Kids everywhere scream for it, lactose-intolerant adults risk their digestive systems for just a little taste; ice cream could possibly be the greatest dessert ever created.

Because we want you to make better dessert choices, here’s our ranking of some popular ice cream flavours, from best to worst, per usual.

PS: Nobody ever really enjoyed Neapolitan, so don’t hold your breath that it’d rank high on this list.

Mint Ice Cream

Any dessert with mint in it is simply an abomination, especially ice cream. If you think this should exist, might as well just go brush your teeth since you want menthol so much, and hopefully, reset your confused palette. 

Ranking: Clearly a conspiracy from dentists to keep people from enjoying good things.

Peanut Butter

So, let’s get it straight. You want us to believe whipped peanut butter and cream is a legitimate ice cream flavour? What’s next, mayonnaise ice cream?

Ranking:

Peanut butter really shines on bread and should just stay in its lane with the other spreads. 

Neapolitan

The only reason you should be pretending to like this is if your parents still buy all the ice cream and you have to manage what you get. Otherwise, it’s just a weird combination of flavours that do nothing to compliment each other. 

Ranking:

The ice cream equivalent of ordering exclusively from the side menu because “I prefer to eat light”. It’s okay, we don’t judge. 

Chocolate

In theory, this should be god-tier ice cream since chocolate is great in everything else - cake, brownies, cookies, etc. But with ice cream, it falls flat and fails to deliver the much-craved bliss beyond the first three bites. 

Ranking: A disgrace to the goddess of chocolate; needs to do better. 

Coffee Ice Cream

This is the flavour chocolate ice cream aspires to be. It’s basically all the deliciousness and flavour of a cup of coffee condensed in a frozen scoop.

Ranking: An underdog that deserves more respect. 

Strawberry Ice Cream

Strawberry might have failed as a fruit, but its romance with dairy has created the ultimate lifetime partnership.

Ranking: Strawberry might as well just mean a flavour of ice cream.

Salted caramel

Salted caramel is one of those flavours that make you raise your eyebrows at first; but the flavours go really well together and once you try it, you’ll never have to decide what kind of snack you want again. 

Ranking: Why decide between sweet and salty when you can have both? 

 Baileys’

Baileys’ was definitely made to be ice cream, it was only moonlighting as a liqueur till it made its debut. The best part? You can have it at lunch without anyone questioning your liquor consumption. 

Ranking: Every grown up’s dream - ice cream you don’t have to share with any beggy beggy kids.

Vanilla

Vanilla ice cream is definitely anything but, well, vanilla. This classic is a simple gift that keeps on giving. It’s one of those inventions that we probably won’t ever be able to improve - because it’s already perfect.   

Ranking: The best things in life are simple, vanilla ice cream being one of them. 

Cookies and Cream

The goddess of vanilla with the added flavour of cookies?? Yes, please! Vanilla on its own is already heaven on earth. Whoever decided to throw in those cookies really found the holy grail and we need to make them the patron saint of ice cream. 

Ranking: The only way vanilla could get even better. 

Love Akinkunle is a freelance writer and editor with peculiar tastebuds. When she's not telling stories, she's reading a memoir, or fantasizing about magical places on the African continent.