The Popular Vanilla Ice Cream Brand You Should Avoid At All Costs

Even though vanilla ice cream is to blame for the word vanilla becoming synonymous with bland, this classic ice cream flavor still has a timeless charm. Whether you're using it as a blank canvas for popular ice cream toppings or eating it straight out of the tub during a tough breakup, there's something comforting and almost nostalgic about vanilla ice cream. Tasting Table's Melissa Cabey had the chance to test 13 popular vanilla ice cream brands and rank them from worst to best based on the quality of the ingredients. This insightful rating system landed Favorite Day, one of Target's private brands, at the very last spot.

You might be wondering how something as simple as vanilla ice cream can be of low quality. Isn't it just sugar, milk, cream, and vanilla? Ideally, yes — but in its Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream, Target has instead opted to use non-fat milk, high fructose corn syrup, more corn syrup, food coloring, carrageenan, and artificial vanilla flavoring to tie it all together. We all see the irony of naming this ice cream "homemade" when it's full of ingredients you absolutely would not use in a homemade ice cream, right? What's more? The presence of artificial flavors is declared on the very front of the package as if it's a positive selling point. We can't speak for you, but we have never craved artificial flavoring for dessert.

The lack of quality ingredients definitely shows up in the flavor of Favorite Day's unfortunate vanilla ice cream. Unhappy customers report it tastes chemical, weird, and somewhat like spoiled eggnog. The texture is just as jarring because there's a significant lack of creaminess — usually, it's the full-fat milk and cream that give ice cream that luscious consistency we love so much. But Favorite Day's texture is more akin to a sherbet, very flaky and not at all resembling the true essence of a good ice cream.

People who purchased this ice cream were also surprised by its orangey tint, with some being genuinely confused about whether they got spoiled ice cream, given the odd color, the strange texture, and the poor flavor. They were in disbelief that somebody would create ice cream like this on purpose. On the Target review page, one person even said the ice cream made them downright sad.

If Favorite Day is the brand you should avoid at all costs, then which one should you go for the next time you're making an old-fashioned vanilla milkshake or the classic affogato? Van Leeuwen's Premium Vanilla Bean French Ice Cream ranked at the top of Cabey's list, and you can get it on Amazon. The ingredients? Milk, cream, cane sugar, egg yolk, and vanilla extract — just like it's supposed to be.