9 Best Haagen-Dazs Flavors, Ranked (2024)
Finding the best Haagen-Dazs flavors was not only a difficult task, but also a pretty expensive one. With each one costing around $5 here in Canada, and with so many flavors, I had to wait until the price went down to $4 during a sale, and I only went with 9 different flavors.
Haagen Dazs has always been one of the most premium international brands. This does come with a bigger price tag like we mentioned before. At $5 for a 450mL tub, it is 4.3 times more expensive than budget options like Great Value ($4 for 1.5L).
With such a high price, I was going in with very high expectations. I was expecting not only a better taste, but also higher quality ingredients, minimal artificial flavoring, and something special to set aside Haagen Dazs from the cheaper options I’ve had before.
We had a total of three tasters this time around, which was very interesting, because we were a bit divided on some of the flavors.
Will Haagen Dazs be 4.3 times better than cheaper ice creams? I wrote down all my thoughts below so you can decide for yourself.
Best Haagen-Dazs Flavors
9. Vanilla Swiss Almond
The best way to summarize this flavor was: surprisingly, pretty bad.
There is absolutely nothing good about this one. The chocolate covered almonds leave much to be desired. The chocolate isn’t good which is problematic since chocolate covered almonds depend on the chocolate flavor they are covered in.
If you like almonds covered in a somewhat bitter chocolate (they likely used dark chocolate, but definitely not high quality dark chocolate) then you will like this, but otherwise, I would skip this one.
The vanilla flavor is the exact same as the vanilla flavored pack. They literally just dropped some low quality chocolate covered almonds in the regular vanilla flavored tubs. The almonds they put in also didn’t taste fresh. If you’ve had old or bad almonds before, it tastes just like that.
If they had used milk chocolate instead of the dark chocolate and higher quality almonds, this would have been good.
Score: 2.5
8. Chocolate Peanut Butter
Person 1: the chocolate is not strong and you can tell because the ice-cream is lightly colored. It tastes like I’m eating peanut butter ice-cream.
It’s nice but not amazing. If you like peanut butter and salty ice cream you will like this, but don’t expect a rich chocolate flavor. Score: 5.
Person 2: the peanut butter chunks are way too big, it would be much better if they were smaller so that you don’t spend ages breaking the peanut butter chunks apart without making a big mess.
The chocolate is okay but the peanut butter is the star of the show. However, because it’s so hard to have the peanut butter you are left with the mediocre chocolate. Score: 5.
Person 3: the chunks are way too big. This is the most annoying ice-cream I’ve had. Where’s the blending of the peanut butter and the chocolate. Why can’t you blend it? You have machines! Score: 4.
Score: 4.5
7. Chocolate
It’s good but it tastes just like all the other chocolate ice-creams, so pretty disappointing for the Haagen Dasz price tag. There’s nothing special about it at all. I was looking for a richer tasting chocolate flavor or some other sort of X factor.
One of us had this to say: it was disappointing and could be so much better. It tastes like old Nesquik or an artificial chocolate powder mix. I was expecting a stronger Nutella like or premium chocolate flavor. Haagen Dasz, up your chocolate game!
Score: 6
6. Vanilla
The Vanilla had a nice taste overall. It was not overpowering and perhaps a bit too subtle. There was also a strong milk flavor, which I really enjoyed. It was decent overall, but there was nothing particularly impressive. The level of sweetness was good and the flavor was accurate.
One of us who liked it more had this to say: there was a rich vanilla taste, and while it was creamy I’ve tasted creamier. The sweetness is good and It’s a good overall ice cream.
Score: 6.5
5. Chocolate Hazelnut
We were a little divided on this one, so I split our reviews into three sections.
Person 1: this was good overall, but the hazelnut is overpowering the chocolate, leaving the ice-cream with a weak chocolate flavor.
They are depending on the chocolate chunks, which will not always be there. Not my cup of tea. Score: 6.
Person 2: The chocolate chunks are way too big, they need to be smaller. The hazelnut flavor is nice and the chocolate flavor is nice overall. Nothing tastes artificial and as someone that is not always a chocolate fan I was pleasantly surprised.
It’s good overall but the massive chocolate chunks that are impossible to break down are very annoying. Score: 7.
Person 3: nice taste, but no hazelnut flavor. There seems to be a hint of coffee, but it tastes pretty good though. As a non chocolate lover I thought it was good. Score: 8.5.
Score: 7
4. Pralines and Cream
The taste is pretty strong and the caramel sauce is REALLY nice, but way too strong and it mostly sits at the top. It would be much better if it was equally spread out through the ice-cream.
Also, the pralines are very hard to find, but when you do find them, the crunchy experience is very pleasant.
There is room for a couple of improvements. Mainly more pralines, a better distribution of the caramel sauce, and caramel sauce that is not super sweet. If you like caramel Werther’s originals or caramel candy in general, you will enjoy this one.
Score: 7
3. Coffee
Tastes like Nescafe or a latte but in ice-cream format.
Don’t be fooled by the light color, the coffee flavor is very good with a good strength. The coffee flavor is rich, tasty, and smooth on the palette. There’s not much else to say, it’s a good coffee flavored ice-cream. If you like coffee it’s great, if you don’t like coffee I think you might still like this one.
Score: 8.5
2. Strawberry
Person 1: this has the right balance between strawberry and milk. Neither is overpowering, but if you want a strong strawberry flavor, then you should go for a sorbet because the milk presence is strong. Score: 10.
Person 2: the strawberry chunks taste really nice and the overall strawberry and milk blend is nice and balanced. It’s good but I don’t find the taste out of this world. Score: 8.
Person 3: good strawberry flavor, natural and not artificial, good sweetness, good richness, chunks are really good. Score: 8.5.
Person 1 thought that this flavor should have ranked first in the best haagen-dazs flavors.
Score: 9
1. Dulce de Leche
One of the best haagen-dazs flavors for sure! The best way to describe it is seamless. It’s a smooth, delicious, caramel experience. Not too sweet, not too salty, just perfect.
It feels like it has condensed milk which tastes very nice. The caramel patches/chunks are nice and soft and not hard, which is huge.
This is the only one I had where I can confidently say it deserves the more expensive Haagen Dazs price tag (alongside the strawberry one). The only problem with this one is the sugar crash that will ensue after binge eating it.
Score: 9.5
Final Verdict
While there were definitely some amazing flavors, most of them were not home runs. I was also really annoyed with the the massive chunks that are impossible to break apart, without making a big mess.
With the exception of the chocolate covered almonds, the ingredients were definitely higher quality. The milk tasted pretty good and overall there was generally no artificial taste. The quality of the strawberry bits made that flavor one of the best Haagen-Dazs flavors we had tasted.
However, I found that a lot of the flavors were pretty average and didn’t satisfy the high expectations that come with the high price of Haagen-Dazs.
Definitely not 4.3 times better than cheap ice-cream.
Keywords: Best Haagen-Dazs Flavors
