We Tried Every Ice Cream Sandwich—and This One Won By A Mile

Stock the freezer.

While some taste tests that we ask our editors to participate in can be more grueling than others (we’re looking at you, sour cream), some are a much more delightful experience. And our ice cream sandwich taste test falls under that category, because really they're all pretty good. It’s a classic, nostalgic sweet treat made with vanilla ice cream that’s sandwiched between chocolate cookies, so how bad could they really be?

While we can admit that most store-bought ice cream sandwiches are pretty good, we were curious which one is the best of the best. To find out, we conducted a taste test of eight popular brands available at grocery stores around the South and selected a winner.

How We Tested

To conduct this taste test, we cut each of the eight ice cream sandwiches into bite-sized pieces and put them on plates so editors could taste them without seeing any of the packaging or the original size and shape of the sandwich. Testers then tasted each of the sandwiches by themselves to form their opinion on the taste.

Each ice cream sandwich was ranked on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest. After tasting all of the sandwiches, testers were then tasked with choosing their overall favorite.

The Contenders

Here are the eight brands that took part in the test:

• Sundae Shoppe Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwiches
• Mayfield Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwiches
• Fatboy Premium Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwiches
• Great Value Vanilla Flavored Ice Cream Sandwiches
• Publix Vanilla Flavored Ice Cream Sandwich
• Blue Bell Ice Cream Sandwiches
• Klondike Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwiches
• Favorite Day Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwiches

How Each Brand Scored

Sundae Shoppe Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwiches
The one thing reviewers noted most about the Sundae Shoppe sandwiches, which is the private label brand sold at ALDI, is that the ice cream was much more yellow in color than the others. Overall, no one selected this as the favorite of the group and several mentioned that they wished it had more flavor.

Mayfield Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwiches
This ice cream sandwich was tied for a couple of editors as their top choice. The main comment almost everyone who participated in the taste test said about this brand was that the ice cream was very creamy. One tester said, “It brings me back to happy memories.”

Fatboy Premium Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwiches
Of all of the ice cream sandwiches in the test, the one from Fatboy was definitely the thickest, and many editors were easily able to identify the brand even though the sandwiches were cut into similar sizes. While some enjoyed the extra amount of ice cream filling, with one editor choosing it as their favorite, some preferred sandwiches with much less ice cream and a more classic ratio.

Great Value Vanilla Flavored Ice Cream Sandwiches
Great Value from Walmart was another brand that was not chosen by any editors as their overall favorite. A couple of testers noted that the cookie had specks of chocolate on it, but other than that, testers didn't have much to say about this brand.

Publix Vanilla Flavored Ice Cream Sandwich
“Perfect” is how one editor described the ice cream sandwich from Publix, and they also selected it as their overall favorite. Several others described this ice cream sandwich as a classic, with one noting that it’s what they’d expect at a kid's party.

Blue Bell Ice Cream Sandwiches
Before ever taking a bite of this sandwich, almost every tester noted that the cookie on this brand was much darker in color than the others. And after taking a bite, testers were immediately impressed and loved the flavor the cookie provided, noting that it was much more chocolate forward than the others they tried.

Klondike Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwiches
Unrelated to the flavor, several testers noted that the cookie of this sandwich does stick to fingers, which was not noted for any of the other brands in the test. Aside from the stickiness of the cookie, testers didn’t have any huge opinions on this ice cream sandwich and it landed near the middle of the pack.

Favorite Day Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwiches
Favorite Day is Target’s store brand of ice cream sandwiches, and this one scored really well in our taste test. Many testers noted that it has the taste of a classic ice cream sandwich, with one saying, “It reminds me of the old-fashioned ice cream sandwiches.”

The Winner

Blue Bell Ice Cream Sandwiches

While we are very familiar with (and love) Blue Bell Ice Cream, many editors were surprised to learn that they also make ice cream sandwiches. And it was the winner of our taste test. One editor summed up the winner by saying it had a good cookie-to-ice cream ratio, while another said, “My kind of ice cream sammy!”

The Runner Up

Favorite Day Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwiches

Just like the winner, the brand that was the runner up was also a surprise, because it’s a store brand. Coming in at (a very close) second place was Favorite Day Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwiches from Target. Overall, testers were impressed by the classic flavor this ice cream sandwich offered. Since this is a generic brand, it’s a good ice cream sandwich that’s more affordable than the name brand winner.