Sporked’s Guide to the Best Summer Foods

Whether you love summer (beach days! BBQs!) or you hate summer (sweaty armpits! mosquitoes!), the best summer foods make the warm months more fun. Maybe you’re feeding a few kids who are home from school all summer long. Or maybe you’re looking for the best summer foods for all your weekend cookouts and parties. Either way, if you’re looking for summer food ideas, look no further. We have you covered (although, we can’t help you with the heat or the bugs).

P.S. If you’re looking for bevs to help you stay hydrated (or on a constant sugar high, dealer’s choice), we’ve also rounded up the best summer drinks!

Cool Down!

All the Best Ice Cream We’ve Tasted

Make room in the freezer—it’s ice cream season, baby. Ice cream is always one of the best summer food ideas, and we can direct you to the best of everything, from French vanilla to dark chocolate and everything in between.

Stock Your Freezer with the Best Popsicles

They’re fun. They’re fruity. They come on wooden sticks you can save to make a little cabin if you get really, really bored. The best popsicles are a shortcut to surviving summer.

The Best Italian Ice at the Grocery Store

If you don’t live near Central Park and won’t be running into any nice Italian men with their little umbrella-shaded carts, then you need the best Italian ice in your freezer.

Best Ice Cream Sandwiches

Cookies are, arguably, the best vehicle for cold, creamy ice cream—definitely better than the sugar cone, maybe even better than the waffle cone! And we take ice cream very seriously, so you know you can trust our picks here.

The Best Frozen Desserts for Under $5

If you’re cutting costs for a summer vacay or saving up for school shopping when late July rolls around, the best cheap frozen desserts are your new best friends.

The Best Smoothie Mix (When It’s a Hot One)

A smoothie is a perfect light summertime breakfast. If you don’t want to go broke Doordashing Jamba, stocking up on the best smoothie mix is one of the best summer food ideas. 

Heat Up!

The Best Hot Dogs for the Grill

You don’t have to hold out for a trip to the ballpark to have a really good hot dog. We found all the best ones. 

The Best Brats for Grilling Greatness

If you think hot dogs seem too low rent for your BBQ, buy brats instead. From beer brats to stuffed brats, these are the best bratwursts at the grocery store.

The Best Frozen Burger Patties

A list of the best summer foods wouldn’t be complete without the best hamburger patties. Seriously, why are you still making your own burger patties?? Premade ones are so good!

The Best Veggie Burgers 

Vegans and vegetarians deserve good burgers, too! Throw some of our faves on the grill for your plant-based friends this summer!

The Best Veggie Dogs 

A good hot -dog in the park is a quintessential summer experience that we don’t think our non meat-eating friends and family should be denied. An excellent veggie dog is juicy, flavorful, and satisfying, and after three (THREE) taste tests we definitely know what’s up.

The Best Hot Sauce

Wanna fight fire with fire this summer? (Or heat with more heat, as it were?) Try one of these spicy, tasty, Sporked-approved hot sauces.

The Ultimate Chip Lineup for Your Cookout

You can’t very well entertain company without chips around. Whether you’re stocking up for a day at the beach or a picnic with pals or a big ol’ backyard cookout, this list of chips has something for everyone.

The Best BBQ Sauce for Everything from Slow-Smoked Ribs to Microwave Nuggets

Get your mop out—we’re slathering the best BBQ sauce on errrrrything this summer.

The Best Graham Crackers

Graham crackers, the bread part of the s’more, hold everything together—and deserve more credit than they get. Our ranking carefully considers flavor, texture, and graham-crackeriness, and we think there’s a clear winner.

The Best Hot Dog Buns

If you’re firing up the grill this summer, you’re gonna need hot dog buns to go with your hot dogs, and subpar buns just ruin the experience (wiggles eyebrows). You deserve the best.

The Best Potato Salad

Potato salad is not one of those sides you can just skip out on at a summer BBQ—if you’ve been assigned this side at a potluck, you know you’re in the Core Group. And we wouldn’t want you to fumble this! Our favorite potato salad is creamy, dreamy, and definitely not bland.

The Best Macaroni Salad 

Macaroni salad can be really good, and really, really bad. Bad macaroni salad, with overcooked noodles, stodgy sauce, or warm mayo (yuck) has led many to incorrectly believe that they don’t like mac salad at all. These store-bought salads will change those minds.