The 15 Best Van Leeuwen Ice Cream Flavors

It may be tough to pick a favorite ice cream flavor, but it's super easy to call out good ice cream when you taste it and Van Leeuwen is one of the best. Each Van Leeuwen ice cream flavor tastes like it's been imported straight from the streets of Nice, France. There's no worst to best with this ranking—only delicious and more delicious.

Keep reading for all the best Van Leeuwen ice cream flavors—plus, how one of the fastest-selling ice cream brands with a cult following came to be.

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What is Van Leeuwen ice cream known for?

Van Leeuwen ice cream is known for its artisanal take on ice cream as the company uses high-quality ingredients in lieu of other fillers that can result in a less rich taste.

"The idea came out of our passion for artisanally produced foods," co-founder Laura O'Neill told PBS. "We set out to make the best possible ice cream using only fresh milk and cream, cane sugar, egg yolks and the finest flavors ingredients from small producers locally and around the world."

To achieve this old-school, creamy approach, VL's artisan ice creams use the tried-and-true ice cream-making method of incorporating egg yolks as a natural stabilizer. Their other must-have ingredients include fresh milk, fresh cream and sugar.

"Many other super premiums use this stuff, but they supplement it with dry or condensed milk, more sugar and sometimes corn syrup, whey protein and stabilizers," founder and CEO Ben Van Leeuwen has said. "All of this stuff thickens the product."

What sets Van Leeuwen apart is their insistence on using more butter fat and egg yolks. (More on their vegan recipes later.)

Is Van Leeuwen ice cream French?

Van Leeuwen ice cream is not French. According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), ice cream that includes egg yolk must be labeled as either "French ice cream" or "frozen custard."

The scoop shop may be known as French-style ice cream, but the company was actually born in New York. It was first sold out of an ice cream truck in SoHo back in 2008.

The co-founders shared an apartment in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, where their frozen vision first came to be. Van Leeuwen ice cream is still made in Greenpoint even now—only instead of making it in their own kitchen, it's made at a 5,000-square-foot facility.

There, it makes as much as 500 gallons of ice cream per day.

Who owns Van Leeuwen ice cream?

Ben Van Leeuwen is the co-founder and CEO of Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice Cream along with his brother, Peter, and their business partner, Laura O'Neill. The trio created it together while rooming together more than a decade ago.

What is in Van Leeuwen's vegan ice cream?

Though Van Leeuwen is known for its purist take on making ice cream, the company does make some flavor sans egg yolk. According to their website, their vegan options include Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Vegan Peanut Butter Brownie Honeycomb, Vegan Cookies and Cream Caramel Swirl, Vegan Churros and Fudge, Vegan Cookie Crumble Strawberry Jam, Vegan Oat Milk Brown Sugar Chunk and Vegan Chocolate Oat Milk Cookie Dough Chunk with Honeycomb.

Van Leeuwen's vegan flavors are made with a base of house-made cashew milk, organic coconut milk, organic extra virgin coconut oil, organic cane sugar, pure cocoa butter and organic carob bean.

The company sources cashews for its vegan scoops from Africa, coconut oil from the Philippines and coconut butter from Ecuador.

15 Best Van Leeuwen flavors

Disclaimer: Flavors included reflect the Van Leeuwen flavors available as pints at various grocery stores and the list does not include other flavors that may appear in individual scoop shops.

Van Leeuwen Black Cherry Chip

One of the best Van Leeuwen flavors is Black Cherry Chip. It's one of the creamier flavors that with just one taste, makes it clear that this is the authentic stuff. Its ingredients are pretty to the point—black cherries, cocoa beans, vanilla bean, sea salt and beet juice (for coloring) among a few others. One scoop and your taste buds will know: that bright cherry flavor is not the doing of fillers and synthetics.

Van Leeuwen Vegan Pistachio

Even if you're not a fan of pistachio flavors in regular circumstances, the Vegan Pistachio flavor from Van Leeuwen is probably the only take on pistachio that will forever change your mind.

