Ice cream with clean ingredients

5 good things - ice cream edition

After a couple of heat waves and an apartment that’s been imitating a pizza oven, ice cream has officially entered my August survival kit. For this edition of 5 good things, I’m bringing back this post from last year that went somewhat viral—with a few small updates. Because when it’s this hot, we all deserve a scoop made with ingredients we can actually feel good about.

Got a favorite brand or flavor I missed? Drop it in the comments—I’m always testing.

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We’ve hit peak summer mugginess in NYC a few times already. This is the kind of weather that will get me to jump into a non-heated pool and eat ice cream within the same hour. Which makes it perfect timing for this post. As always, I turn to ice cream brands with clean ingredients and few or no additives. None of these are paid promotions or even affiliate links, just brands that I enjoy.

In no particular order (all images are screenshots from the brand website)

1. Van Leeuwen - Look at the ingredients on Van Leeuwen’s vanilla, (also objectively the best vanilla I’ve had). We go through a pint/week and I’m ok with it. I also love their Sicilian Pistachio, similar ingredient profile but takes me back to Italy.

2. Cosmic Bliss - I found out about this brand through a marketeer who reached out to me for promotions. Given I don’t do paid promotions at this time, I ended up just ordering it myself on Instacart. It’s the same umbrella brand as Hu chocolate, which also I love. Their dairy ice-cream is made of grass-fed milk, which automatically scores them brownie points in my book.

3. Haagen Dazs - the OG. And the winner for the best strawberry ever. Clean ingredients, easy to find in most stores and so good! They also have these tiny cups that are great for single-serve or a kid’s party.

4. Jeni’s - If you’re a fan of cool flavors like Brown Butter Almond Brittle and Salted Peanut Butter with Chocolate Flecks, you have to check out Jeni’s . You can order from delivery from their website as well as from online grocers like FreshDirect.

5. Vegan/dairy-free ice cream - I’m not a huge fan of sorbet. So I tend to look for regular ice cream lookalikes. I’ve tried Van Leeuwen, which tastes very similar to the original but is made with oat-milk and cashew milk. Depending on the blend, oat milk is probably going to give you a bigger blood sugar spike than regular ice cream, if that’s important for you to know. Cosmic Bliss uses coconut milk, which may be a metabolically healthier alternative. We tried the vanilla and I thought it was very good. But my toddler being the vanilla connoisseur could straightaway spot the difference in taste :)

   

Special mentions

• Healthier versions - Have you tried cottage cheese ice cream or this one-ingredient ice cream? For even more protein, add your vanilla protein powder to sweeten it, instead of maple syrup or honey.

• Annie Fenn, MD

  ‘s Almond Butter Gelato with 3 swirl-in variations. On my list for this summer. I also need to get myself an ice-cream maker. Any recommendations for one that wont take up too much space?

  UPDATE: There is a Cuisinart ice cream maker in my cart right now! I’ll report back.

• Flavor bomb enhancers - Try drizzling good olive oil on vanilla ice cream and topping it with flaky salt like Maldon. Next level! I also love an affogato, which is an espresso shot over vanilla.