From crowd-pleasing classics to scoops you have to taste to believe, these are the best ice creams from across the nation.
Alabama
Butter Pecan
Alabama’s state nut is the pecan, so is it any wonder folks in Alabama love this ingredient in their ice cream? Butter pecan is one of the best ice cream flavors at parlors statewide.
Alaska
Akutaq
Akutaq is Alaska’s take on ice cream, with Yup’ik and Inupiaq roots that go back generations. The traditional version whips fat until light and airy, then folds in wild Alaskan berries like cranberries, blueberries and salmonberries. Modern recipes often swap in vegetable shortening and a little sugar for a sweeter, more dessert-like result.
Arizona
Horchata
Arizona is home to Sweet Republic, a small-scale ice creamery. This brand, distributed throughout the state, comes up with new flavors regularly. One of the most iconic flavors blends ice cream with the state’s Mexican influence. What results is horchata, a creamy combo of ice cream and cinnamon.
Arkansas
Purple Vanilla
Purple Vanilla is the signature scoop at The Purple Cow, an Arkansas restaurant chain that’s been hand-scooping milkshakes since 1989. The flavor is made exclusively for The Purple Cow by Yarnell’s Ice Cream, a creamery that’s been an Arkansas tradition since 1932. The exact recipe behind those pretty purple scoops is a trade secret, and part of the enduring mystery of this flavor is that no two people seem to describe the taste the same way.
California
Avocado
California grows around 90% of the avocados in the U.S., so it tracks that the state’s most iconic ice cream flavor would showcase its star crop. Avocado ice cream takes advantage of the fruit’s natural creaminess for a smooth, mellow scoop with subtle vegetal notes. The Hass variety—the most common avocado in America—was developed in California in the late 1920s, giving the state extra claim to the ingredient.
Colorado
Palisade Peach
Palisade is the peach capital of Colorado, churning out some of the sweetest, most flavorful peaches in the country. If you’re lucky enough to get your hands on the fuzzy crop, we think you’ll agree! Colorado creameries churn out batches of peach ice cream as soon as the fruit ripens, but Coloradans also enjoy a bowl of vanilla ice cream topped with juicy baked peaches.
Connecticut
Almond Joy
When it comes to candy bars, Almond Joys are definitely a favorite! Chocolate combined with coconut and almond is a classic combo. Invented in Connecticut back in 1946, the candy bar was a success. We think it might be even better when those ingredients are swirled into ice cream! Try this coconut-almond chocolate chunk ice cream recipe for similar vibes at home.
Delaware
Motor Oil
Motor Oil is a signature flavor at Woodside Farm Creamery, a Hockessin dairy that’s been making ice cream since 1998 (the Mitchell family’s farm itself dates back to 1796). Despite the ice cream’s name, there’s nothing automotive about it—it’s a coffee ice cream with green-tinted caramel and fudge swirled in. A trip out to the creamery is a Delaware summer ritual.
Florida
Orange Cream
Floridians love their oranges and they love their ice cream—it’s the best way to cool off on a hot day. Put these two ingredients together for an amazing citrus treat: orange ice cream.
Georgia
Peach
Home to America’s most famous peaches, it’s no surprise that Georgia is also home to lovers of all peach-flavored ice creams. Folks flock to High Road Craft Ice Cream near Atlanta for their ice cream. But Georgian home cooks make their own renditions of peach ice cream too! If you have an overabundance of peaches (lucky you!), use them up with these fresh peach recipes.
Hawaii
Ube
As one of America’s most tropical destinations, you can expect a tropical flavor to rank as one of the top ice creams here. On the islands, Hawaiians love ube ice cream. Ube is a type of purple-hued yam native to the Philippines. It has a sweet, vanilla-esque flavor with some floral notes. And with that beautiful lavender color, we aren’t surprised this ice cream flies off the shelves and out of the ice cream shops. Get your fix of other Hawaiian cuisine with recipes right from the Aloha State.
Idaho
Huckleberry
Huckleberry is the state fruit of Idaho, so it’s no wonder locals love to incorporate the berry into all kinds of treats like this huckleberry cheese pie and ice cream. The tart huckleberry makes for a great complement to creamy sweet ice cream and you can find the combination at local ice cream shops statewide.
Illinois
Chocolate Malt
Back in the day, Chicago-based Walgreens stores served up malted milkshakes at the counter and helped popularize the drink nationwide. While the chain may have stopped serving ice cream, folks in Illinois never lost their taste for chocolate malt—only now they prefer it by the scoop instead of served in a glass.
Indiana
Chocolate
Indiana ranks second in the nation in ice cream production (second only to California). It also happens to be where a lot of Edy’s Ice Cream is made. This brand’s stellar chocolate ice cream receives consistently good reviews from all sorts of media outlets (Taste of Home included—check out our test!), so it’s no wonder the flavor is one of Indiana’s favorites too!
Iowa
Bunny Tracks
Ice cream giant Blue Bunny calls Iowa home. Outside of vanilla, Bunny Tracks is the brand’s most popular flavor. The combination of vanilla ice cream, caramel, fudge swirls, chocolate-covered peanuts and peanut butter is too good to resist!
