Best Ice Cream Brands in America (2026)

Founded in Portland in 2011, Salt & Straw redefined what mainstream craft ice cream could mean. Their monthly seasonal flavor rotation became the template every craft shop now copies.

Locations across Portland, LA, San Francisco, Seattle, and now NYC. Ships pints nationwide. Defining flavor: Honey Lavender. Defining strength: marketing-perfect seasonal pivots.

Started as an NYC truck in 2008, Van Leeuwen now has shops across NYC, LA, Boston, Chicago, Houston, and grocery distribution nationwide. Their cleaner-label ingredient list (no gums, no stabilizers) defines their style.

Defining flavors: Honeycomb, Earl Grey Tea. Defining strength: grocery + shop hybrid model means they're accessible nationwide.

Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams, founded in Columbus, Ohio in 2002, pioneered the craft ice cream movement. They ship pints nationwide and have shops across the Midwest, East Coast, and West Coast.

Defining flavors: Brambleberry Crisp, Brown Butter Almond Brittle. Defining strength: their grass-grazed dairy sourcing and ingredient transparency set the bar.

NYC's Morgenstern's Finest Ice Cream opened in 2014 and immediately pushed the form. Salt + pepper pinenut. American egg cream. 24k gold leaf honey. Each flavor reads like a tasting menu dish.

Defining strength: zero compromise on weirdness. If you want safe, go elsewhere. Their Lower East Side location is a pilgrimage.

These are starting points, not rankings. Your top brand will be whichever one you've personally had the best scoop at. Use Conequest to log scoops from each, rate consistently, and let your data decide.

Conequest's stats page will eventually show you 'your top brands' as you accumulate scoops. Brand-level patterns emerge after 20-30 scoops across multiple shops.