Who Has The Better Ice Cream: Cold Stone Or Baskin Robbins?

It might look like the difference between Cold Stone Creamery and Baskin-Robbins comes down to how much manual labor it takes the scoop artists behind the counter to get your order ready. But that would be overlooking the range of flavors and formulations each chain provides and the snazzy-jazzy ways they transform foundational ice cream into deluxe treats. Where Cold Stone is centered around customized creations featuring almost any candy, cake, or cookie you could hope for, Baskin-Robbins trades on tradition with a catalog of 31 flavors — one for every day of the month — largely favorites with new inventions added every month.

It's true that both establishments serve up scoops, create creamy shakes, and assemble mouthwatering sundaes complete with luxe toppings. But there's only one that leaves customers supremely satisfied — at least there is in my new experience. I put these two mighty ice cream parlors to the test with a little assistance from my kids, who helped make sure my taste buds weren't misfiring, and discovered a whole heap of difference between Cold Stone and Baskin-Robbins. From scoops and shakes to sundaes, each has its own particular way of doing things, with entirely different results.

You didn't think two major players in the sweets-and-treats sphere would miss out on the ongoing Dubai chocolate trend, did you? Both Cold Stone and Baskin-Robbins got with the program and launched their own distinctive takes on the popular combo. And if you're taste-testing scoops from two different shops that both happen to have the trendy Dubai chocolate creation in ice cream form, there's no question that it has to be on your sampling list. Never having tried Dubai chocolate in any form, I was eager to dive in and see which one made me happier.

Cold Stone's Dubai Chocolate Creation turned out to be a power-packed representation of the ice cream's flavors. Generous flakes of chocolate peppered fudgy chocolate ice cream with thick ribbons of pistachio cream and crushed pistachios strewn throughout. This is likely to be one of the best Cold Stone Creamery flavors in a long time. But Baskin-Robbins' Dubai Chocolate Bar flavor missed the boat; all the chain does here is add chocolate to pistachio ice cream, which tastes more like amaretto or almond than real pistachio. My team agreed that Cold Stone's authentic, luscious blend of real Dubai chocolate ingredients was far superior to Baskin-Robbins' chintzy attempt at recreating the popular mix.

A modern classic that's taken its place among the standard offerings, cookies and cream is one of the most popular ice cream flavors in the U.S. It can go in a whole lot of different directions, though, depending on the quality of the cookie and the complexity of the ice cream. Both Baskin-Robbins and Cold Stone offer coffee-flavored bases with actual Oreos mixed throughout, which I opted for instead of the vanilla version to see how snazzy this creation could get. Cold Stone offers Oreo Reese's cookies to give the scoop even more firepower, while Baskin-Robbins sticks with good old-fashioned cream-filled Oreos.

As it turned out, the difference in ice creams was beyond obvious. Again, Cold Stone comes through with a well-balanced take on its flavorings, creating an elegant latte essence made richer by the chocolate and peanut butter of the Oreos. In dark contrast, Baskin-Robbins churns out an artificial-tasting coffee ice cream that surrounds cookie chunks that didn't say they were embarrassed to be part of the scoop, but we could totally tell they were. Cold Stone creates a creamier-textured coffee ice cream as well, a trend that drops Baskin-Robbins overall quality to somewhere slightly below grocery store ice cream. Consider my eyes wide open to the difference now.

One of my go-tos as well as a favorite of half my tasting team, mint chocolate chip is a peppy blend that seldom disappoints. Could that be true when versions from these two mighty ice cream shops are tasted side by side, or does one frosty option leave the other in the icy dust? Mint chocolate chip is one of Baskin-Robbins' top-selling flavors, which must say something for its goodness. Having tasted a slew of takes on this simple yet stunning mix, I knew what I was looking for going in: creamy, sharp mint in the ice cream and crisp bittersweet spirit in the chocolate.

I've always assumed Baskin-Robbins had top-level mint chocolate chip ice cream, likely because I've never eaten it after trying a superior version. But Cold Stone has opened my eyes to how wrong I've been. Cold Stone's texture is creamier thanks to a higher fat content, and the mint flavor is more authentic, like real mint extract, compared to the more artificial-tasting flavoring I suspect Baskin-Robbins uses. My co-testers were equally unimpressed with the 31 Flavors mint essence but loved the higher-quality Cold Stone version. There was a clear winner, as the empty Cold Stone cup attested.

