A scoop or two of vanilla ice cream or a bowl of choc chip is all very nice, but there’s also plenty of scope for trying something entirely more adventurous – and what better time to experiment than during National Ice Cream Month this July? There are weird and wonderful ice cream flavors abound across America, from ice cream sprinkled with rare ingredients, soft-serve rolled in crushed Cheetos, and flavors you’d more commonly find on dinner plates than in cones. Here we’ve rounded up the most unusual of all.

Click or scroll through our gallery to discover the most outrageous ice cream flavors in the US, counting down to the strangest of all.

We've based our ranking on the enduring popularity of each ice cream flavor in its place of origin and beyond, and on the opinions of our well-traveled (and well-fed) team. The list is unavoidably subjective. 

If ever there was a flavor perfect for summer, it's this: tart Key lime cake batter ice cream swirled with marshmallow cream and crunchy Graham cracker pieces. If that doesn’t quite appeal, there are plenty of other standout flavors at Kelly's such as blueberry cobbler and summer melon. As well as the original brick-and-mortar location in Corrine Drive, Orlando, there are five other locations throughout the state, as well as concessions in selected Foxtail Coffee branches.

This cracking (or crackling) flavor is decidedly out of the ordinary, featuring a base of tutti frutti ice cream topped with Pop Rocks candy that sizzles and pops in your mouth. It’s so popular at Clumpies, which has three parlors in Chattanooga, that while other unusual flavors come and go, it’s become part of the core menu. Its blue and red look is as striking as the taste sensation.

Sweet Rose Creamery has three locations in LA and one in Santa Monica and each one is the place to go to sample an array of interesting seasonal flavors. For those who fancy something a little different, try the roasted summer squash and cilantro flavor which uses ingredients from local farms. It's a cool, green, herbaceous scoop that is really rather refreshing. We also love the sound of the cinnamon cookie oatmeal flavor on the regular menu.

Wild Scoops in Anchorage is famed for creating inventive flavors in its test kitchen, so there's always something new and exciting to try on the menu. One favorite is basil honey walnut: local basil is blended into cream for an earthy, herbal base, while honey-covered walnuts provide an irresistible sweet, crunchy kick. Other interesting flavors include spruce tip and root beer. 

This pumpkin flavor return by popular demand each fall at Miss Oz Ice Cream & Dessert (formerly known as Cool Moon Ice Cream) and it’s suitably warming for the chillier season. You can find it here from October right up to Thanksgiving, alongside other seasonal flavors such as butter pecan and orange cranberry sorbet. There’s also a candy cane flavor for the festive season and always-available options such as birthday cake and kulfi (pistachio, cardamom, and rosewater).

All of the ice creams at Sweet Jesus are outrageous, but none more so than Krusty the Cone. The base is a simple vanilla soft-serve ice cream, but it's finished with cotton candy, cotton candy sauce, and rainbow sprinkles for the perfect unicorn-style appearance. If you’ve got a sweet tooth, it's a must-try when visiting one of Sweet Jesus' many Ontario outlets.

Jeni's, which has scoop shops across the US, has released more than its share of outrageous ice cream flavors – including the Everything Bagel flavor featuring sesame, poppy seeds, onion, and garlic folded into sweet cream cheese ice cream. Our must-try has to be Pink Bubble Gum. Created after the initial idea of a cherry blossom flavor didn't quite work, it combines strawberry jam, cherry blossom cream, and caramelized mango, guava, and passionfruit for a mouthwatering bubblegum effect.

This seasonal ice cream parlor, located in the popular summer resort of Rehoboth Beach, has served up some unusual flavors in its time. There was ghost pepper, an ice cream so hot it required customers to sign a waiver and prove they were over 18 years old, and then there’s this rather less intimidating favorite. The base is vanilla ice cream, colored what the shop calls ‘mermaid lilac,’ and folded with crushed Oreo Golden cookies.

If you think the look of this jet-black ice cream is striking, wait until you taste it. The aniseed punch of licorice isn’t for everyone, but many people adore it, and it's one of the most popular flavors scooped at Big Dipper Ice Cream. It also happens to be one of the most Instagram-friendly ice creams around. The small chain has five locations and sometimes offers a salted black licorice twist, too.

Sesame Street character Cookie Monster has inspired many treats, from ice creams to drinks. What makes this one from Owowcow special is the fact that it hasn’t been doused with artificial food colorings. The Cookie Monstah owes its delicate blue hue to organic butterfly pea flowers and consists of sweet ice cream swirled with crumbled chocolate chip cookies, made in-house. It was created to use up a glut of cookies and proved so popular that it’s now one of the core flavors.

Sweet Rock Ice Cream handcrafts its ice cream, taking flavor inspirations from its surroundings in Trinity, Canada. For example, one of the highlights, the Devil's Footprints flavor, is named after a local landmark, though not one as vividly colored as this delicious ice cream. Partridge berries are the reason for its eye-catching hue, and they're hand-picked from the nearby Bonavista Peninsula.

