Reviewing and ranking all of the Halo Top flavors that I can shove my spoon into!
What I love about Halo Top is that all its flavors taste and feel nearly identical to “regular” ice cream. The mouthfeel is smooth and creamy, and the flavors and sweetness are just right. Sure, you likely won’t find much in terms of a comparison to loaded ice creams—which Halo Top has in their Mix-Ins line (with a lot more calories)—but their regular Halo Top versions are still enjoyable, and some do come with some basic bits spread throughout their insides.
As noted above, they could use more of those toppings that other ice creams have. Sure, they have their Mix-Ins versions, but brands like Breyers and Nick’s can still pull it off without the addition of so many calories, so why can’t Halo Top? And if I had to nitpick further, they tend to take a higher-than-average icy feel. It’s not dramatic, however, if you’re looking for it, you might notice. Lastly, Halo Top ice cream seems to melt a smidge faster overall, too, so, well, just eat faster, I guess!
Either way, if you’re looking for a good ice cream, especially one packed with protein and lower in calories, Halo Top should be on your menu. And not to mention the funny slogans when you open the container!
*You can find my review of some of their Mix-Ins flavors separately here and here.
Flavor Ranking
1. Chocolate Ice Cream Cake
While I don’t see any explicit cake pieces in this chocolate-looking ice cream, there are a good number of small, dark chocolate chips and white, softer, stringy, chunk-like pieces embedded throughout as you spoon further in.
Upon tasting, I’m hit with a darker chocolate. It really reminds me of Friendly’s Forbidden Chocolate (my absolute favorite) or many other brands’ darker, creamier chocolates. It’s not super super dark or bitter, but it’s definitely there, with the balancing act coming from how fairly sweet and creamy it is. I also really enjoyed the fact that it comes across as sweeter than many other Halo Top flavors.
The little embedded bits add additional contrast, too. The dark chocolate chips actually have a texture of large, ground-up cookie bits, and the bigger-sized, short and stubby string-like white pieces have a compositional combination between soft, crunchy, and ever so slightly chewy mouthfeel (it’s kind of odd, actually, it’s like odd-shaped, tiny solidified marshmallow… or perhaps stringy pieces of icing?), with no distinct flavor.
While I was hoping for even more of these mixed-in treats, there’s enough to take this ice cream a step higher, especially compared to other Halo Top flavors, which either don’t have any or have too little. Indeed, this flavor is quite generous with its toppings in the Halo Top lineup.
Overall, a solidly sweet and milky dark chocolate ice cream—my favorite! And with its appreciable amount and varying ingrained pieces, this Halo Top flavor is simply top-tier.
2. Peanut Butter Cup
A smooth-looking, peanut butter-looking ice cream is plopped into this container. There are no apparent swirls or any embedded bits… until you dig in more.
When spooning in, I initially get a clear, fairly defined peanut taste with a suggestion of chocolate to round it out. It’s very smooth, with a uniform texture. However, spooning in further yields a mildly hardened, peanutty river of swirls, elevating the peanut flavor more towards an actual, almost slightly bitter nuttiness. There is quite a bit of it as you reach further towards the bottom—interesting! What I especially like is its mouthfeel, providing a soft, slightly crunchy contrast to the ice cream itself. And going back to the “bitternsss” I mentioned—sure, while parts of it seemed like just that for a quick second, the sweetness and smoothness of the ice cream as a whole kept it in check!
The overall peanut flavor of the ice cream is pleasant and creamy, and isn’t overly nutty by any stretch of the imagination. Basically, it’s a good peanut ice cream with a suggestion of chocolate as a background flavor and a generous amount of complementing peanut swirls. If anything, I wish the flavor were an actual peanut butter cup—why didn’t I taste much actual chocolate? Peanut butter cups do have a good bit of chocolate, right? Either way, pair this with some chocolate sauce, and you’ll be truly rocking!