Baskin-Robbins keeps sundaes on the menu as a standard option. But depending on the locale of your Cold Stone, you may find pre-determined sundaes on the menu. If not, you can easily make your own by loading up with sundae-style mix-ins. To see what each establishment offered, I picked up a basic two-scoop Banana Royale sundae from Baskin-Robbins and ordered a custom creation at Cold Stone by cutting bananas and fudge topping into sweet cream ice cream. This seemed to be the best way to gauge the two sundaes apples to apples — or bananas to bananas, to be more accurate.

Finally, there was one category in which Baskin-Robbins was at least able to hold its own against Cold Stone. The two-scoop Baskin-Robbins sundae consisted of one scoop each of vanilla and Very Strawberry, with chocolate sauce, whipped cream, and banana on top. The strawberry flavor came through like a champ, lending an old-fashioned sensibility to a cup. Cold Stone was a DIY sundae with sweet cream ice cream and bananas and fudge sauce as mix-ins. It was a pleasant take on a sundae-style ice cream treat, but my particular shop didn't offer strawberry-flavored ice cream, which meant paying more for an extra mix-in just to replicate a more varied sundae format. My team agreed that we'd easily order the Baskin-Robbins sundae but pick something else from Cold Stone if given the choice.

You can sip your ice cream in shake form at both Cold Stone and Baskin-Robbins, with your choice of flavors and a crowning blast of whipped topping to make things sweet and fancy. I did my best to align shake flavors between shops, choosing Cake Batter 'n Shake from Cold Stone, which blitzes chunks of cake and swaths of frosting throughout the cup. and picking out a similar cake-centered flavor from the Baskin-Robbins website. However, when I assembled my order using the online form, the flavor wasn't available; neither was a cake batter ice cream that I could finagle a shake out of. The timer was ticking down, so I opted for cookie dough instead, hoping that at least the quality, if not the flavor, would be comparable to my Cold Stone selection.

By this time, it came as no surprise to learn that the quality of Baskin-Robbins shake was nowhere near that of Cold Stone. From the thick, creamy texture and the soft, distinctive yellow cake notes to the blast of whipped cream on the top, Cold Stone put Baskin-Robbins' weak, milky shake with its lumps of gritty cookie dough to shame. It didn't seem to matter that the flavors were different. My helpers easily pointed out that the disparity in overall enjoyability between the two went beyond taste and into general quality. Cold Stone excels where Baskin-Robbins falls short.

I was convinced the difference between Cold Stone Creamery and Baskin-Robbins would be moderate at best. The untold truth about Baskin-Robbins is that Cold Stone outperforms the chain in taste, texture, and quality of mix-ins, which is a total eye-opener. My taste-testing kiddos seemed to already know what I didn't, which was a fun find when they sampled Cold Stone while I sampled Baskin-Robbins, and they cheered while I frowned a little. I kept waiting for good ol' 31 Flavors to pull ahead, but only the sundae ranked, and even that was solely due to the fruity freshness of the strawberry ice cream. I have no doubt that if my local Cold Stone had offered a strawberry ice cream base, it would have been superior to Baskin-Robbins, too.

I had also prepared to contrast costs to justify additional expense at Cold Stone, but prices ended up being similar between the two shops. I purchased kids' scoops, which were $3.69 at Baskin-Robbins and $3.99 at Cold Stone. The fact that you get a free mix-in for the extra 30 cents makes Cold Stone an absolute winner here. The 49-cent difference between the $6.99 Baskin-Robbins shake and the $7.49 Cold Stone shake was nominal as well. The one difference was in the Dubai Chocolate Creation at Cold Stone, which starts at a Like It (small) size option for $7.59. For what you get, it's well worth paying a little more.

I consulted the menus for both Cold Stone Creamery and Baskin-Robbins to choose comparable items, opting for three different scoops: one more traditional (mint chocolate chip), one a little jazzy (coffee cookies and cream), and one entirely trendy (Dubai chocolate). I also lined up sundaes from both shops, using Baskin-Robbins' standard two-scoop sundae as a base and creating as close a duplicate as possible at Cold Stone. Though the shakes seemed equivalent between the two, the flavors turned out to be different once I placed my order. So a cake batter shake from Cold Stone went up against a cookie dough shake from Baskin-Robbins. 

To make sure my taste buds were firing correctly, I engaged assistance from my trusty tasting team (my kiddos), who were eager to give each of these creations at least three tries before making a final judgment. We judged the frozen treats based on flavor, texture, and quality of the ingredients. They were incredibly helpful, since it was a lot of ice cream to sample, and I figured my tongue would go numb at the halfway point. Also, there's only so much sugar shock one taste-tester can take. Better that we distribute the spikes and crashes evenly among a few people rather than piling the duties onto a single sampler to keep our wits about us.