The small-batch offerings at The Bent Spoon change regularly, but this one often returns to the menu because it’s so delicious. The olive oil, used both in the ice cream and drizzled on top, brings subtle nutty and grassy notes that balance the sweetness. The shop sometimes adds complementary flavors such as lemon and sea salt, too. Another favorite here is the bananas Foster, served flambéed (though not to melting point).

Self-styled food science fanatic Chad Draizin founded Portland-based Fifty Licks out of a simple desire to get good ice cream. His experimental flavors use local ingredients and cage-free eggs and include scoops such as cornbread honey butter. The most popular flavor in the shop, though, is mango sticky rice – that's fragrant Jasmine rice and coconut milk ice cream with a swirl of fan-favorite Alphonso mango.

Since Brooklyn-based Odd Fellows opened in 2013, the imaginative shop has conjured up more than 500 different ice cream flavors. The range changes often, but one favorite that has come back more than once is this sweet cornbread ice cream, which works well served as a sundae with a blueberry compote. Other winning options have included chocolate peanut butter cheesecake and miso cherry. The small chain also has shops in Florida and Pennsylvania and further afield in Korea.

A Chinatown institution for more than four decades (and now with three New York locations), Chinatown Ice Cream Factory has had plenty of practice dreaming up unusual creations. The black sesame option, a nutty-tasting blend flecked with black sesame seeds, is a perennial favorite. It’s lovely on its own, or, as shown here, with scoops of other flavors such as green tea or ube (a purple root vegetable).

Earnest Ice Cream started in 2012 with just two people, an ice cream tricycle, and a whole lot of passion. Today, the business has four scoop shops and a wholesale operation. The spruce bud ice cream is just one of the eye-catching flavors available. The shop has a local forager who harvests fresh spruce tips every spring, ready to be processed into a unique natural flavor you won't find anywhere else.

That’s basil with blackberry, not blackberry with basil. The earthy-sweet herb, with its notes of anise, black pepper, and mint, is definitely the dominant flavor here, steeped overnight in cream and then strained to create the ice cream base. Blackberry sauce is swirled through to bring a touch of tart sweetness. It’s one of the core flavors at High Point Creamery, which also sells tasty options like cornbread with strawberry jam and brown sugar cinnamon.

With so many vivid and unusual creations on offer, the menu at Il Laboratorio Del Gelato is like a color chart. The visionary shop opened in 2002 and has been committed to whipping up unique frozen treats ever since. The shop's flavor portfolio is full of astonishing options such as carrot, beet, butternut squash, olive oil, root beer, Cheddar, and wasabi. This one is infused with tarragon, bringing a warm and delicate aniseed note to the party.

The most famous product at Ben & Bill's Chocolate Emporium is, weirdly, not chocolate at all – it's lobster ice cream. This seaside spot has been serving scoops flavored with one of New England's favorite delicacies since 1988. Real chunks of lobster are folded into the butter-flavored ice cream, a creation apparently offered to prove to a customer that all Ben & Bill's serves were made in house. There’s a second location at Oak Bluffs on Martha’s Vineyard.

If ice cream for breakfast sounds like an outrageous treat you could get on board with Humphry Slocombe’s is the place to go. The Secret Breakfast combines ice cream, crunchy cornflakes, Vietnamese coffee, and peanut butter fudge ripple for a taste sensation. The small chain, with 10 parlors dotted around California, specializes in unusual flavors such as Hong Kong Milk Tea and Lavender Crumble.

Perhaps one of the most surprising things about Udderly Ridiculous' ice cream is that it's made from goats' milk. Owners Greg and Cheryl Haskett use the milk from their own farm and, wherever possible, spotlight other local ingredients. They argue that goats' milk is healthier than cows' milk and makes for a creamier ice cream. They sell six different flavors, with this vanilla bean and lavender option being one of the most delicious. 

Durian is a divisive fruit, to say the least. It’s infamous for its funky smell – so much so that it’s reportedly banned on some forms of public transport in countries including Thailand and Singapore. That hasn’t stopped New York parlor Morgenstern's from putting it in an ice cream, though. The distinctive fruit is paired with banana for extra sweetness and can be served up with scoops of chocolate ice cream, caramel, and shortbread.

This isn’t just curry ice cream. This is curry and white chocolate ice cream. The subtly spiced sauce is swirled through a base of ice cream laced with sweet white chocolate, and it’s surprisingly lovely. The Curry Curry was a creative special from The Comfy Cow, whose previous offerings have included chocolate with bacon: a rich milk chocolate ice cream folded with maple syrup and chunks of bacon.

