm heading to the market for the best store-bought pint I can find.

Picking up a perfectly sweet, chocolaty, and scoopable pint is not as straightforward as you might think. There are plenty of options to consider, so to help simplify your next dessert shopping spree, I tested seven of the most common varieties of chocolate ice cream.

I tasted super-premium, ultra-dense pints from specialty makers like Jeni's Splendid and Häagen-Dazs and more budget-friendly, lighter scoops from classic brands like Edy's and Breyers. I sampled each dessert all on its own, straight from the freezer. I considered each ice cream's looks, texture, flavor, sweetness, and overall mouthfeel.

Read on to discover the best chocolate ice cream, ranked in descending order from good to the absolute best pint.

Breyers Chocolate Ice Cream

Breyers is a ubiquitous ice cream brand that is reliably found at most grocery stores and convenience marts. Unfortunately, the flavor and texture fell short of expectations in this test. I paid $7.49 for a 1.5-quart tub.

The look: The Breyers ice cream was notably softer and meltier straight from the freezer than other scoops I sampled. The color was medium brown, not as dark as some, but not the palest. It had visible air bubbles on the surface after opening the container, and scooping revealed more air throughout the quart.

The taste: Unfortunately, this ice cream was downright icy. So much air was incorporated into the dairy that it had large ridges and air gaps when scooped. The texture was light, but as a result, the flavor was airy and bland, which is unfortunate given the 20 grams of sugar per serving.

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Edy's Chocolate Ice Cream

The first ingredient in Edy's chocolate ice cream is skim milk, which explains the light and fluffy texture and subtle chocolate flavor. The 1.5-quart tub cost me $9.49.

The look: Edy's had among the lightest brown color of any ice cream I sampled. It's airy and easily scoopable and doesn't produce quite as pronounced ridges as Breyers when scooped.

The taste: Unfortunately, the chocolate flavor was lacking in this ice cream. It tasted more like a low-quality, cheap milk chocolate bar than premium ice cream. The texture was delightful: light, fluffy, and just melty enough.

Alden's Organic Chocolate Ice Cream

This chocolate ice cream is made from organic ingredients, including milk, cream, sugar, and tapioca syrup. It's slightly richer and less sweetened than Breyers and was my favorite of the more budget-friendly, less premium products I sampled. I paid $12.99 for a 1.5-quart tub.

The look: This ice cream had visible ice clinging to the surface when I opened it. Like Breyers, it had ridges and air bubbles, though Alden's ice cream was slightly denser and less air-filled than Breyers.

The taste: This ice cream had a richer chocolate flavor than Breyers, but the ice crystals took away from the texture, giving it an almost grainy mouthfeel.

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Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Therapy

Though this is not a pure and plain chocolate ice cream, Ben & Jerry's is known for its generous mix-ins, so I thought I'd include this slight outlier in my test. This pint contains chocolate ice cream with chocolate cookies and swirls of chocolate pudding ice cream. It has the most sugar per serving of any in this test but slightly less fat than Häagen-Dazs. A pint cost me $6.39.6254a4d1642c605c54bf1cab17d50f1e

The look: There are two textures, colors, and flavors in this pint. The more abundant ice cream type is simple dark chocolate, which is swirled by an even darker, sturdier, fudgier pudding ice cream. Though the pint is supposed to contain chocolate cookies, they were hard to find amidst the topography of swirls.

The taste: The pudding ice cream was less melty, drier, and somewhat sweeter than the classic chocolate ice cream, and I preferred the pudding swirl over the background player. I would have loved more chocolate cookie chunks in the mix. Overall, this was a hard-core, intensely sweet chocolate dessert, but the pudding swirl outshone the rest of the players.

Häagen-Dazs Chocolate Ice Cream

This classic pint from Häagen-Dazs does not skimp on richness. Full-fat cream is the first ingredient, and it's fortified with egg yolks, which is evident in the coat-your-mouth texture and satisfying flavor. A 14-ounce container cost $6.89.

The look: Häagen-Dazs ice cream, which is more of a custard, thanks to the egg yolks, has an incredibly smooth texture. It's somewhere between the fluffy airiness of Breyers and Edy's and the stick-to-your-spoon density of Jeni's and Ben and Jerry's. For this reason, it's a crowd-pleasing option for every kind of ice cream eater.

The taste: This scoop was not too sweet, and the chocolate flavor was just right—neither overpoweringly dark and rich nor so subtle you could barely detect it. The egg yolks and cream lend themselves to a perfectly satisfying bite.

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Jeni's Darkest Chocolate Ice Cream

With nearly double the fat content of lighter ice creams, this super chocolaty scoop from cult favorite sweets brand Jeni's Splendid is made for the chocoholic. A pint cost me $10.19.

The look: This ice cream is dark and dense and does not mess around in the chocolate department. The pint is more compact and heavy than the fluffier quart-sized containers from Edy's and Breyers. Scooping the ice cream is also a stickier affair, as it has an almost gummy texture that clings to your spoon. It's hard to get picture-perfect scoops with this ice cream, but who cares how it looks when it's going to disappear so quickly?

The taste: Dark chocolate fans will be pleased by the intensity of this dessert. Its short ingredient list indicates that all that chocolate flavor comes from cocoa powder (many other ice creams are fortified with chocolate flavoring), and Jeni's has injected quite a bit into each pint. As a result, this ice cream has a more sophisticated, bitter flavor that may be a bigger hit with adults than kids.

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Tillamook Chocolate Ice Cream

Oregon-based Tillamook Creamery took the cake (er, ice cream) in this taste test. Its chocolate falls right at the sweet spot between fluffy and dense. It is not too sweet and has a rich, chocolate-forward flavor that won't be polarizing for those who prefer milk chocolate over dark. A 48-ounce container cost $8.69.

The look: As soon as I removed the lid, I could tell I was going to love the texture of the Tillamook ice cream. It was on the verge of melting around the edges, but the center was firm. It was scoopable and had no major air bubbles, nor was it so dense that I had to fight to peel it off my scooper.

The taste: The chocolate flavor is milky but rich. It's super creamy and not overly sweet. This crowd-pleasing dessert is satisfying enough to enjoy solo but also plays well with other ice creams and toppings in a sundae. The egg yolks add just enough richness to distinguish this premium ice cream from the too-fluffy competition that lacks flavor.

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