Kansas
Purple Pride
At Kansas State University, the Call Hall Dairy Bar is an ice cream tradition. And while vanilla sells more scoops—and there are 40 core flavors available—nothing screams K-State Purple Pride like the blueberry ice cream known as Purple Pride.
Kentucky
Bourbon
Leave it to Kentucky to blend their most popular export into ice cream to create bourbon ice cream for a tempting treat. Flavors like bourbon-vanilla, bourbon-pecan and bourbon-praline are popular statewide. Add a little bourbon to your favorite dishes with these bourbon-spiked recipes.
Louisiana
Praline Pecan
Walk the streets of New Orleans and you’ll stumble on confectionary after confectionary selling homemade pralines. These delicious treats made from brown sugar, cream, butter and pecans are a must for tourists and locals—whether you eat them solo or mixed into a creamy praline ice cream.
Maine
Blueberry
Maine is famous for its blueberries. These tart berries make a great addition to all kinds of treats, including blueberry ice cream.
Maryland
Maryland Mud
We’ve all heard of Mississippi mud pie, but what about Maryland mud? This ice cream, created in Baltimore, consists of a chocolate base with chocolate chips and Oreo pieces. This one’s for the chocolate lovers (as are these decadent chocolate desserts)!
Massachusetts
Maple Nut
It’s maple walnut ice cream that is closest to the hearts of those who live in Massachusetts, according to NewEngland.com. Creamy maple ice cream studded with crunchy walnuts is hard to beat.
Michigan
Superman
While the origins of Superman ice cream aren’t clear, that doesn’t stop Michiganders from gobbling down this super sweet treat by the gallon each summer. This yellow, red and blue ice cream is typically a blend of cherry, lemon (or vanilla), and Blue Moon ice creams (skip ahead to Wisconsin to hear more about the mysterious flavor of Blue Moon!).
Minnesota
Sweet Corn
Sweet corn ice cream became a cult favorite at the Minnesota State Fair after the Blue Moon Dine-In Theater debuted its version in 2011 using Minnesota-grown corn. The flavor leans more vanilla than vegetable, with a mellow creaminess and just enough sweetness to count as dessert. Fairgoers often top it with honey butter, bacon or wild blueberry sauce, and it’s served in a cornbread waffle cone.
Mississippi
Mississippi Mud
Of course, Mississippians love Mississippi mud ice cream. This ice cream starts with a chocolate base swirled with fudge, chocolate cookies, nuts and sometimes coffee. The result is a super-rich ice cream that no one can resist.
Missouri
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
Did you know that the waffle cone was popularized in St. Louis during the World’s Fair in 1904? Thank you, St. Louis, for that amazing treat! Now 100+ years later, Missourians like to fill their cones with cookie dough ice cream the most.
Montana
Graham Slam!
Graham Slam! is a signature flavor from Wilcoxson’s, a Livingston creamery that’s been making Montana ice cream since 1912. It pairs a graham cracker base with ribbons of crushed graham crackers and crunchy bits of honeycomb candy. Wilcoxson’s scoops show up at shops across the state and inside Yellowstone National Park.
Nebraska
Butter Brickle
The classic Nebraska ice cream flavor is butter brickle, which was invented at the Blackstone Hotel in the 1920s. If you’ve never had it, you’ll want to get on that. It’s a sweet cream ice cream base studded with small, crunchy pieces of golden brown toffee.
Nevada
Nevada Gold
Nevada Gold is a fitting tribute to the state’s most famous commodity. Nevada produces around 70% of all U.S. gold and ranks among the world’s top sources. The flavor from Reno’s Frost Giant Creamery starts with peanut butter ice cream loaded with salted peanuts, caramel and dark chocolate fudge swirls. It’s a sundae’s worth of mix-ins packed into a single pint.
New Hampshire
Pumpkin
Folks in New Hampshire take their pumpkin seriously—it’s their state fruit! While we typically associate the squash with fall baking, it works well in pumpkin ice cream too when combined with warming spices like cinnamon and clove.
New Jersey
Watermelon
In New Jersey, folks like to embrace all that summer has to offer—maybe even by heading down to the shore. There, folks love summery snacks, and one of the best ice cream flavors is watermelon. Tourists and locals alike flock to Friendly’s across the state for a slice of their trademark Wattamelon Roll—that’s watermelon and lemon combined with chocolate chip seeds. Yum! If you can’t make it to the Garden State, try this frosty watermelon ice for a dairy-free, ice-cream-adjacent treat.
New Mexico
Chocolate-Chili
New Mexico is known for its tasty cuisine that turns up the heat. Of course, the state’s most iconic ice cream flavor brings the heat as well. Rich chocolate with just a hint of chili really adds a kick to the simple dessert.
New York
New York Cherry
When it comes to ice cream, New Yorkers know how to do it right. Sweet and tart New York cherry ice cream is the state’s most iconic flavor.
North Carolina
Wolf Tracks
Howling Cow is a creamery located on the North Carolina State University campus. It sources its milk from the school’s Dairy Research and Teaching Farm and is famous for its amazing ice cream, especially its Wolf Tracks flavor, which combines chocolate and vanilla ice cream, fudge chunks and mini peanut butter cups.
