Crowning the best ice cream

Vanilla: The Queen of Ice Cream has no Equal

By Leo Feypel

In a world of ever more desperate flavour combinations, from chocolate to cookie butter or bubble gum, there is an elegance and grace in the simplicity of vanilla ice cream. No excessive toppings, no fancy combinations, just the flavour of your childhood in a cone.

Vanilla is beloved by all

Vanilla does not feel the need to shout at you with all its extras because it knows it has no equal. The undisputed queen of ice cream flavours, vanilla has been the predominant favourite for over 200 years. Small wonder then that it is the single most beloved ice cream flavour of 59% of the US population, according to a recent YouGov poll.

Vanilla is beloved by celebrities, politicians and royals alike, from Kylie Jenner and Taylor Swift, to King Charles and Queen Camilla. Thomas Jefferson was even so obsessed with it that he built an entire ice house at his home in Virginia so that he could enjoy this delicious treat all year around. The founding father even wrote his own vanilla ice cream recipe!

One politician who reportedly does not like vanilla ice cream is Vladimir Putin, who instead favours pistachio. I encourage you to read Niusha’s article defending pistachio and to make of it what you will.

Vanilla is everywhere

Despite its apparent simplicity, vanilla is highly complex, with over 250 subtle flavour and fragrance components. No wonder then that it can be found in some of the most classic deserts. After all, what would a nice hot chocolate brownie be without some delicious cold vanilla ice cream. The Austrians even put it in their iced coffee and their neighbors turn it into that quintessential German delight: spaghetti ice cream.

Vanilla is also a crucial ingredient for other ice cream flavours, such as chocolate, where it does far more heavy lifting than Kyriaki’s article gives it credit for. “Vanilla really enhances the flavor notes of chocolate”, says expert chocolatier John Scharffenberger.

This humble bean is also a crucial ingredient in the world’s most beloved soft drink. Without vanilla, there can be no Coca Cola, as the company discovered in the 1980s, when it launched New Coke, which crucially didn’t contain any pure vanilla, leading to disappointed reactions from the general public.

Conclusion

Other ice cream fads may come and go, yet vanilla will never be dethroned. The queen of ice cream will continue to reign with effortless grace and understated elegance, for she truly has no equals.

 

Pistachio as the Emperor

By Niusha Khanmohammadi

Before I proceed, a small but necessary clarification. Any mention of emperors below refers strictly to matters of taste, memory, and ice cream. No strongmen, no nostalgia for power, no authoritarian aftertaste. Only pistachio. I encourage you to read this article defending pistachios and make of it what you will.

One more thing before we begin. I’m Iranian, which means pistachio isn’t just a flavor, it’s a part of my essence. Somewhere between love language and survival skill.

Now, allow me briefly to interrupt this ode to vanilla with a necessary correction.

Is vanilla safe? Yes. Is vanilla polite? Absolutely. Is vanilla the flavor that says “I’ll adapt.”? 100%. And that is admirable, sure. But admiration is not worship.

Pistachio does not adapt. Pistachio arrives.

Pistachio is not a flavor, it is a lineage. A traveler of time and place, shelled by hands that knew patience before refrigeration, roasted under suns older than empires. It carries dust from bazaars, salt from trade routes, whispers from kitchens where recipes were never written down, only remembered. Some flavors are tastes. Pistachio is an inheritance.

It is essential to some, identity to others. It shows up in ice cream and refuses to be background. In chocolate it does not melt quietly. It insists. It stains the memory green. You do not “have” pistachio, you recognize it. Like a face you’ve seen before, maybe in another life.

What can possibly be stronger than this green dream? A color that shouldn’t belong to dessert yet commands it. A scent that reaches backward, throwing it at ancestors who never learned the word “vanilla” but knew exactly how pistachio should smell when it’s done right.

Vanilla comforts. Pistachio remembers. And let’s be real, pistachio – cold and creamy on a hot summer day? Now that is fun.

So yes, enjoy your vanilla. Praise its originality. Its kindness and comfort. Its agreeable nature. But know this: while vanilla sits on the throne of consensus, pistachio rules as emperor. Unbothered. Uncompromising. Eternal.

And when the ice cream melts and the spoons are down, pistachio is the one still speaking.

Chocolate: A Gift from the Gods

By Kyriaki Mallioglou

One might think it is unnecessary to explain that chocolate is by far the richest, deepest and historic flavour of ice cream. Vanilla, pistachio and all others are singing back up, while chocolate is centre-stage, belting a tune so delicious, you forget everyone else is performing in the background too. Chocolate was considered a gift from the Gods, an aphrodisiac, a psychedelic, a medicine. In Mesoamerica cacao beans were used as currency due to their preciousness, and cacao drinks were reserved for royalty and high profile members of society. But such a flavour could not be kept from the people. 

Picture this: a hot summer night (I like to imagine this because we are entering the cold frost of winter now), taking the long way home from the open-air cinema, there’s only one thing that could make this moment better. A small artisanal ice cream shop appears as you turn the corner. Your prayers are answered. The group enthusiastically enters. One picks the underwhelming vanilla scoop, another the exotic pistachio, you, having the best taste, pick chocolate. It’s not that vanilla and pistachio are bad flavours, but they simply aren’t complete without a scoop of chocolate next to them. The others ask for a spoonful of your cup, but you don’t ask to taste theirs, because there is plenty of flavour in your choice already. 

Chocolate and vanilla swirls are the pinnacle of my childhood summer memories. The latest fad on the internet is ‘dubai chocolate’. What do these things have in common? It’s an attempt to make something mediocre (vanilla) and avoidable (pistachio), into something that definitely tastes good. Using the security that chocolate brings. A solid choice. Standing in the ice cream shop you see avocado and bubblegum flavours and wonder, “Only an adrenaline junkie would order this…”. You can always count on chocolate to be the best choice. Vanilla has that same property of security for many people, but somehow it overcorrects in being too safe. Chocolate is good not because it is a standard, but because of its royal history and the delectable mix between bitter and sweet. 

All other flavours are simply choices for people who need a short break from chocolate. Palate-cleansers, if you will. And each and every time you choose something that doesn’t quite hit the spot on that walk home from the cinema, remember me saying: “You should have just gone with the chocolate”.