Ranking All 17 Graeter’s Ice Cream Flavors From Worst to Best

While there is never a bad time for ice cream, the height of summer is the perfect moment to enjoy the chilly delight. And there are few better choices in ice cream to reach for than French pot style Graeter’s, which is a favorite here at Tasting Table. Family owned since 1870, Graeter’s is the only commercially operated French pot style ice cream maker. Handcrafted in small batches of 2 ½ gallons, each pint of this artisanal ice cream is hand-packed and then delivered to 6,000 grocery stores across the country. You can even order a six-pack delivered right to your front door, so there’s no reason why you aren’t enjoying some right now!

To help you choose which sweet frozen confection I think you should be grabbing, I taste tested 17 everyday flavors. I understand that ice cream flavor favorites can vary widely from person to person, so I attempted to keep that in mind. Ranked based on flavor excellence, uniqueness, complexity, and the prospect of mass likeability, here is a list of my top and bottom choices of Graeter’s ice cream. I promise, there is a flavor on this list that will be perfect for anyone, no matter where it falls.

Some recommendations are based on firsthand impressions of promotional materials and products provided by the manufacturer.

Just like its small batch ice cream, Graeter’s also creates its own chocolate chips in the same French pot method. This results in a chip that can range from a sliver to a chunk to a slab. Regardless of its size, it is one of the creamiest chocolates that I have ever had. And that is what you are going to find in this ice cream.

The chocolate is definitely a treat. However, I will say that the toffee is not my favorite. While texturally correct, giving lovely crunchy and chewy pieces of toffee to bite into, it’s lacking a buttery decadence. While this ice cream is sweet and creamy, and the rich chocolate is on par, many other flavors from Graeter’s far surpass this one.

I have never tasted a more authentic peanut butter ice cream than I did with this choice. With one spoonful, I felt as if I had just taken a scoop from a freshly ground jar of peanut butter. And in that respect, I don’t fully care for the taste. While the peanut butter flavor is incredibly authentic, it lacks the sweet creaminess that I wanted to taste.

I feel like the chocolate with this peanut butter doesn’t work either. I think the lack of sweetness in the ice cream makes the chocolate sharper than it generally is. And this makes for too large a contrast in sweet and savory flavors. While this flavor garners kudos for an authentic execution, I am not the fan it deserves. But I know those people are out there.

I have to say that I am not a huge chocolate ice cream lover. I have always found it to be a bit too much. I prefer a dark chocolate with nuts or dried fruit over a straight milk chocolate. So, while this may fall at the end of the list as far as my personal favorite, I believe it could be a milk chocolate lover’s dream.

Made with European cocoa, this ice cream is a rich milk chocolate filled with sugary sweetness — a little too sweet for me. The flavor of cocoa is strong and clings to the palate in a way that I enjoy. To rank any higher, there needs to be something mixed in to counter the syrupy sweetness. But as it is, it delivers a flavor that is just too sweet for me.

Salted caramel is one of my all-time favorite flavors. And Graeter’s salted caramel is made from scratch by cooking down cream, brown sugar, and a pinch of salt to create the flavor for this ice cream. I believe this process gives the ice cream a softer texture than any of the others on this list, which makes it extremely easy to eat straight from the pint.

However, this flavor needs to pump up the caramel; I want more! When getting a taste of the chocolate, it easily overpowers the caramel flavor instead of mingling, which is what I want. I appreciate the balance of sweetness and creaminess this has over the ones ranked lower. But as far as the caramel flavor goes, I would have gone without the chocolate to enjoy that caramel taste in every bite.

This chocolate chip ice cream is made with sweet cream, Madagascar vanilla extract, and bittersweet chocolate chips. The sweet cream base is silky in texture, and it takes me back to sitting on my grandparents’ porch, enjoying fresh homemade ice cream as a child. The vanilla is there, but slight enough to allow the cream to steal the show.

The bittersweet chocolate offers a variety of appearances in different shapes and sizes. It playfully allows for glimpses of the rich denseness to appear, and sometimes a melt-in-the-mouth chew to savor. This is a treat that sways you back and forth between flavors. Like a soft breeze through the trees, this cold confection is a welcome respite from the heat of summer. Being one of the simpler flavor profiles from Graeter’s puts it closer to the bottom.

Speaking of simplistic flavors, I will most definitely have to defend ranking this plain vanilla higher than the ones that come before. Crafted by combining ground vanilla beans and vanilla extract from Madagascar, this is the most deliciously complex vanilla ice cream I have ever had the opportunity to enjoy.

