The results are in, and it looks like ice cream is America’s favorite. You scream, I scream, we all scream for ice cream!
According to a new study from Yahoo Food, Ice Cream is America’s favorite dessert with 40% of Americans picking the sweet treat over cake, cookies, fruit, candy and pies. Check out the results below!
ICE CREAM IS AMERICA’S DESERT
- Ice Cream is America’s favorite desert
- Ice cream: 41%
- Cake: 20%
- Cookies: 11%
- Pie: 11%
- Fruit: 9%
- Candy: 7%
- 13-17 year olds are significantly more likely to say Ice Cream is their favorite desert relative to other age groups:
- 13-17 (centennials): 56% say Ice Cream is their favorite
- 18-34 (millennials): 38% say Ice Cream is their favorite
- 35+: 39% say Ice Cream is their favorite desert
- Again, Ice Cream is a favorite across the country, yet Northeasterners are significantly more likely to cite Ice Cream as a favorite vs. their counterparts on the West Coast:
- Northeast: 49% say Ice Cream is their favorite
- West: 37% say Ice Cream is their favorite
CHOCOLATE’S TAKES THE LEAD
- Favorite ice cream flavors span the board, Chocolate is ranked #1, followed by cookies and cream, and Vanilla
- Chocolate: 16%
- Cookies and cream: 13%
- Vanilla : 12%
- Cookie dough: 11%
- Mint chocolate chip: 11%
- Strawberry: 9%
- Butter pecan: 8%
- Rocky road: 6%
- Coffee: 6%
- Other (specify): 7%
- Millennials (18-34 year olds) and Centennials (13-17 year olds) are twice as likely to cite cookies and cream as their favorite vs. those 35 years old and up.
- 13-35: 15% say cookies and cream is their favorite
- 35+: 7% say cookies and cream is their favorite
LETS MAKE ICE CREAM!
- That said, half of Americans (50%) are very interested in learning how to make their own Ice Cream
- 84% of americans are either very or somewhat interested in learning to make their own ice cream
- There are 3 groups that are significantly more likely to want to learn to make their own ice cream:
- Parents are significantly more interested in learning to make ice cream than non-parents:
- 57% of parents are very interested (vs. non-parents: 38%)
- 13-17 year olds (centennials) are more interested than those 35+:
- 57% of 13-17 year olds are very interested (vs. 35+: 41%)
- African Americans are significantly more interested in learning to make ice cream than whites:
- 57% of African Americans are very interested (vs. whites: 48%)
ICE CREAM IS NOT JUST A SUMMER THING
While summer is the most popular season for eating ice cream, most people eat ice cream year around
- 41% say that they eat the most ice cream in the summer
- 56% of americans say it’s always ice cream season (i.e. there isn’t one season when they eat the most ice cream)
Women are significantly more likely than men to say “It’s Always Ice Cream Season”:
- Women: 60% say it’s always Ice Cream Season
- Men: 51% say it’s always ice cream season
AND MOST AMERICANS EAT ICE CREAM WEEKLY
86% of Americans eat ice cream at least once a week, with the biggest consumption happening among youngsters and their parents
- 13-17 year olds are the group most likely to eat ice cream daily, and are twice as likely to eat ice cream daily vs. older generations
- 13-17 year olds: 20% eat ice cream daily
- 18+: 11% eat ice cream daily
- Parents are twice as likely to eat ice cream daily vs. non parents
- Parents: 15% eat ice cream daily
- Non-Parents: 8% eat ice cream daily
FAVORITE BRAND OF ICE CREAM
Bryers, Ben & Jerry’s and Haagen-Daz are America’s favorite Ice Cream
- Breyers: 16%
- Ben and Jerry’s: 15%
- Haagen-Dazs: 13%
- Blue Bell: 10%
- Cold Stone Creamery: 9%
- Dairy Queen: 8%
- Baskin-Robbins: 7%
- Edy’s: 6%
- Turkey Hill: 3%
- Carvel: 2%
That said, the South has a different favorite: Blue Bell; and they’re significantly more likely to rank it as a favorite vs. other regions.
