The Inside Scoop of

Ben & Jerry's

A look at the 98 ice cream flavors available around the world


By Hesham Eissa & Lindsey Poulter

Data as of July 19, 2020

As two frequent ice cream consumers in different countries, with different preferences, we were curious to know more about our favorite ice cream brand, Ben & Jerry's. We wanted to know how our options in the U.S. and U.K. differed and what we were missing out on by only buying our favorite flavors. To answer these questions we collected the necessary data, including consuming 35 pints of ice cream ourselves.
We looked exclusively at the most common size of Ben & Jerry's ice cream, the pint (473 mL), and to make things simple, we are using the following definitions:
We looked at every country listed on Ben & Jerry's website and recorded the available flavors and descriptions. Then, we standardized the naming conventions to allow for comparison and grouping. For example, there is a dairy and non-dairy version of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. We counted these as one flavor. Additionally, it is called Cookie Dough in the U.K., but we standardized it to the U.S. name of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.
Now, let's begin by looking at how many flavors exist and seeing which base flavor is the most popular.

FLAVORS & BASE FLAVORS

Choco-lot of Flavors

The 98 Flavors of Ben & Jerry's

Each circle below represents one flavor

Multiple Base Flavors

We began by asking what's the most popular base flavor? But we quickly realized that it wasn't as easy as it seemed!

Ben & Jerry's has simple, classic flavors with one base flavor like Chocolate Fudge Brownie (chocolate ice cream with brownies) and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough (vanilla ice cream with cookie dough & chocolate chunks).

However, part of their popularity is how they combine different flavors together. Half Baked, for example, mixes the two aforementioned flavors together into one. This leaves Half Baked with two base flavors, vanilla and chocolate.

Top Base Flavors

Once we classified flavors with two base flavors as mixed we were able to identify chocolate as the most popular base flavor.

Chocolate is featured in 33 flavors. 20 flavors only have a base flavor of chocolate while 13 flavors are chocolate mixed with something else (5 of which are vanilla!)

All other base flavors, everything from brown sugar to pistachio to cookie milk, we grouped into other.

Top Flavors

Hesham wanted a way to prove that a vanilla base flavor was not boring and that Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough was the best flavor.

Conveniently, every year Ben & Jerry's publishes the top flavors in each country. We aggregated the 2019 lists and looked at the number of countries a flavor was in to come up with the top 5 flavors in the world:

Half Baked
23 countries, 2.7 average rank
2
Salted Caramel Brownie
13 countries, 4.0 average rank
3
Peanut Butter Cup
19 countries, 4.7 average rank
4
Chocolate Fudge Brownie
29 countries, 5.2 average rank
5

Flavor Types

Lindsey (a vegan) was excited when Ben & Jerry's introduced non-dairy ice cream in 2016.

So, we were curious how the non-dairy line compared to the dairy or Moo-Phoria (light ice cream, introduced in 2018) lines.

Is chocolate the top base flavor for all types? Kind of. In non-dairy there is a three way tie for first while it is the clear winner in Moo-Phoria.

Did Ben & Jerry's simply recreate dairy flavors or did they introduce new flavors exclusive to the non-dairy line? Well, as it turns out, it's a little bit of both! 17 of the 98 flavors are available in non-dairy. Of those, 9 are also available as a dairy option while 8 are only available as non-dairy.

COUNTRIES

A World of Flavors

After we learned more about the 98 different flavors, we were curious to know more about their availability around the world. Did every country have the same base flavor preferences and types?

The 30 Countries Where You Can Enjoy Ben & Jerry's

Chocolate
Mix
Vanilla
Caramel
Coffee
Peanut Butter
Other

ADDITIONS

The Best Part About Ice Cream is What's Inside!

The 79 Additions of Ben & Jerry's

Each filled circle below represents one flavor while each outline represents one addition

Chocolate
26 additions
Mix
27 additions
Vanilla
24 additions
Caramel
18 additions
Other
35 additions
Top Additions

We discussed how additions influence our purchasing decisions much more than the base flavor! So, we wanted to learn more about what existed and how many flavors each addition appears in.

We found that 45% of additions, including crunchy potato chip swirl or pink frosting, are only available in one flavor.

However, some additions are a staple in Ben & Jerry's flavors. If you were to pick a random flavor, there is a 50% chance it would contain either chocolate chunks, caramel swirl, chocolate brownies, or marshmallow swirl.

Additions by Base Flavor

We were then curious about the relationship between base flavors and additions. Were chocolate chunks the top addition for each base flavor? Were additions only in one base flavor?

It turns out chocolate chunks are pretty popular! They are the top addtion for chocolate, mix, and other. Meanwhile, vanilla and caramel both have caramel swirl as their top addition.

Marshmallow swirl is mostly paired with choclate base flavors while a graham cracker swirl is usually with an other base flavor.

Only base flavors with 10+ flavors are shown.

Commonly Paired Additions

We know that on average a flavor has two additions. So, we wanted to see which additions were commonly paired together. It's no surprise that chocolate chunks and caramel swirl appear in 8 flavors together!

Chocolate Chunks
26 pairings
Candy
Caramel Swirl
20 pairings
Swirl
Chocolate Brownies
12 pairings
Cookies, Brownies & Cake
Marshmallow Swirl
9 pairings
Swirl
Chocolate Sandwich Cookies
4 pairings
Cookies, Brownies & Cake
Chocolate Cookies
9 pairings
Cookies, Brownies & Cake

EXPLORE

We all scream for ice cream!

Explore all the flavors, including their base flavors, types, additions, and available countries below!

The Complete Ben & Jerry's Flavor Guide

Interact with the visual to learn more or search for a specific item