You can taste and see the ground vanilla bean in this ice cream as it offers both an intensely rich and deep visual and palatable experience. While this appears to be a simple solo flavor, it should be considered a diva amongst the other ice creams.

This vanilla doesn’t need anything else to make it great; however, it sets itself up to take any sundae additions to a powerfully delicious new level. It’s a freezer staple, which I can’t say for the ones that fall lower. But I feel it will be best used to create sweet treats when the right topping calls. And in that regard, I cannot rank it higher.  

Taking things up a notch is this cocoa-forward chocolate flavor. Much darker than the Dutch Chocolate ranked lower in this list it expertly cuts the sharp sweetness while still delivering the gooey goods. The chewy brownie bits are a perfect addition and are thick and cakey. They stand up to the ice cream so well, soft and pliable without being soggy.

It is the richness of this chocolate that held me in its grasp. The sweetness in this treat doesn’t go overboard, delivering a humble elegance that is hard to resist. While not as playful and adventurous as the ones ranked higher, it would be hard to add anything to this flavor. In all the best ways, it is exactly as it should be.

Graeter’s strawberry ice cream begins its journey on family farms in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. There, a special variety of strawberry is grown that gives this option the freshest strawberry taste, regardless of season, that I have ever had. Just one spoonful delivers a decadent burst of fresh strawberries and cream to the palate that is difficult to believe isn’t plucked straight from the garden.

It’s deliciously shocking that so much strawberry flavor can occur without actually having large chunks of strawberry like other varieties. But those generally luscious chunks are not missed here as the flavor and snap of tiny seeds in every spoonful comes through. Its height of flavor and simplicity puts it in the middle of the list. 

This ice cream is crafted from a brew of specially blended Sumatran and Colombian Arabica beans and the flavor of the dark coffee is evident on first taste. There is a slightly spicy piquant aspect that keeps the sweetness of the cream in check but still allows for it to be evident. Dense and inviting, just as a good cup of coffee should be, this taste offers the best of bold worlds when it comes to enjoying a nice jolt of coffee in the peak heat of summer. 

Unlike others before, there is just one tiny flaw I found in this flavor. Here, Graeter’s nod to an espresso seems more like a wink. While it is dark, I expected a much more dramatic coffee flavor to come through. However, I can assure you that the rest of this pint will not go to waste.

Black raspberry chocolate chip is a creation of the founder’s grandson, Dick Graeter. In 2025, it is Graeter’s signature and best-selling flavor to date. And although it doesn’t garner the top spot on my list personally, compared to the higher-ranked flavors, there is every reason to be proud of this option.

Created from pureed black raspberries from the Willamette Valley, sweet cream, and chocolate, Graeter’s offers something in this option you’re unlikely to find anywhere else. There is a bright fruitiness of a sorbet that bursts on the palate with a juicy aesthetic. Then there is a rich creaminess that blends seamlessly across the fruit, making it unmistakably ice cream. The dense chocolate grounds the sweetness in a savory way, creating a flavor truly unique to this brand. It’s that uniqueness that throws this flavor into the top eight. And while I urge you to try this at least once, there are others that will come first. 

The sweet cream in this option comes through immediately and tastes exactly like the beloved center of America’s favorite sandwich cookies, which are showcased here. The chunks of cookie are substantial and consistent in this blend, but not so big to disrupt a spoon or mouthful, which I find delightful. I hate when I pull an entire cookie from this type of ice cream and half of my pint disappears.

The chocolate doesn’t overpower the cream as they both seem to be equally balanced. It’s not too sweet, which can happen when you start introducing additions like this to ice cream. That balance is something I have found sorely lacking in other brands with this flavor. So much so that I feel this option deserves a top ranking. However, it is the fact that this flavor is fairly easy to come by that places it in the seventh spot.

With malted ice cream, mini peanut butter cups, chocolate-covered pretzels, and brownies making up this mix, this is the most complex blend Graeter’s offers, immediately placing it above the ones before. The first taste to hit the tongue is the denseness of the malt. The second, peanut butter, which is very rich, but nicely sweetened by all the chocolate. And the salt from the pretzel rings a bell on all the flavors, taking them to a higher level.

There is also a nice mixture of textures — The pretzels are crunchy, and the brownie is chewy. And the peanut butter cups add a level of creaminess. Every bite is consistent, which seems highly improbable when working with so many items.

The main issue I have with this is that it is difficult to have more than a few bites. All of the ingredients make for a very weighty ice cream. And sometimes a few bites of ice cream are just not enough.