North Dakota
Juneberry
Juneberry ice cream is a signature flavor at Pride Dairy, North Dakota’s last small-town creamery, based in Bottineau just south of the Canadian border. The flavor folds juneberries—a tart, blueberry-like fruit native to the northern plains—into a creamy base. USA Today named it the best ice cream in North Dakota in 2010, and Pride Dairy still makes it using a Cherry Burrell churn from the 1950s.
Ohio
Buckeye Ice Cream
It should be no surprise that the Buckeye State’s favorite ice cream is chocolate with peanut butter. This play on the classic buckeyes treat makes for a super tasty combo (obviously!).
Oklahoma
Strawberry
Oklahoma’s state fruit is strawberries. While these berries can be used in sweet and savory dishes, maybe the best strawberry creation of all is strawberry ice cream. Sweet and slightly tart, we think it goes great with a few chocolate shavings on top!
Oregon
Marionberry
Marionberries are an Oregon invention—a tart-sweet blackberry hybrid bred at Oregon State University and named for Marion County. Tillamook, the iconic Oregon creamery operating since 1909, swirls them into its Marionberry pie ice cream with chunks of flaky pie crust over a vanilla base. Oregon grows nearly all the Marionberries in the U.S.
Pennsylvania
Teaberry
Teaberry ice cream is bright pink and tastes like wintergreen, made from the teaberry plant native to Pennsylvania and New England. The flavor took hold thanks to Pittsburgh’s D.L. Clark Company, which began producing teaberry chewing gum in the early 1900s and helped popularize the taste. Penn State’s Berkey Creamery and a handful of eastern Pennsylvania shops still scoop it, often as a seasonal mid-autumn offering.
Rhode Island
Espresso
Rhode Islanders can’t get enough coffee. In fact, coffee milk is their state beverage. It’s no wonder, then, that this tiny state loves espresso ice cream for a little pick me up.
South Carolina
Peanut Butter
Boiled peanuts are a classic South Carolina snack, sold at roadside stands, festivals and ball games across the state. Peanut butter ice cream brings that peanut tradition into dessert form, with a creamy salty-sweet scoop that feels right at home in the Palmetto State.
South Dakota
Cookies and Cream
While there is some debate, South Dakota State University claims that the state is the home of this classic ice cream flavor. And who wouldn’t want to claim cookies and cream ice cream for themselves?
Tennessee
Cotton Candy
Cotton candy was invented in Nashville in 1897. Many years later, the treat’s popularity endures, although you’re just as likely to find it as a flavoring. Tennesseans love their creation, especially when the flavor is swirled into ice cream.
Texas
Homemade Vanilla
Brenham, Texas, is home to Blue Bell Creameries. While the brand is popular across the country, Texans count themselves among the brand’s biggest fans. Of Blue Bell’s dozens of flavors, one consistently rises to the top: homemade vanilla.
Utah
Honeycomb
Honeybud is a honeycomb ice cream and the signature scoop at Blacksmith Ice Cream Co., a small-batch Utah creamery that hand-churns each batch at its Bountiful and Millcreek locations. The flavor pairs lavender-and-honey ice cream with chunks of homemade honeycomb candy. It’s a fitting choice for the Beehive State, where the honeybee is the official state insect.
Vermont
Maple Creemee
A creemee is Vermont’s name for soft serve, often made with more butterfat than standard ice cream, giving the treat a denser, creamier texture. The state has roughly 400 creemee stands serving classic flavors and twists, but the maple version is the most iconic. Fitting, since Vermont produces more maple syrup than any other state.
Virginia
Caramel Apple
As Virginia is home to Jamestown, the first American colony, it stands to reason that the state’s iconic ice cream flavor would be as American as apple pie (or close to it). Caramel apple combines flavors we all love with one of Virginia’s premier crops: apples!
Washington
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk
Peanut butter chocolate chunk is a flagship flavor at Lopez Island Creamery, a small-batch dairy that’s been handcrafting ice cream from its base in Washington since 1994. The combo pairs a creamy peanut butter base with big chunks of semisweet chocolate.
West Virginia
Black Walnut
In West Virginia, folks can’t get enough of black walnut ice cream. This nutty flavor is served up at sweet shops across the state, as at Austin’s in Kenova (which is often considered the best place to get a scoop).
Wisconsin
Blue Moon
It’s the color of Smurfs and has a taste that everyone loves but no one can quite identify (is it Froot Loops? is it almond? is it marshmallow? is it animal crackers?). We’re talking about Wisconsin’s signature ice cream flavor: blue moon. Its origins are unclear but seem to be linked to someone who worked at Milwaukee’s Petran Products in the 1950s, according to Atlas Obscura.
Wyoming
Cinnamon Roll
Wyoming takes its cinnamon rolls seriously—roadside diners across the state are famous for serving them at plate-covering size, slathered in glaze. Cinnamon roll ice cream channels that same spice and sweetness into a scoop, typically a cinnamon-spiced base swirled with brown sugar, pastry chunks and ribbons of icing. It’s a fitting tribute to one of Wyoming’s most beloved morning rituals.
