Vanilla ties with Chocolate for America's Favorite Ice Cream Flavor

Vanilla ties with Chocolate for America's Favorite Ice Cream Flavor

In a series about ice cream on AARPMagazine.com, Phil has been conducting a survey (still open) on America's favorite flavors and varieties of the cool summertime (or anytime!) treat. Although the poll is still open for voting, here are some results.

Let's look at the results of the ice cream survey, where we've discovered that AARP/SG respondents are more adventurous, and, we would venture to say, have more discriminating taste buds than most Americans! Vanilla may appear to be America's favorite flavor, with almost 40 percent of ice cream sales, but only 17 percent of our polltakers prefer vanilla. This was the number one answer, but this time in a tie with chocolate, which also received 17% of the votes. Butter pecan came in third at 14%, but mint chocolate chip ran a close fourth with 13% of the votes. Coffee flavored ice cream took the fifth place position with 11% followed by these flavors: chocolate chip (8%), cherry vanilla (7%), cookies and cream (6%), Neapolitan (4%), and strawberry (3%), and praline (2%).

AARP online readers also choose their indulgences more carefully than the general population, as 33 percent of you most frequently purchase low-fat ice cream, which accounts for only ten percent of total sales. Premium ice cream took the second place position (30%), regular ice cream came in third (28%) followed by no-fat (5%), soy (3%), and gelato (2%).

However, when asked what style of ice cream they enjoy the best, premium ice cream was the number one answer (45%).  In this question regular ice cream took second place position (20%), and low-fat ice cream came in third (19%) followed by gelato (14%), soy (3%), and no-fat (2%).  These answers suggest that if watching your weight and wallet were not an issue, more shoppers would prefer to put flavor first.

Check out Phil's weekly column on AARPMagazine.com for more on ice cream and some tips to make sure that every bite and lick of your ice cream tastes great!