This ALDI Ice Cream Is So Good, I Get Emails About It

A go-to vanilla ice cream is just as vital as having a little black dress. I can say that because I wear dresses, but even if you don’t, you probably know what I mean. Vanilla ice cream is a fundamental basic of a freezer wardrobe. Few desserts don’t benefit from a scoop or two, and a truly great vanilla ice cream stands on its own without embellishment.

That’s why I’m absolutely smitten with ALDI’s Specially Selected Super Premium Vanilla Ice Cream. It’s my favorite vanilla ice cream from any store, anywhere. Plus, it’s less than half the price of comparable ice creams. This is exactly why I’m not alone in my adoration.

What Makes ALDI’s Vanilla Ice Cream the Best

It’s dense, rich, custardy, and oh-so-smooth. Its soothing vanilla flavor is prominent without being cloying. I find a few petite scoops satisfy my cravings. It’s so exemplary that pigging out on it doesn’t even feel necessary. 

Simply Recipes reader Connie Olson is the one who first tipped me off about ALDI’s premium vanilla ice cream. She used to scoop cones for customers at her dad’s grocery store when she was a kid, so she knows her ice cream. “Of course, that was not ALDI’s premium ice cream way back then,” she told me in our email exchange between ice cream fangirls. 

“When I discovered the black box of deliciousness at ALDI, I thought I had died and gone to heaven,” Connie wrote. “I have to admit this is the best ice cream I have ever tasted…and I have sampled LOTS of them. I would say it tastes better than the ones in the small pint containers that you pay big bucks for. It is smooth and tastes wonderful by itself or with chocolate sauce on top of it. I also like it in a root beer float.”  

Of course, Redditors are also onto this seductive and frosty white gold. On the r/icecream subreddit, u/aakaase praised, “This stuff is the absolute best bang for the buck. Near [sic] Häagan-Dazs quality for at least half the price.”

Inflation has hit ice cream hard, and ALDI did increase its price on this ice cream over the last year or so, but it’s still a good deal when you compare current premium ice cream prices. A 38-ounce carton costs $5.98 at my ALDI, vs. 14 ounces of vanilla bean Hӓagen Dazs for $5.49 at my local Kroger. Doing the math, the ALDI ice cream is a mere 16 cents an ounce, while Hӓagen Dazs is 39 cents an ounce.

(On that note, Kroger’s Private Selection premium vanilla ice cream? Taste-wise, it can’t hold a candle to the ALDI stuff.) 

Though ALDI offers a small but decent selection of ice cream flavors, their vanilla ice cream is the only one that’s outstanding. The others simply get the job done.

I encourage you to grab a carton the next time you’re in ALDI. But be careful! As Connie says, “Caution: Once you have tried ALDI’s premium ice cream, no others compare. You will be hooked, just like I am!”