The Best New Ice Cream & Frozen Treats to Stock Your Freezer with This Summer, Taste-Tested

Little-known fact: The Jonas Brothers decided on their band name at a Friendly’s restaurant in 2005. Two decades later, the restaurant chain teamed up with the JoBros to release a 20th anniversary flavor, which combines three flavors side-by-side in one 1.5-quart bucket. In it, you’ll find Kevin’s Coffee Cookie Crumble (coffee ice cream studded with crumbled cookie bits), Joe’s Chocolate Marshmallow Swirl (chocolate ice cream with marshmallow swirled throughout), and Nick’s Vanilla (a “refined vanilla,” per the brand). While Nick’s pick feels a little lackluster compared to the others, it balances out their more intense flavors, creating a crowd-pleasing combination for any mocha latte or Frappuccino fan.

At first glance, fruity flavors for summer seems about as groundbreaking as florals in spring, but Graeter’s excels at reimagining classic desserts in ice cream form. Using the same French Pot process the family’s perfected over the past 150+ years, each small batch of ice cream winds up ultra-dense and creamy. (If you want to get nerdy, it’s because the pot freezes butterfat without trapping much air, leading to a thicker texture.) Yellow cake batter ice cream feels light and refreshing, due to the zesty lemon and sweet-tart blueberry bits, but my favorite part was the cinnamon streusel crumble.

Jeni’s has an entire summer 2025 flavor collection, and while Watermelon Taffy and Pink Bubble Gum earned rave reviews from taste testers, I have to give the award to Popcorn Brittle. Popcorn-flavored ice cream is bizarre, yes, but it tastes like caramel corn (thanks, in part, to the corn-toffee crunch mixed within it). It was buttery, it was silky, it was devoured in no time—even among people who said they didn’t want to try it (at first).

If you haven’t tried FatBoy’s ultra-thick ice cream sandwiches, your whole world is about to change. If you have, then you know they’re the best on the market, featuring toothsome cookies that actually taste chocolatey and ice cream that stays creamy, not icy or Cool Whip-like. Now, imagine that but with a palate-cleansing mint chocolate chip ice cream, then popped on a stick and dunked in rich chocolate and dusted with cookie crumbles. It’s decadent…and refreshing. The ice cream truck could never.

Leave it to Salt & Straw to combine a Midwestern classic with a TikTok sensation. As PureWow’s food editor, Taryn Pire has tried it all (seriously, if it’s hit a chain in the past year, she’s probably sampled it). So trust her when she says Salt & Straw’s summertime flavor resulted in the “most well-balanced ice cream” she’s sampled all season. “Between the tangy-yet-sweet cream cheese base, the salty, malty pretzels and the sweet-tart, vibrant strawberry jelly, it checks every box. While the pretzels aren't as crunchy as they would be if you crumbled some on right before eating, I really appreciated their bready flavor, which I feel would be even more apparent with an extra sprinkle of salt or [served atop] a waffle cone.”

While three new flavors hit scoop shops this season (UltraViolet, Non-Dairy Mochaccino Chip and Non-Dairy Strawberry Swirl), I’m urging you to head to the freezer aisle to check out the latest limited-edition Ben & Jerry’s flavor to hit grocery stores: Fudgy Flan. Burnt caramel ice cream offers a smoky note that pops against the mellow swirls of pastry cream and the decadent (and chewy) brownie chunks speckled throughout each pint. It makes for a rich dessert that’s hard to have just one spoonful of (at least in my case).

Adding olive oil to ice cream has long been a European trend, but Alec’s ice cream is taking things one step further with its Pistachio Crunch ice cream. Its pistachio butter ice cream gets a boost of grassy, buttery flavor from Graza olive oil. Dark chocolate flakes and candied pistachios add crunch and richness, making for a dessert that's “equal parts earthy, nutty, bittersweet and complex,” Pire says. If you’re not into super sweet treats, this is the pick for you.

Vanilla-and-chocolate-sauce-swirled cups are a birthday party staple—and these blow them out of the water. Blue Bunny’s take is ultra creamy, not icy (like the budget brands so often are), with a variety of flavors to choose from. Chocoholics will fight over the Brownie Bomb, which pairs chocolate ice cream with fudge swirls and brownie bits, and caramel fans will clamor for Bunny Tracks, which features a McFlurry-esque vanilla ice cream with caramel ribbons and caramel-filled chocolate bunnies. We tried four varieties, and every one was a hit, so there are no bad options here.

Tillamook is bringing back two summertime favorites this year—Orange & Cream and Campfire Peanut Butter Cup—along with two new additions: Apple Crisp and Salty Caramel Pretzel. All four will have you feeling nostalgic for baseball games, campfires and summer nights you don’t want to end, but the standout flavor is Salty Caramel Pretzel. Instead of simply adding pretzels and caramel to ice cream, Tillamook opts for salted vanilla ice cream as the base, then mixes in chunks of chocolate-covered pretzel and salted caramel. It makes for a solid sweet-to-salty ratio, and the chocolate coating keeps the flavor from veering too buttery while preserving the pretzels’ crunch.

While swicy—aka sweet and spicy—foods are taking over the grill, salty-sweet is staging a comeback in the freezer aisle. Adding pretzels to ice cream was a major trend this year, and as you can see from this list, we were here for it. Sandy Shores is Kroger’s foray into the mix, with a pool blue, coconut-flavored ice cream that’s absolutely loaded with a crumbly pretzel crunch. Visually, it reminds you of a day at the beach, and the crunch of the pretzels complements the tropical, coconutty flavor nicely.

“These prepackaged Belgian waffle cones are a great way to elevate your usual Drumstick,” Pire says. “They come in Toasted Almond Fudge, Vanilla Salted Caramel, Triple Chocolate Fudge and, my favorite, Summer Berry. That one is bright, just acidic enough and fruity in an authentic way. The best part? There's a pool of punchy, sweet-and-sour berry sauce at the bottom of the cone.”