11 Ice Cream Flavors That Belong Back In Stores

There are only so many spaces in the grocery store freezer aisle for different ice cream flavors, and yet unlimited lip-smacking possibilities exist. What sells best is what sticks around, of course, but there are flavors that have disappeared through the years that should still have a spot among the chocolate-chocolate chip and cookies and cream that never seem to go out of style. Nostalgic creations from the ice cream world are a sure-fire way to recapture the joy of yesteryear, but only if you can grab a carton and sink a spoon into them.

Now that we've all had decades to enjoy jazzy modern ice cream options that cram pretty much every type of cookie, candy, and dessert into the recipe, it's time to recall older flavors that never should have been left out in the cold. These vintage ice creams that vanished over the years deserve to be discovered by a new age of ice cream cravers looking for retro creations that still have the power to thrill.

Once upon a time, butter brickle was one of the sweetest candy-studded ice cream flavors you could find. The brickle itself was chocolate-covered toffee first offered in Sioux Falls, South Dakota by The Fenn Bros. Ice Cream and Candy Company sometime around 1918; the Blackstone Hotel is rumored to be where it made its ice cream debut, broken into bits and scattered throughout a vanilla ice cream base. It was one of the earliest examples of a candy-ice cream combination, and the name itself became synonymous with a deluxe sweet treat that topped the flavor list.

When the Finn Bros. closed up shop, it sold the formula for butter brickle to Leaf. The candy company reinvented the creation as the Heath Bar, which became a Hershey product in the mid-'90s. So when you savor a Heath ice cream product, you're indulging in an ancestor of the original butter brickle ice cream formula ... which means we're very close to getting a full-fledged butter brickle ice cream resurgence we deserve. Maybe in permanent rotation this time around. 

For now, the flavor shows up in smaller regional scoop shops from time to time for lucky locals to take advantage of. You can also make your own toffee bits to toss into ice cream with chocolate chips — or chop up a Heath bar to get the job done.

Tutti frutti ice cream sounds something like a frozen version of fruitcake, but it was a bit different from the Christmas loaf. Actual tutti frutti consisted of brandy-soaked fruit pieces, which became a popular addition to American desserts in the 1800s – until Prohibition came along and ruined all the fun. The frozen dessert that adopted the name was a frosty option where chopped bits of candied cherries, pineapple bits, and other fruits provide chewiness and sweet flavor to basic vanilla ice cream. This makes it easy to try for yourself with a container of fruitcake filling or candied fruit mix from the baking section and a carton of your favorite ice cream.

As for a shelved version, tutti frutti fell out of favor by the late-20th century, pushed out of the suite of flavors by snazzier options with more modern sensibilities. Any ice cream maker who sees the value in relaunching an old-timey flavor made with updated gourmet touches — tutti frutti artisanal jam swirled into dairy-to-table ice cream, say — could introduce a whole new generation to the simple delights of yore.

Thrifty drug stores were known for having a killer ice cream counter, where flavors were piled into cylindrical scoops that stacked up high on a cake cone. One flavor in particular, Chocolate Malted Krunch, stood out from the crowd for its malted chocolate ice cream foundation laden with flakes of chocolate and crunchy mini-malted milk balls that added texture and an extra blast of old-fashioned flavor. It was peak ice cream creativity, and it was cheap; those of us who got to experience the wonder could pay under a dollar per scoop back in the '80s, which meant triple-decker cones every time.

Thrifty stores slowly went extinct, with locations being bought out by Rite Aid or closing entirely. but the scoops lived on as part of ice and water stores in the Southwest. Though finding Chocolate Malted Krunch isn't guaranteed, lucky shoppers have been known to spot it in the wilds of the grocery circuit including some Costco stores, and the flavor can be scooped out in traditional spheres. There's no reason it can't stick around permanently, though such things are never guaranteed in the world of ice cream.

For the higher-end ice cream lover, Häagen Dazs conjures up gourmet flavors that feature premium ingredients in combinations both familiar and fantastic. One of the most lauded recipes, a creamy take on bananas Foster, was a fan favorite that brought together creamy bananas, earthy cinnamon, and decadent caramel. It replicated the timeless dessert, bringing down the temperature on the usually-warm dish for a chilly yet thoroughly enjoyable bite.

Häagen Dazs bid "adieu" to its bananas Foster recipe, a move that still catches fans on social media by the taste buds. For the enterprising cook, homemade bananas Foster added to fresh ice cream can serve as a handy holdover until the company (or a competitor, even) hopefully sees reason and gets this luxury combination back on the market. If all else fails, a mashed-up banana, a sprinkle of brown sugar, and a little cinnamon stirred into vanilla or caramel ice cream can conjure up a makeshift version, though it may not compare to the original.

If someone told you they mixed chocolate chips, pecans, raisins, and almonds into their chocolate ice cream, you'd likely wonder how you'd never thought to do that yourself. Ben & Jerry's solved the problem by introducing Dastardly Mash in the late '70s as part of its early suite of flavors. But it went to the flavor graveyard in 1991, leaving fans pining for decades.

The best you can do these days is follow online recipes that reimagine Dastardly Mash as a brownie flavor, which might not be terrible, but it isn't ice cream. If the best Ben & Jerry's flavors ever released once included an option that made such an impression people are still mourning its absence, maybe the company should haul it out for a resurgence. A short-lived reintroduction — a Flavor Flashback, as the company called it — occurred in 1999, offering hope, though not much, considering that was more than 25 years ago.