The pure peppermint oil is hard to miss or resist in the smell or flavor of this ice cream, and I didn’t want to. I like my mint chocolate chip to be intense, and Graeter’s does not disappoint on this front. It even tastes as if the rich denseness of the bittersweet chocolate has been infused, as the mint pleasantly carries through every bite.

The peppermint offers a refreshing blast of coolness to all of the senses. The creamy thickness of the ice cream and malleable mouthfeel of the chocolate are lovely textures to balance the taste. Sweet, it stays in check without over-delivering. And the mint hangs on the aftertaste in the best of ways.

The approach to purity carries this mint chocolate chip to great heights on the list. Were it not for the commonality of this taste profile, although the others don’t really compare, this would have ranked even higher. 

Made with the same blend of beans found in the Vienna Coffee, this flavor easily ranks higher with just the addition of Graeter’s special chocolate. The dark addition takes the flavor of the coffee to a more intense level, the level I initially wanted.

After reading the description, I honestly felt that this flavor may come across too forthright, but I was happily surprised. The balance of chocolate to coffee creates a great, rounded richness. And the aftertaste is nicely heavy, like a dark cup of black coffee. Were my tastebuds not to be taken to further heights by flavors still to come, this would easily have been my top pick.

A fairly new flavor collab in the lineup, Graeter’s has taken New Riff’s single barrel bourbon, dark chocolate, and bourbon-glazed pecans and created something that truly has to be experienced. Don’t worry, the ice cream is only 0.5% ABV.

For those looking for a bourbon flavor, you are sure to find it here. But for those not, I feel this leans more into a warm, savory maple and chai mix. Had I never had bourbon before, I don’t know if I would have pinpointed the flavor. It does not come across with any hint of burn or astringency. Paired with the dark chocolate and candied pecans, this has a very autumnal aesthetic that calls to mind cinnamon and cloves.

There is a richness to this ice cream that is hard to resist, and layers of sweet and savory. Every bite offers the same great flavors and textures — the candied pecans are nicely diced, and the chocolate is expertly swirled. This could easily have been the highest-ranked, but it may seem to some like an adult-only taste.

When I first read the package, I thought I was going to get the crunch of a graham cracker along with the visible marshmallow and chocolate. But that first bite stopped me in my tracks. Where was the crunch? I tasted graham cracker, but there was absolutely no texture. It’s graham cracker ice cream! And that one element is nothing less than phenomenal. No other flavor can claim that. 

With hunks of Graeter’s proprietary chocolate and visibly gooey marshmallows, this ice cream tastes exactly like a s’more. My mouth delighted in the flavor and textures that I generally pass on around the campfire, due to the sticky situation it creates. But here is all the taste with none of the mess. It’s brilliant! This ice cream could have easily been at the No. 1 spot with its seemingly magical properties. But little did I know, there was more magic ahead.

I love lemon, marshmallow, and pie, but I’m not so much a fan of the consistency of meringue. But this ice cream takes that issue out of the equation and delivers an ice cream that is more than aptly named. It has all the flavor elements, down to the marshmallow ice cream, of a lemon meringue pie.

The lemon in the ice cream comes in at just the right level — not too tart. Then, the lemon candy escalates the taste, delivering a fun zing. The graham cracker pie crust offers a pie experience both in taste and texture, with a sugared crumble that is fun to chew. With every spoonful, it’s easy to have a delightfully authentic lemon meringue pie experience, which is much harder a taste to deliver than the s’more.  

Due to the complexity in creation, this dessert is generally left for special occasions in my family. However, thanks to Graeter’s, you can now have this high-collar confection after every meal, making it a true top pick.  

As I said before, ice cream is going to be a personal and widely varied choice, especially when you take into consideration the multitude of flavors available. Everyone has their own preference, and I cannot say that mine was not at play in this ranking. What I will say is that I did try to keep in mind the popularity of flavors on the market and how well those flavors were executed in each ice cream.

I sat down and thoughtfully tasted each of these flavors. Each was given equal opportunity to delight or disappoint, and time was taken to properly palate cleanse.

While almost all of these flavors make for good ice cream, the ones that get closer to the top of the list are the ones I declare are must-haves. When you get to the middle flavors, I advise giving them serious consideration, even if you haven’t thought about enjoying them in the past. And the ones at the end, I’ll leave those up to you.

When it comes down to it, Graeter’s is an ice cream experience not to miss. From mainstream to mind-blowing, there is a wide spectrum of flavors sure to please even the pickiest group. And with seasonal flavors and special limited-time offerings, this is one ice cream brand to keep your eyes on.