Justine Sterling
Graeter’s ice cream might truly be the greatest grocery store ice cream I’ve ever had. You know I’ve gotta say it: It lives up to its name. It really is greater. This isn’t a branded article. Graeter’s didn’t force me to say that their ice cream was greater. I said it because the Sporked team recently sat down to 20 Graeter’s ice cream flavors and we were wowed by pretty much every one. (You can watch us ooh and ahh and nitpick at the flavors in the video below.) Somehow, we managed to pick our seven absolute favorites.
What makes Graeter’s ice cream so good?
I can only assume Graeter’s founders, Regina and Louis Graeter, made some sort of dairy-based deal with the devil. But according to the brand, it’s because the ice cream is made using the “French pot process.” You can read all about the French pot process on the website, but basically it means the ice cream is made with a high butterfat mix in really small batches, resulting in dense, ultra creamy ice cream. No frozen fluff.
Where can you find Graeter’s ice cream?
While Midwesterners closest to its Ohio home have the best chance of snagging any number of the wide range of Graeter’s ice cream flavors out there, the brand has been expanding. A quick click on the product locator shows me that I can find at least one Graeter’s flavor all the way out here in Los Angeles. But if you’re outside of the Midwest and you really want to experience the true breadth of all the Graeter’s ice cream flavors, you can always purchase pints on the brand’s website and get them shipped. Once again I feel the need to say that this is not a branded article. I just really love Graeter’s.
What we looked for in the best Graeter’s ice cream flavors
- Creamy Texture: Graeter’s boasts that they make dense, super-creamy ice cream, so that’s what we wanted out of every pint.
- Unique Flavor: While we loved some of the more classic flavors in the Graeter’s ice cream line-up, we thought the best Graeter’s ice cream flavor should be something that spoke to the brand—something that you can’t necessarily get from another brand.
- Quality Mix-Ins: If the ice cream had mix-ins, we wanted them to shine. No flavorless chocolate. No bland nuts. No soggy cookies.
Honorable mentions
Before we get into the official ranking of the top Graeter’s ice cream flavors, allow me to share some honorable mentions. We really loved: Vanilla Bean, Mocha Chocolate Chip, Toffee Chocolate Chip, Caramel Pecan Cheesecake, and Coconut Chocolate Chip. They just weren’t quite as unique as our top seven. But you’ll be very satisfied if you pick up any of those pints.
Best Graeter’s ice cream flavors, ranked
- Graeter’s Banana Chocolate Chip
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I am not a big packaged banana dessert person. Too often it can taste super fake (yes, I know the “fake” banana flavor is actually based on an extinct banana varietal but that’s not what I want!). But this banana ice cream tastes like roasty, caramelized, real bananas—like bananas flambé. And the chocolate chips, which are actually big chocolate planks, are incredible. I’ve never had chocolate this good in ice cream. It’s tender milk chocolate that has just the right amount of give as you bite down and so much creamy flavor. Like all of the Graeter’s flavors we tried, this one really tasted like it was crafted with care.
Credit: Liv Averett / Graeter’s
- Graeter’s Banana Chocolate Chip
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Are you a mix-in freak? Then this is the best Graeter’s ice cream flavor for you. We’re talking malt-flavored ice cream (as in the inside of a malt ball) mixed with chocolate-covered pretzels, mini peanut butter cups, and brownie chunks. The brownie chunks are ultra fudgy and chewy. The pretzels are salty and crunchy. The peanut butter cups have a great pop of salty peanut butter. Truly, this is a mix-in lover’s dream come true. But I’m here for the malt-flavored ice cream. I can’t get over how good it is. Why hasn’t it been done a thousand times over?
Credit: Liv Averett / Graeter’s
- Graeter’s Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip
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You might think you’ve had something like this before. You haven’t. This isn’t chocolate ice cream with peanut butter swirls. This certainly isn’t Reese’s flavored ice cream with flakes of chocolate. This is real peanut butter flavored ice cream with big ol’ chocolate planks. And boy oh boy, the peanut butter ice cream is so good. It’s rich and creamy and sweet and just a little bit salty. And, as always with any of the Graeter’s flavors that included chocolate planks, they rock. If you regularly eat a spoonful of peanut butter straight, this is the best of all the Graeter’s ice cream flavors to buy.
Credit: Liv Averett / Graeter’s
- Graeter’s S’mores
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Man, graham cracker-flavored ice cream ROCKS. It’s what every other s’mores ice cream is missing. But that’s not all. Graeter’s makes their s’mores ice cream with those delightful chocolate planks along with little marshmallows, which manage to stay miraculously tender and bouncy. It’s so much better than marshmallow-flavored ice cream or a marshmallow swirl. You get texture, you get variety, and, most importantly, you get graham-flavored ice cream.
Credit: Liv Averett / Graeter’s
- Graeter’s Salted Caramel
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Shocking, I know. A Graeter’s flavor with no mix-ins has made it into the top three best Graeter’s ice cream flavors. It is so unbelievably creamy. And it has a wonderful, buttery caramel flavor that has just a touch of that burnt sugar. Is there salt? Not a ton. But a spoonful of this ice cream lit up the pleasure receptors in my brain. F**k vanilla. This is going on my apple pies from now on.
Credit: Liv Averett / Graeter’s
- Graeter’s Black Raspberry Chocolate Chip
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Guys, black raspberry ice cream is where it’s at. The ice cream itself is rich and tangy and dark and fruity. And the dark chocolate planks are huge. The chocolate is dark—like seriously dark—and that bitterness plays so well against the berry ice cream. If you served a scoop of this to me at a restaurant I would shake your hand.
Credit: Liv Averett / Graeter’s
- Graeter’s Lemon Meringue Pie
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We didn’t think the Black Raspberry Chocolate Chip could be topping, but Lemon Meringue Pie laughed in our face and said, “Take a bite of my tart lemon candy crunch and bow before me, puny humans.” The ice cream is marshmallow lemon—though I’d describe it more as lemon cream. And it’s blended with candy coated bits of crystalized lemon candy that give you little pops of zesty tartness. And then there’s the pie crust bits, which are tender and buttery. This Graeter’s ice cream flavor is a revelation. (Still not a sponsor.)
Credit: Liv Averett / Graeter’s
Banana Chocolate Chip
Banana Chocolate Chip
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip
S’mores
Salted Caramel
Black Raspberry Chocolate Chip
Lemon Meringue Pie
Other Graeter’s ice cream flavors we tried:
While we loved pretty much every flavor we tried, these flavors didn’t make the cut because they didn’t send us straight to heaven. We’re confident that anything Graeter’s does is going to be pretty great….er’s.
- Vanilla Bean
- Mocha Chocolate Chip
- Toffee Chocolate Chip
- Caramel Pecan Cheesecake
- Coconut Chocolate Chip
- Bourbon Ball
- Birthday Cake
- Boldly Bearcat
- Buckeye Blitz Chocolate Chip
- Butter Pecan
- Coconut Chocolate Chip
- Cotton Candy
- Mint Chocolate Chip
Griffin Parker
Jordan Myrick
