We Tried 15 Holiday Ice Cream Flavors for 2021, and These Are the Ones Worth Buying

Breyers Frozen Peppermint Hot Chocolate: Buy!

Props to the folks at Breyers for going beyond the standard peppermint bark ice cream and getting creative with their limited-edition holiday flavor. The rich cocoa ice cream paired with the light and refreshing peppermint swirls just works. And the chocolate chunks are just a bonus.

Talenti Peppermint Bark Gelato: Buy!

Though technically not ice cream, Talenti's peppermint gelato is only available a few months out of the year. It's made with white chocolate peppermint gelato and sprinkled with semi-sweet chocolate flakes, and honestly, I like it better than their year round "Mediterranean Mint" flavor. The peppermint doesn't overwhelm the gelato, unlike a lot of other peppermint-flavored ice creams, and the white chocolate sweetens up the flavor quite a bit. I wouldn't mind seeing this flavor in their year round lineup.

Blue Bell Christmas Cookies: Skip

Blue Bell's popular Christmas Cookies ice cream is back for another year, but I just don't understand the hype around this product. There's a lot going on: chocolate chip, snickerdoodle, and sugar cookies are combined in a sugar cookie ice cream with red sprinkles and a green icing swirl. Upon first opening the container, the garish Grinch green appears to be a little more than a "swirl." One taster says, "it looks like Christmas threw up with all the food coloring."

But appearances aside, the flavor left more to be desired. The sugar cookie flavor was a little underwhelming, and the cookie chunks were soggy and unidentifiable in the heap of green icing and red sprinkles.

Mayfield Pumpkin Pie: Skip

Maybe you're over pumpkin pie by this point in the season, but this beloved seasonal flavor keeps going strong all the way through December. For true pumpkin spice fanatics, Mayfield's pumpkin pie ice cream is made with real pumpkin puree and doesn't skimp on the pumpkin pie spice. It's a little overwhelming, and I personally could not sit down and eat a bowlful of this without feeling a bit sick to my stomach. The texture is light and fluffy, but the pie crust pieces are few and far between. I preferred Ben & Jerry's pumpkin cheesecake to this one (see below).

Mayfield Peppermint Stick: Skip

Peppermint is often paired with chocolate chunks or white chocolate (like in the case of Talenti and Jeni's), but this ice cream is straight peppermint: peppermint ice cream with red and green peppermint candies, making the sparse peppermint candies the most exciting part. It's fun to look at, but the ice cream part of the equation is fairly bland. One tester went so far as to describe it as a breath mint flavor.

Mayfield Snow Cream: Buy!

We were left guessing as to what snow cream ice cream (technically, frozen dessert) could possibly taste like. The package reads "Inspired by a Southern tradition of celebrating the year's first snowfall by filling a bowl with freshly fallen snow, milk, sugar, and flavoring it with vanilla." I've apparently missed out on this Southern tradition, mostly because my childhood in Georgia didn't see too many snowfalls.

So, is it just standard vanilla ice cream? Nope! This was the biggest surprise of all the ice creams tasted, and I'm going to take this opportunity to apologize to Mayfield for my reservations. They have actually managed to create a store-bought ice cream that mimics the texture of snow, breaking apart into icy chunks as you scoop (but icy in the melt-in-your-mouth, snow cone kind of way, not the freezer burn way). In terms of flavor, it's pretty much a diluted vanilla, but that's what it's supposed to be. And we were so giddy over the texture that the flavor really didn't matter.

Ben & Jerry's Pumpkin Cheesecake: Buy!

Unlike its Mayfield pumpkin counterpart, Ben & Jerry's pumpkin pie ice cream has a more palatable pumpkin base that is nicely balanced with the richness of the cream cheese. The graham cracker-to-pie ratio is excellent, and each bite tastes like a mouthful of real pumpkin cheesecake.

Great Value Lumps of Coal: Skip

Considering Great Value's pints are priced at under $1.50, it seems hardly fair to even review them at all (but we'll do it anyways).

There's no coal to be found in this "lumps of coal" ice cream: It's just good 'ol chocolate ice cream with fudge swirls and chocolate chips. The ice cream does appear to have been dyed a charcoal gray color, which, you know, points for leaning into the theme. But there's something awfully unnatural about eating charcoal gray ice cream. The chocolate flavor is decent, a little artificial, but not bad, with a good amount of chips sprinkled throughout. If you're in the market for a good chocolate ice cream, I'd skip this one. But I could see kids having fun with this one, and for the price, it might be worth it just for the novelty of it.

Great Value Peppermint Cookies and Cream: Buy!

Fans of Dairy Queen's Mint Oreo Blizzard will enjoy this low-cost seasonal ice cream. The bright pink ice cream has a light, sweet peppermint flavor with chunks of soft chocolate sandwich cookies. For $1.47, it's worth grabbing a pint or two while you can.

Serendipity Oh Fudge! Peppermint Cookie Fudge Sundae: Buy

Serendipity is serving up nostalgia with its A Christmas Story-inspired ice cream (available online only). Upon first opening the pint there's a noticeable chocolate cookie swirl running through the mint ice cream. That paired with the red and green peppermint candies makes for a well-balanced Christmas flavor. Considering "fudge" is in the name, I was expecting a bit more chocolate in the mix, but this is definitely a peppermint-forward ice cream. It's more what I would have liked to see from Mayfield's Peppermint Stick. And you can't beat the packaging that features the legendary leg lamp.

Jeni's Cognac with Gingerbread: Skip

We would expect nothing less from the queen of craft ice cream than this sophisticated, cognac-flavored pint with plaid packaging. I know it's a crowd favorite, but this was not one of my favorites from the holiday lineup (which is usually only available in scoop shops, unfortunately). It's very booze-forward, and I felt the gingerbread cake pieces got lost in the cognac flavor. Occasionally you get a bite with the rich caramel sauce, and those bites were my favorite.

Jeni's Mexican Hot Chocolate: Maybe

According to Jeni, this is the flavor that led her to quit art school and start making ice cream. It's a bouncy, velvety chocolate ice cream with Vietnamese cinnamon and cayenne pepper. The rich chocolate flavor hits your tongue first, but as you swallow the fiery cayenne grips the back of your throat…it takes a bit of getting used to. But if you can handle the heat, this decadent chocolate ice cream is worth the splurge.

Jeni's Sugar Plum: Buy!

Here's yet another unique and well-balanced seasonal flavor from Jeni's, described on the pint as "Amaretti cookies, puckery plum jam, and plum wine sweet cream." One taster compared it to black cherry ice cream — it's fruity, rich, and unlike the cognac and gingerbread, the plum wine is very much in the background.

Jeni's White Chocolate Peppermint: Buy!

Between all the complex flavor combinations in the Jeni's lineup, it was nice to have a simple peppermint ice cream to break things up. The dazzling pink and white peppermint ice cream is reminiscent of candy canes, and the crumbly white chocolate freckles help to sweeten up the minty fresh flavor. If you're looking for a year round alternative, it's very comparable to the Savannah Buttermint flavor that can be found at most grocery stores.

Jeni's Pistachio Macaron: Buy!

Yeah, we're not really sure what makes pistachio macaron a holiday flavor, but it was easily my favorite of the bunch. The base is a sublime roasted pistachio cream with a hint of almond and honey (which is maybe where the macaron part comes in?). The real pistachio pieces bring a pleasant nougat-like texture to this yellow and green ice cream. This is one I would like to see year round.