This Aldi Ice Cream Is a Dead-Ringer for Haagen-Dazs—and It’s Way Cheaper

There’s a whole world of vanilla ice creams out there. Some are rich and eggy like frozen custard made in an ice cream shoppe in some quaint seaside town. Others are like sugary whipped air, the kind of stuff that came in a little cup with a wooden spoon at elementary school birthday parties. We’re partial to the former, which is why after tasting pretty much all the vanilla ice cream we could find at grocery stores here in Southern California (sorry, Blue Bell is off the table!), we decided that Haagen-Dazs makes the best of the best.

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What’s so great about Haagen-Dazs vanilla ice cream?

Haagen-Dazs vanilla ice cream tastes exactly the way vanilla ice cream should taste—sweet, rich, and custardy with real vanilla flavor, not the saccharine phony vanilla flavor or astringent extract flavor. That’s the short answer, but hey, you’re here, so I’ll give you the longer answer, too. We also appreciate that it’s very low ingredient. Look at the panel on the side of the container and all you’ll see is cream, skim milk, cane sugar, egg yolks, vanilla beans, and vanilla extract. Other ice creams are loaded with gums and other stabilizers and it shows.

The bad thing about Haagen-Dazs? It’s pretty pricey. I’d never really thought about it until my colleague Jordan Myrick pointed it out. It’s certainly tempting to just grab something that costs half as much even if it’s half as good. But before you do that, let us let you in on a lil secret…

There’s a vanilla ice cream at Aldi that’s basically a Haagen-Dazs dupe

During a recent taste test, we came across Specially Selected Vanilla Ice Cream from Aldi and we plotzed. This premium Aldi ice cream (don’t confuse it with the store’s even more affordable Sundae Shoppe brand) is rich, eggy, thick, and so delicious. It has that perfect custardy flavor that makes you crave a slice of apple pie to go with. Look at the ingredients list and you’ll see why: cream, skim milk, sugar, pasteurized egg yolks, and vanilla extract. It’s almost identical to Haagen-Dazs, right down to the ingredients list, but it’s also WAY cheaper.

At our local Aldi, a 48oz container (that’s 3 pints) of Specially Selected Vanilla Ice Cream costs $5.49 while a 14oz container (that’s less than one pint) of Haagen-Dazs vanilla costs between $5.99 and $7.99 at grocery stores near us. That’s a huge difference. The next time you’re at Aldi, try it. You won’t be sorry you did.

About the Author

Howdy! I’m Gwynedd, Sporked’s managing editor. I live in Los Angeles and have access to the best tacos the U.S. has to offer—but I’m a sucker for a crunchy Old El Paso taco night every now and then. I’ve been at Sporked since 2022 and I’m still searching frozen mozzarella sticks that can hold a candle to restaurant sticks. Why you should trust me: I’ve been a journalist for 20 years (yikes), a consumer of food for 40-plus years, and I’m truly hard pressed to think of foods I don’t like (or that I can’t tolerate at the very least). Oh and one time I cooked my way through Guy Fieri’s cookbook and wrote about the journey through Flavortown. What I buy every week: Trader Joe’s Original Savory Thins. Fat free plain yogurt (usually Fage or Nancy’s). Honeycrisp apples. Sweet cream coffee creamer for my at-home Americanos. A frozen cauliflower crust pizza and some jarred mushrooms to top it with. Old El Paso Stand ‘N Stuff taco shells and Gardein Ground Be’f, even though I think “be’f” is a nightmarish contraction. Favorite ranking: Stouffer’s frozen dinners. I don’t own a microwave (I get my cancers the old fashioned way!), so I love taste testing things that I don’t really buy to eat at home. Least favorite ranking: Soy sauce. Don’t get me wrong, I love soy sauce—but consuming that much sodium in one sitting is probably illegal in some countries. Our frozen enchilada taste test was a close second; the smell of microwaved corn tortillas still haunts me.