Welcome back to Hoot Recommends! In this article, members of The Hoot editorial board will be sharing their favorite ice cream flavors.

Rachel

Picking a favorite ice cream flavor can be like picking a favorite child. So, since I never plan on having children, this will be one of the harder decisions of my life. At the end of the day, I feel like I have to give the title of favorite to my beloved cookies & cream. It says something that a specific brand of cookie was able to become a default ice cream flavor. The chocolate of the Oreos pairs well with the cool and creamy vanilla flavor. The chocolate is not too overpowering like a chocolate vanilla swirl; it is just right. In addition, the Oreos provide a great crunchy texture that provides a nice contrast with the soft ice cream. There are also the little bits of Oreo cream that make the vanilla flavor even more exciting. Overall, cookies & cream ice cream has all of the excitement that someone could possibly ask for out of their ice cream. Some days, I mean prefer something fruitier if I’m not in a chocolate and vanilla mood. In that case, raspberry sorbet may hit the spot. However, I would say the majority of the time I am wanting a nice cup of cookies & cream ice cream. That’s right, a cup. Cones are overrated and they only make eating ice cream more difficult. Cup over cone any day. In this case, that cup will be full of cookies & cream ice cream. In addition, it has an alliterative name, how fun! It’s probably in the top 50% of ice cream flavor names. In terms of taste though, there is no doubt that cookies & cream ice cream is number one.

Michael

This is something that will shock a lot of people, and I don’t know why. I am not a big fan of ice cream! Gasp! I know, it may seem strange, but ever since I was a child and tasted ice cream for the first time, it simply never caught on. Eventually, as I went to more and more social outings where people ate ice cream (and were MORTIFIED to learn that I didn’t), I started to eat it more and more. It may have been to fit in, but at least I’ve started to like ice cream a bit now. The downside is that I don’t really have a favorite flavor; all ice cream feels the same to me. 

Calli

As someone who has worked at an ice cream stand for five years, I feel that I should have a very solid answer to this question. However, I do not. My answer to this question fluctuates daily. Today, my answer to this question is pumpkin ice cream. I work at Kimball Farm in the quaint town of Carlisle, Massachusetts during the summer and am always sad to be away from the stand during the fall. The pumpkin ice cream from Kimball’s provides the perfect ratio of spice to pumpkin. Especially as the fall is approaching, I love eating this flavor as it offers a delightful transition from summer to fall flavors while still being a refreshing treat. If you are looking for a fun outing before Indigenous People’s Day Weekend, I would recommend making your way over to Kimball Farm for arguably the best ice cream in the state! Now I am hungry for ice cream waaaa. 

James

I like pretty much every flavor of ice cream to ever be created. I have yet to find a single flavor I would not be happy to eat. However, some of them are better than others. I particularly like cotton candy, smores and strawberry. My absolute favorite ice cream may surprise some people (though probably fewer than were surprised by Michael’s answer). It is orange pineapple with hot fudge. While it may not be the most common flavor, it is definitely the best.

Jason

I personally think ice cream is one of life’s greatest pleasures, and the essence of understanding the joy of ice cream is dormant in all of us. Like most things, I think to unlock the full magic of ice cream, you need to go back to the basics. As we embark on this semester, I encourage you to start with a classic: a decadent, fluffy vanilla ice cream. If you’re mentally prepared to transcend to a different plane of human experience, try a delicate strawberry infused with chunks of fresh fruit. If it doesn’t have the chunks, it doesn’t fucking count, okay. To truly understand the beauty of all the best things in life, like strawberry ice cream, you need to experience the absolute worst of it. After you’ve savored the divine chunky strawberry, prepare yourself to experience one of its more controversial counterparts, a stain to the entirety of mankind: mint chocolate chip ice cream.

Jenna

This is a very hard question, sure there are a lot of big world events going on right now, BUT this is serious. There are so many angles to think about. What works well with the most other desserts, what tastes the best alone, what complements other flavors the best, what can you eat the most consistently and what feels like a treat that can only be savored on the best of occasions. Because I am a rebel, I will be answering with a few options. For best overall, as it can be an answer to all of the previous prompts I listed, I would have to say vanilla. Some vanillas are better than others so please consider this answer through the lens of the best tasting vanilla imaginable. It goes on everything: pie, cake, brownies and any topping you want. I even like—which may get me some hate—mixing chocolate and vanilla into a creamy chocolate milkshake-like flavor. For the flavor I enjoy on special occasions, I love the Ben and Jerry’s Phish Food. It has interesting chips (shaped like fish), which interrupt the texture in a fun way, the caramel is just the right amount and not overpowering and the marshmallow is divine. Final verdict, you can’t go wrong with ice cream.

Avery

There are two types of people in this world: those who enjoy mint ice cream and its dairy-free counterparts, and those with toothpaste-related childhood trauma. There is no in between, nor are there any excuses. Mint ice cream is cool, refreshing and filling. And it pairs well with chocolate, which on its own is rather bland and heavy, but combined with the flavorful sparks of mint, chocolate and mint create a sultry, ship-worthy pair. Pistachio ice cream tastes like bitter paste, which no one wants, FYI. 

Cooper

Everyone else on this list is wrong. Pistachio ice cream is the only canonical flavor of ice cream. Chocolate ice cream is full of lead and cadmium. Strawberry ice cream is full of pesticides. Vanilla ice cream is just … vanilla. Pistachio ice cream has no lead, no cadmium, no pesticides and just generally won’t kill you. Plus, it’s objectively the most delicious ice cream flavor. If you disagree, I’m sorry to tell you that you were clearly born without taste buds.

Ella

I would have to disagree. Cake batter, with lots of chunks of cake pieces, is the best ice cream. Especially the cake batter ice cream at Lizzy’s Ice Cream on Moody Street. It’s sweet and creamy and when I hit a big chunk of cake it’s like a party in my mouth. I don’t want to hear the “it’s bad for you because of the raw eggs” crap because the good ones won’t have the raw eggs, but actual cake pieces. Lizzy’s Ice Cream nails it in that regard. Desert inside desert … what could be better than that? I rest my case.

Lucas

I really like Phish Food ice cream. I can’t pinpoint an exact reason for this — it’s simply something I’ve had many, many times, over my entire life. It’s comfort food. It’s the ice cream I associate most with home. That being said, I think there are a lot of things to be said for Phish Food, even outside of my personal nostalgia — it has chocolate in it, it has chocolate chunks in it, it has caramel, it has marshmallow — just a mishmash of good things overall. That’s why Phish Food is, has always been and will likely always be my favorite.