3. Strawberry
I’m disappointed after opening this—the color is a pale white-ish pink, nothing like other bright strawberry ice creams! At the very least, there are little tiny specs embedded throughout… and unfortunately (another disappointment!), I also found that they do not seem to affect taste or texture after a few bites.
Maybe the taste will make up for these blunders.
The taste is surprisingly sweet, perhaps one of the sweetest strawberry ice creams I’ve had. Nothing artificial or weird either. Basically, imagine a mostly generic strawberry flavor, but elevate it. This flavor, too, feels substantially more premium and not comparable to cheapo strawberry ice cream you might find in a Neapolitan-based flavor, for example. This strawberry is much sweeter, with a pronounced, sugary strawberry flavor. Lastly, it’s not overly fruity or bitter, which I appreciate, granted, you might need a sweet tooth to really appreciate this! Honestly, the only topping this might need is whipped cream, since it already has all the sweetness and flavor!
4. Chocolate Caramel Brownie
A mostly smooth, chocolate-looking ice cream contains small, dark, embedded pieces that are quite soft, which is surprising because they resemble chocolate chips but are really melt-in-your-mouth teeny tiny brownie pieces.
I love how you can both taste a slightly dark milk chocolate alongside a smidge of complementing caramel. It genuinely tastes like a brownie batter-based ice cream, but less dark, being lessened by the caramel. What you get is a concoction that resembles a slightly darker chocolate, toned down, with a caramel background that also uplifts the overall flavor profile.
It’s a great swirl of three different flavors. Unfortunately, I also have to report that the embedded pieces don’t contribute to the experience because they’re too soft and there aren’t many of them to begin with, leaving the mouthfeel essentially uniform.
5. Mint Chip
Surprisingly, this looks like vanilla ice cream with a generous amount of little embedded hard chocolate chips. I expected something more greenish, but really, it just seems like vanilla ice cream with mix-ins.
In terms of taste, I don’t feel it’s as strong as other minty ice creams or treats. It’s close, however, this flavor instead comes across as creamier, almost like vanilla was mixed with the mint. Don’t get me wrong, you still get mint, and it’s appreciable, but it’s not super strong; notably, it doesn’t taste like toothpaste either.
The creaminess, combined with mild to moderate sweetness, makes this a pleasant mint-based ice cream that could satisfy even hardcore mint haters. I also appreciate the good number of chocolate bits, which provide a smidge of contrast, though I don’t feel they add much flavor.
6. Caramel Cheesecake
This flavor looks identical to vanilla ice cream. It’s pale white, with no embedded bits or pieces, which is discouraging, given that this ice cream is advertised as cheesecake-flavored.
When spooning in, honestly, if you blindfolded me, I would have thought this was some type of milk-based vanilla ice cream with maybe a suggestion of caramel. It’s a bit different from your traditional vanilla, with a smoother, milkier vibe, of course, and a hint of caramel.
It’s kind of disappointing because the caramel and advertised cheesecake flavors aren’t very pronounced. Still, it does differentiate itself enough from traditional vanilla ice cream to suggest a difference is being presented. It would have also helped if it were just a tad sweeter because, as it is now, while it is pleasant and feels like just enough for most people, I feel like some added sugar or something would have enhanced the flavor.
7. Cookies & Cream
Loaded with tiny chocolate chip-looking pieces, this ice cream is bright white and looks like your typical cookies-and-cream flavor.
Unfortunately, I have to report that this tastes almost entirely like vanilla ice cream with maybe, just maybe, a hint of chocolate. Despite looking like it has tons of cookie bits (or chocolate chips), they melt in your mouth immediately, as does the ice cream, creating a very uniform-tasting experience. And, don’t get me wrong, either; this is a good vanilla ice cream, but I don’t understand why we call it cookies and cream if it doesn’t have an explicit cookies taste or mouthfeel.
Nonetheless, this vanilla ice cream—or, in this case, cookies-and-cream—is moderately sweet and creamy, with an authentic, regular-vanilla taste. Basically, it’s your traditional vanilla ice cream.