- South: 19% say Blue Bell is their favorite
- West: 8% say Blue Bell is their favorite
- Mid-West: 5% say Blue Bell is their favorite
- Northeast: 2% say Blue Bell is their favorite
HOW MUCH ARE PEOPLE WILLING TO SPEND FOR A PINT OF ICE CREAM
- 60% of americans want to spend less than $5 for a pint, but the sweet spot is between $3-$5 (48% are willing to spend between $3-$5)
- Only a third of americans would be willing to spend more than $5, driven by 35+
HOW DO PEOPLE LIKE TO EAT ICE CREAM
America’s favorite way to eat ice cream is plain scoops:
- Plain scoop: 40%
- Soft Serve: 22%
- Ice Cream Sunday: 21%
- Accompanying another dessert, like ice cream with pie or cake: 9%
- Ice cream cake (a cake made of ice cream): 8%
ICE CREAM SHOPS
Overall, Dairy Queen is the number 1 ice cream shop in America
- Dairy Queen 28%
- Cold Stone Creamery : 20%
- Baskin-Robbins: 18%
- Haagen-Dazs: 10%
- Ben & Jerry’s: 9%
- Carvel: 4%
- Local drugstore/pharmacy: 3%
- Other 9%
13-17 year olds, in particular, are driving DQs popularity – with 13-17 year olds nearly twice as likely to cite DQ as their favorite vs older generations:
- 13-17 year olds: 42% say DQ is their favorite
- 18+: 24% say DQ is their favorite
Among those 35+, Baskin Robins slightly edges out DQ as a favorite
- Baskin Robins: 24% of 35+ feel Baskin Robin is their favorite
- DQ: 21% of 35+ feel DQ is their favorite
Regionally, we also see some differences:
- Baskin Robins is the favorite in the West
- West: 27% cite BR as their favorite
- South: 18% cite BR as their favorite
- Midwest: 14% cite BR as their favorite
- Northeast: 9% cite BR as their favorite
- Carvel is only popular in the North East:
- North East: 14% cite Carvel as their favorite
- South 3% cite Carvel as their favorite
- Mid-West 1% cite Carvel as their favorite
- West 0% cite Carvel as their favorite
- Cold Stone Creamery hasn’t made the same inroads in the North East as it has everywhere else
- West: 25% feel CSC is their favorite
- South: 19% feel CSC is their favorite
- Mid-West: 23% feel CSC is their favorite
- Northeast: 12% feel CSC is their favorite
CUP VS CONE – CUPS WIN!
When visiting an ice cream shop, most Americans prefer to get their ice cream in cups vs. cone
- Cup: 57%
- Cone: 43%
That said, America’s favorite type of cone is Waffle – its not even close, really:
- Waffle cone 67%
- Sugar cone 16%
- Cake cone 8%
- Cookie cone 6%
- Pretzel cone 2%
SCOOP VS SOFT SERVE
The vast majority of Americans prefer Scoop over Soft Serve ice cream:
- Scoop: 70%
- Soft Serve: 30%
That said, people in the North East are driving the interest in soft serve, as they are almost twice as likely to prefer soft serve vs. other regions
- Northeast: 45% prefer soft serve over scoop
- West: 28% prefer soft serve over scoop
- South: 27% prefer soft serve over scoop
- Midwest: 25% prefer soft serve over scoop
ICE CREAM AND HEALTH
Millennials are the group most concerned about Ice Cream being unhealthy
- Millennials are the group most likely to say: “I would eat more ice cream than I do now if it weren’t unhealthy”
- 13-17 yr olds (centennials): 34% (agree with the above statement)
- 18-35 yr olds (millennials): 51% (agree with the above statement)
- 35 yr +: 41% (agree with the above statement)
- 13-17 yr olds, not surprisingly, don’t think about the health implications of eating too much Ice Cream, and are the group most likely to say, “I never let health concerns get in between me and a good scoop of ice cream”
- 13-17: 51% (agree with the above statement)
- 18-35: 36% (agree with the above statement)
- 35+: 41% (agree with the above statement)
ICE CREAM RECALL
The recent Ice Cream recalls have basically had minimal impact on how much Ice Cream people eat:
- Only 14% of Americans have been eating less ice cream since the latest recall
- 1 in 3 Americans didn’t even know about any recent recalls
SAVORY ICE CREAM
Nearly half of Americans either like, or love, savory ice cream:
- 25% love it
- 23% like it
13 to 17 year olds are the group least likely to be aware of what Savory Ice Cream is:
- 13-17 year olds: 39% don’t know what savory ice cream is
- 18+: 30% don’t know what savory ice cream is