Related: Best Ben and Jerry's Flavors

Van Leeuwen Cookies and Cream

The Cookies and Cream Van Leeuwen flavor has just the right balance of chewy cookie crisps and a light, creamy texture. It makes a great late-night snack or a palette cleanser if you're running through the line of flavors.

Van Leeuwen Honeycomb

Sugary, but not too sweet, the Honeycomb flavor tastes like it's right out of the beehive (like, in a good way). Light and flavorful, this unconventional flavor is a fan favorite and a testament to what Van Leeuwen does best.

Related: 14 Dr Pepper Flavors, Ranked

Van Leeuwen Vegan Choc Chip Cookie Dough

Vegans will undoubtedly love the authentic flavor of this ice cream, but you don't have to be plant-based to appreciate its chewy goodness. Carob chips FTW!

Van Leeuwen Strawberry

When you're a kid, strawberry ice cream is the be-all and end-all, but somewhere between 10 and adulthood, many of us grow out of it and grow into a more mature palette. Still, Van Leeuwen's strawberry is bright, bold and creamy—a true grown-up's version of the childhood favorite.

Van Leeuwen Praline Butter Cake

Van Leeuwen's Praline Butter Cake ice cream flavor will transport you straight to Savannah, Georgia, where the street pralines are plenty. For those who enjoy pairing nuttiness with the buttery sweetness of fudge, this is the ice cream you want to reach for after a long, hard day at work. Praline Butter Cake = instant happiness.

Van Leeuwen Sicilian Pistachio

The Sicilian Pistachio nails the pistachio flavor on the head and is a better option for seasoned pistachio lovers who want ALL the nutty flavoring possible.

Van Leeuwen Marionberry Cheesecake

If you're new to marionberry (we were too), prepare to be pleasantly surprised by this non-traditional flavor that seemingly comes out of left field. With all the earthy, sweet-yet-tart taste of an Oregon-grown blackberry, the cheesecake balances out the sharp earthiness of the berry flavor.

Van Leeuwen Vegan Chocolate Cookie Dough Honeycomb

Van Leeuwen's signature move of adding honeycomb to their otherwise straightforward vegan flavors makes each layer of flavor all the more complex. It brings out the best in the chocolate and the cookie dough.

Van Leeuwen Vegan Peanut Butter Brownie Honeycomb

Whoa—who knew a vegan flavor could taste this good? Obviously, there's no "real" butter or brownie or honeycomb in there, but what Van Leeuwen actually achieves with this veganfied flavor is nothing short of miraculous.

Van Leeuwen Earl Grey Tea

Tea as an ice cream flavor? We weren't sure right away, but this unconventional scoop very quickly changed our minds. It doesn't feel too rich, so it goes down easily, and it tastes like the sorbet version of a Southern sweet tea (kinda).

Van Leeuwen Vanilla Bean

The Van Leeuwen Vanilla Bean flavor just hits different; it's like an ice cream cone straight from the streets of France.

Van Leeuwen Buttermilk Berry Cornbread

With a name like this, it'd be understandable if you were a bit hesitant. But within one mini bite, you'll find that Buttermilk Berry Cornbread is in no way as intimidating a flavor as it might sound. This one was a pleasant surprise amongst a line-up of flavors that felt more familiar. We don't know how to explain the taste exactly, but those bits of cake make for a welcome explosion of texture.

Van Leeuwen Chocolate Caramel Cheesecake

The Chocolate Caramel Cheesecake ice cream flavor scores off the flavor charts. It's on the more decadent end of this spectrum (so definitely leave some room in your belly before digging in), but it is quite literally cheesecake perfection.

Where to buy Van Leeuwen ice cream

The best place to find all 32+ of their flavors and monthly specials is on their site, vanleeuwenicecream.com, but you can also find some of the most popular flavors at Walmart, Target, in their scoop shops (in New York, New Jersey, California, Colorado, Connecticut, DC, Pennsylvania and Texas) and in major grocery chains such as Whole Foods and Sprouts.

Next: 32 Best Ice Cream Flavors, Ranked