It sounds outrageous and, well, it is. But Cheat-Ohs – soft-serve ice cream rolled in crushed Cheetos – is a regular fixture on the specials board at Big Gay Ice Cream, which has three locations in New York City. The cheese puff creation understandably proved a huge social media hit when it first appeared a few years ago, and its frequent return is testament to the fact that the combination of sweet and salty is actually quite delicious.

The eye-popping color of this ice cream may be enough to entice visitors to Dave's Hawaiian Ice Cream, which has six parlors across Hawaii. The purple scoop is made from ube, or purple yam – a root vegetable known for its vivid hue. It's combined with the shop's indulgent vanilla ice cream to create a sweet treat. Other colorful Hawaiian-inspired concoctions include green tea, azuki bean, and poha berry.

The Yeti used to be a rare sighting at Molly Moon’s, only scooped out as a winter special. But this combo of classic ice cream tossed with house-made granola, swirls of vanilla bean caramel sauce, and chunks of dark chocolate was hugely popular, and it’s now part of the core menu. In the spring, the parlor has a similar flavor called Sasquatch. The shops, dotted around Seattle, sometimes offer a vegan version too.

Black Dog Gelato was founded by Jessica Oloroso, a former pastry chef whose travels in Italy inspire her creations. The seasonal shop has a range of rotating specials, and one of the regular quirky-yet-crowd-pleasing options is made with chocolate, strawberries, and balsamic vinegar. Sweet, tangy, and complex, it's a step above your average strawberry scoop.

All of the flavors scooped up at Dasher & Crank, an ice cream shop in Miami's hip Wynwood district, are inventive and delicious. But the ube macapuno stands out in more ways than one. While other outrageous flavors come and go, this one – made with ube, or purple yams, which give it that vibrant purple hue (shown bottom left) – is the most popular ice cream on the menu. The ice cream base is coconut, which lifts the earthy notes of the ube for a refreshing balance.

This savory-sounding concoction was the creation of Sweet Republic, an Arizona ice cream parlor celebrated for its made-from-scratch offerings. Fresh asparagus is whipped into creamy ice cream to create a pretty (and very tasty) mint green treat. It's pictured here with two other summery flavors: sweetcorn and tomato basil sorbet. The store has three locations in Arizona and a constantly changing specials board.

Salt & Straw is known for its kooky ice cream creations, including goat cheese marionberry habanero. But its most innovative and unusual offerings come up on Thanksgiving. The flavors vary a little each year, with 2024’s Thanksgiving options including Parker House rolls with buttercream, sweet potato casserole, turkey stuffing and cranberry sauce, Mom's Mango Pie, and pumpkin pie tiramisu. The small chain mainly has shops on the West Coast, plus four in Florida.

Cilantro lime is a seasonal favorite at Lick Honest Ice Creams. The flavor is perfect for summer, with its kick of zesty lime and twist of fresh cilantro. But considering the love-it-or-hate-it nature of this herb, it's a daring item to have on your menu. Lick has shops in and around Austin, San Antonio, College Station, and Houston. Its other palate-pleasing offerings – inspired by seasonal, Texas-grown ingredients – have included sweet persimmon and sage, and dewberry corn cobbler.

Tomato is a favored ingredient at The Creole Creamery, which has three locations in Louisiana and one in Bay St Louis, Mississippi. The Creole tomato sorbet – a sweet but tangy flavor that makes the most of this locally grown ingredient – is a seasonal menu staple. Other tomato-infused concoctions have included Alotta Burrata, a cheese-based scoop swirled with strawberry-tomato jam (pictured).

Kawartha Dairy is proud to be a completely family-owned operation that has traded in Canada for the past 80 years. But while it naturally sells many other dairy products, it's the ice cream that we're interested in here. The Tiger Tail variety is the most head-turning for its popping color and bizarre flavor. It's an orange-flavored treat with streaks of black licorice making those tiger-like stripes. Other perfectly named ice creams include the Blue Buried Treasure, which has blueberry-filled white chocolate cups hidden throughout.

Think ham doesn't go with ice cream? Windy Brow Farms might make you think again. It's taken a New Jersey classic – Taylor Ham, or pork roll – and made it into a sweet treat. The processed pork is mixed with cinnamon and sugar and adds a salty kick to sweet maple ice cream. This flavor has been a crowd favorite since the fruit farm released it in 2018 as part of its Only in Jersey range. Other flavors originally included sweetcorn and honey, and tomato pie.

If you’ve never thought of putting pickles on your ice cream, this might all change now. Sweet Action, which has four shops in the Mile High City, focuses on high-quality ingredients, local produce, and unique flavor combinations. Options change seasonally, but this honey jalapeño pickle creation returns regularly due to customer demand. It’s made with jalapeño and honey pickles from local company The Real Dill.

Now discover the best ice cream parlor in every US state and DC

Last updated by Dominique Ayling.