The Popular Chocolate Ice Cream Brand You're Better Off Skipping

There's something so deliciously nostalgic about chocolate ice cream. Whether it's the creamy texture or the right notes of chocolatey flavor, something about it can transport you from the hustle and bustle of everyday life to simpler times as a child when you got ice cream during a family outing.

Since most major brands have at least one take on chocolate ice cream, we endeavored to find the best among a ranking of 11 popular brands. While Alden's Organic Double Dutch Chocolate ice cream topped the list, we recommend leaving Madison Brown's chocolate ice cream in the freezer aisle.

Toted as a luxury brand of ice cream, our writers found that Madison Brown comes with too high a cost and too little flavor. It looks like chocolate ice cream (despite its faded color in our review), but the "milk chocolate, with hints of dark chocolate throughout" flavor that it claims to have, was missing and was described by one tester as being "like hot cocoa without enough cocoa."

Madison Brown launched in 2022 and quickly gained attention in early 2023 when it announced a partnership with pop star Rhianna on a custom ice cream flavor, Neapolitan Swirl. While the ice cream is marketed as "little personalized touches throughout the ingredients," a closer look at them may confirm why its chocolate flavor didn't rank high with our testers.

Other top ice cream brands promote their use of semi-sweet chocolate, or chocolate chunks as part of their ice cream mix. Madison Brown's chocolate ice cream, per its website, says that its chocolate ice cream "starts with a silky milk chocolate cocoa powder" and then adds a touch of dark chocolate flavor for a punch that is "not typical of a standard milk chocolate ice cream." While Madison Brown may have tried its best to create a silky smooth chocolate ice cream, we recommend staying away from this one and sticking with more well-known (and better-tasting) chocolate ice cream brands or visiting a local ice cream for some sweet soft serve.