The best Halo Top flavors have a very specific use case. See, even if you aren’t on a diet, there’s a time for diet ice cream. That time is when you’re either really hungry or really high and want to devour an entire pint in one sitting. A dessert made with sugar substitutes and a lot less cream than its full-calorie counterparts might sound like the opposite of a treat-yourself food, but diet ice cream giant Halo Top makes up for it by boldly inviting you to go ahead and f**** up an entire container in one sitting. Bless.
Still, let’s be real: Diet ice cream cannot, does not, and will not rival the experience of eating actual ice cream—but over the years, it’s gotten a lot closer to the genuine article. In fact, a few years ago, Halo Top announced they were revamping their recipe, and I really do think it’s improved since our first taste test in 2022. They’ve even added new, more indulgent Halo Top Mix-Ins to their lineup—and one of them was so good it snagged the top spot in our ranking this time around. Here’s our new and improved ranking of the new and improved best Halo Top flavors.
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- Halo Top Mint Chip
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There are two types of people: Those who think mint chip ice cream is delicious and refreshing and those who think it tastes like toothpaste. As a member of the former camp, I thought this pint of mint chip absolutely ruled, thanks in no small part to the itty-bitty chocolate chips incorporated into the ice cream. Small, bitter, delicious. This isn’t the best Halo Top flavor, but it’s pretty good if you’re taking a break from full-fat, full-cal ice cream.
Credit: Ryan Martin / Instacart
- Halo Top Birthday Cake
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I’m not entirely sure how birthday cake-flavored foods manage to channel the flavor of uncooked batter, but it’s a marvel of modern food science and I love it (although birthday cake-flavored foods will always remind me of that slimy vanilla frosting Bonne Belle Lip Smackers lip gloss we all used to shoplift from Walmart in the late ‘90s—sorry, Walmart). This is one of the best Halo Top Flavors because it’s not quite as sweet as other birthday cake-flavored products, so you really could eat a whole pint of this without feeling absolutely nauseated. Still, the flavor is rich and battery and even a little bit salty. This pint also has, hands down, the most appealing packaging. I’m not sure who can resist small multicolored polka dots, but it ain’t me!
Credit: Ryan Martin / Instacart
- Halo Top Strawberry
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I’m an absolute perv for strawberry ice cream, especially if it tastes kind of like Strawberry Quik. This pint of Halo Top ice cream is irresistibly creamy and bursting with strawberry flavor that nails the Quik-ness I’m looking for. It tastes sort of like a milkshake you put back in the freezer to harden up. I made a pret-ty complimentary note about this one: I would not think this was light ice cream. I honestly can’t think of a better endorsement for a Halo Top flavor.
Credit: Ryan Martin / Instacart
- Halo Top Peanut Butter Cup
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If you like peanut butter, peanut butter ice cream is sort of irresistible, even if it also happens to be a thing we feed to dogs. Don’t worry, you won’t mistake this for dog ice cream. The delicious chewy chunks of peanut butter incorporated into the pleasantly fluffy peanut butter-flavored ice cream have the same salty goodness as the filling inside a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. “I would eat this whole thing, it’s so good,” said Sporked editor-in-chief Justine Sterling. “It’s really good and there isn’t an aftertaste. And the texture is really good even though it looks like it would be weird and aerated.” The best Halo Top flavors are all about good texture, and this one nails it.
Credit: Ryan Martin / Instacart
- Halo Top Chocolate Caramel Brownie
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My colleague Jordan Myrick is a low-cal ice cream naysayer, but even they couldn’t resist this chocolatey, surprisingly delicious confection during our first Halo Top ice cream taste test. “I deeply wanted to be anti-this-ice-cream,” they said, “but this tastes like when you let a Fudgesicle get a little soft and with brownie chunks.” Our former best Halo Top flavor, this pint has an ample ribbon of caramel and a good distribution of brownie chunks. It’s fluffy but simultaneously comes off as creamier than some of the other pints we tried. The caramel has a little bit of salt for complexity and the brownie bits are delicious and chewy—and a whole pint is only 360 calories, which is nuts. In a good way.
Credit: Ryan Martin / Instacart
- Halo Top Mix-Ins Strawberry Cheesecake
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During our second Halo Top ice cream taste test, we tried a couple of the new Halo Top Mix-Ins flavors, but this one really wowed us. The ice cream itself is much creamier than I remember Halo Top being in past taste tests. There are bits of fruity, fresh-tasting strawberry throughout, but the best part? The clumps of graham cracker crust. They’re sweet and buttery and sandy, exactly like a homemade cheesecake crust. And you’re telling me I can eat a whole pint?? That’s a real treat. At 490 cals a pint, it’s definitely a little more indulgent than some of the other Halo Top flavors, but it’s worth it. Promise.
Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart
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