With so many dazzling candy-coated flavors cropping up in the freezer section every year, it's easy to forget that a humble, homey concoction like butterscotch ice cream was once a standard selection — a classic that stood shoulder-to-shoulder with vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry. The flavor dwindled from the ice cream world, giving way to caramel confections, though caramel and butterscotch are very different things. Butterscotch did hang on by its fingertips in the pudding aisle, where pre-made pudding cups in particular still manage keep the flavor bobbing around in the background.

These days, butterscotch ice cream is sometimes still found in small scoop shops, though it's even disappearing from those by the tubful. It still appears in sauce form, however, and can jazz up any other ice cream flavor. If salted caramel could let up on the choke-hold it has on the sweet-buttery ice cream flavor sector, there would be plenty of opportunity for a butterscotch replay. Imagine it as a base with chocolate swirls, gingersnap cookies, or even bits of Werther's candies to make things more interesting. The possibilities are mouthwatering.

Spumoni is a traditional Italian frozen dessert format with a lighter texture, thanks to its airy consistency. The name "spumoni" is derived from the word for foam, though the flavor of this frosty treat is something altogether unique. It's a cross between sorbet, sherbet, and ice cream featuring colorful layers of cherry, chocolate or vanilla, and pistachio flavors in Neapolitan-like sections with very different tastes. It came to the states from Italy in the 19th century and became representative of Italian-American neighborhoods as a reminder of the Old Country. As the decades rolled on, spumoni became a cafeteria selection, a relic from an era where heritage trumped innovation and tri-flavored ice cream was the height of dessert creativity.

The old-fashioned spirit of spumoni makes it a spoonful of bliss for the nostalgia set, if not for younger ice cream aficionados with a taste for more recent recipes. But there's something to be said for appreciating the standards, and having at least a few brands who offer spumoni next to the red velvet cupcake and salted caramel pretzel delight isn't too much to ask.

Few ice cream fans may realize that the bubblegum ice cream we loved as kids was actually a Baskin-Robbins invention. Spying the vibrant pink cream speckled with colorful bits of gum was part of the excitement of realizing there was a flavor tailor-made for the younger ice cream fan. Other brands picked up the idea and ran with it, even churning out a vibrant blue iteration that was more psychedelic than the original. But by the early 2000s, the bubblegum ice cream bubble had burst.

Baskin-Robbins still serves up the OG bubblegum ice cream in its scoop shops as a Flavor of the Month and even offers a pint-sized grocery store version on occasion. With many shoppers realizing how long it had been since they've savored the nostalgic flavor, it's high time for a new bubblegum ice cream movement. Surely there's room among the other tubs and buckets in the case for a cheeky flavor like this. If only there were a Change.org petition to get the ball rolling.

As a tribute to the rapidly depleting Amazon rainforest, Rainforest Crunch allowed socially-aware ice cream makers Ben & Jerry to exercise its activist nature in a customized ice cream flavor. The combination was a twist on a peanut brittle ice cream, only the Vermont-based brittle utilized cashew and Brazil nuts instead. The crunchy bits provided delicious texture while showing off a tasty combination that spoke of the company's impulse for imaginative flavors. A portion of the profits were reinvested in the farms that grew the nuts for the brittle, creating a symbiotic relationship that benefited everyone involved, including the ice cream fans who dug the flavor. 

For a while, Rainforest Crunch was one the company's most representative flavors, showing how corporate responsibility doesn't have to compromise quality. It went to the Ben & Jerry's flavor graveyard in 1999, though memories linger. With the surge of alternative nut butters as a hallmark of the 21st century food scene — and an ongoing need for responsible capitalism with Ben & Jerry's sale to corporate food giant Unilever in 2000 ultimately driving founder Jerry Greenfield to quit 47 years after co-starting the company — there's always room in the case for a Rainforest Crunch return.

Not everyone gets excited to find raisins in their desserts, but a classic flavor like rum raisin was an exception to the rule, bolstered by the warm essence of rum. The original take was an Italian creation featuring luxurious marsala-soaked Málaga raisins in gelato, though rum was eventually used as well. Americans zhuzhed it up with brown sugar and cinnamon flavoring added to vanilla ice cream; regular raisins took the place of their luxe Italian counterpart. Like butter pecan, it's an ice cream that relies on a more natural flavor blend rather than the more exciting ice cream parlor dessert-style set-ups that have taken over the brand-name ice cream game.

Rum raisin is as rare as hen's teeth these days, relegated to the Boomer crowd in the minds of most contemporary ice cream shoppers. The artisan food movement has stirred interest in a potential return to form, though maybe with a splash of the original spirits included. Aside from a bougie Häagen Dazs version with a precious price tag, rum raisin has all but vanished — an issue that could use rectifying ASAP.

It takes a sophisticated palate to appreciate the charms of an urbane ice cream flavor like black walnut. This one isn't flashy or trendy like your usual grocery store choices; the umami essence of the walnuts lends a savory balance to the sweetness of the ice cream. This may be why ice cream makers like Häagen Dazs have discontinued production; the bold vintage flavor has such a select audience, it can't compete with the new ice creams on the block. But for the sophisticated ice cream connoisseur, having a more upscale option provides a great starting place for making customized desserts with sauces and add-ins that enhance the basic black walnut profile.

The undeniable specialty status of black walnut moved it off the roster in the world of grocery store ice cream stock. The good news for those with a lingering longing is that regional parlors and even nostalgic national labels bring it back around every so often. As for finding it on demand, though? Black walnut is largely off the table.