There are many different brands of flavorings to choose from for your ice cream. They can vary greatly and the brand you choose for a particular recipe can have a dramatic impact on how good your ice cream turns out. I recognize that everyone has different tastes and preferences, and a flavor that appeals highly to me may not appeal to you. I have tried many flavors from a variety of manufacturers. Here are my own opinions of the best brand of flavorings to use for each flavor of ice cream. But I encourage you to do your own taste tests and see what you prefer.
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Almond Extract
I add a very small amount of almond flavor (almonds are in the cherry family) to my cherry ice cream recipe to bring out the dark cherry flavor I loved in Baskin Robin’s Burgundy Cherry Ice Cream when I was a kid.
My recommendation is Nielsen-Massey Pure Almond Extract
Anise (Licorice Flavor) Extract
While I like red licorice, I am not personally a big fan of black licorice. However, I think McCormick Pure Anise Extract makes a delicious black licorice ice cream.
Banana Extract
Banana flavors can be tricky as fresh bananas often make the ice cream icy. We have modified several of our banana recipes to prevent them from getting icy. Adding some commercial banana flavor can enhance the flavor significantly. Some banana flavors taste fake, but McCormick Banana Extract has a very good flavor.
| Cardamom Extract |
We put cardamom extract in our Cardamom Cherry ice cream. I have not found cardamom flavoring that was very strong. This Burlap & Barrel Cardamom Extract has a faint vanilla cherry flavor, but is very subtle. It is the best one I have found.
Cherry Extract
I love the taste of our cherry ice cream which comes from the fresh or frozen ripe dark cherries that are chopped up and added to the ice cream. Artificial cherry flavoring, which often tastes like cherry candy, would detract from the taste. Instead, we add some Cherry Bay Orchard 100-% Tart Montmorency Cherry Concentrate, which is just concentrated cherry juice and adds an intense tartness to the cherry fruit.
Cocoa Powder (Chocolate Flavor)
There are many different ways to add chocolate flavor to ice cream. Some people use cocoa powder, like we do. Others use melted chocolate bars, or chocolate syrup, or commercial chocolate extract, or a combination of these. We think cocoa powder tastes by far the best. It is important to use Dutch Process Cocoa Powder, which is processed with alkali to neutralize the acidity of natural chocolate, in order to give it a much smoother flavor. We tried over a dozen different cocoa powders. Some were good, while others were bitter, gritty, bland, or chalky.
Our very favorite cocoa powder is Bensdorp Dutch-Process Cocoa. It is available from King Arthur Baking and other suppliers. It has a wonderful, smooth chocolate taste.
Our second favorite is Hershey’s Cocoa Special Dark, which is available in most grocery stores. Be sure to get the one with the red banner that says Special Dark Dutched Cocoa, as it is different from regular Hershey’s Cocoa. While I think it is not quite as good a chocolate taste as Bensdorp, it is still very good and easy to find.
Coconut Extract
We use coconut extract in our coconut ice cream recipe, in addition to coconut cream and toasted shredded coconut. I think Watkins Imitation Coconut Extract is very good.
I think McCormick Coconut Extract has a good flavor but is not as good as Watkins.
Fiori di Sicilia (Creamsicle Flavor)
This is a very distinct flavor that is exactly the flavor of Creamsicles. We use it in our Creamsicle ice cream. This one from King Arthur is very good.
Lemon Extract
Our ice cream flavors so far have not required lemon extract, we just use juice and zest from lemons. But we have found in other recipes that when we want to boost the lemon flavor, this McCormick Pure Lemon Extract has a good mild lemon flavor.
This Boyajian Pure Lemon Oil is also ok but somewhat bitter and very intense. If you use it, only use a few drops.
Lime Extract
We have not needed lime extract yet in our recipes as we just use fresh squeezed lime juice and lime zest. If you do need additional lime flavor, this Boyajian Pure Lime Oil is pretty good. It tastes just like lime zest.
Maple Flavor
We use maple flavor in our Maple Walnut ice cream recipe. This Boyajian Maple Flavor is an outstanding flavor. It is very intense, so don’t use more than the recipe calls for.
Maple Syrup
In addition to the maple flavor, we use this Kirkland Organic Maple Syrup in our Maple Walnut ice cream. It gives a wonderful, smooth, real maple syrup flavor to the ice cream.
Mint (Pure) Extract
or our Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream, we use this McCormick Pure Mint Extract. It is very different from their Peppermint Extract, and I think far better for our mint ice cream. It has a very nice mint flavor.
Orange Extract
We have not needed to use Orange Extract yet in our ice cream. However, this McCormick Pure Orange Extract is pretty good.
Orange Oil
We love the taste of Cara Cara oranges in our Cara Cara orange ice cream, but they are very mild. We add a small amount of pure orange oil to boost the intensity of the flavor from the oranges. This Boyajian Pure Orange Oil has a pretty good taste and tastes just like orange zest.
Pandan
Pandan is an Asian flavor that to me tastes exactly like Asian bakery goods. This McCormick Pandan Flavor is very authentic.
Peppermint Extract
We have tried peppermint extract from many different sources. Some of them taste sharp or bitter, some taste like medicine, or like bad mints. We have found two peppermint flavors that we especially like. The first is Watkins Pure Peppermint Extract. It has a strong but smooth peppermint flavor.
The second is LorAnn Oils Super Strength Peppermint Oil. It has a good taste, but is extremely concentrated which makes it difficult to measure. Only use a couple of drops, (less than 1/16th tsp) per batch or it will be overwehlming.
Pistachio Extract
I love the taste of pistachio ice cream and the crunch of roasted salted pistachios. This Watkins Pistachio Extract has a very good flavor. Note: I saw a notice that Watkins no longer makes Pistachio flavor, so I will look for another good one.
Root Beer
My favorite root beer to drink has always been A&W, and my favorite root beer ice cream has always been A&W. Unfortuantley, they don’t sell A&W ice cream in the stores and they don’t sell A&W flavoring either to make your own ice cream. This Big H (Hires) Root Beer Extract is not as good as A&W, but has a pretty good root beer taste.
Rum
I personally don’t care for the taste of Rum or other alcohol flavors. However, this McCormick Rum Flavor adds a note of authenticity to our Eggnog ice cream.
Vanilla
Over 40% of all the ice cream sold world wide is vanilla flavor. Vanilla goes well in milkshakes, cones, sundaes, on pie, with cake, etc.
Vanilla comes from the beans of orchid plants. There are hundreds of kinds of orchids that grow in many different countries. Each of them has their own distinct look and fragrance, and the vanilla flavoring made from these different orchids also have their own distinct flavor. About 85% of all the vanilla flavoring in the world comes from Madagascar and is called Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla. However, vanilla is also grown in Mexico, Indonesia, Uganda, French Polynesia, New Guinea, and other countries. In addition, vanilla flavors from different countries are often blended to give new flavors. Vanilla can also be purchased in different strengths.
In the Batch Freezer Workshop I attended (see Tip on Batch Freezer Workshop) we made and sampled dozens of different variations of vanilla ice cream. Below I list several of my favorite vanillas and what I use them for.
Vanilla (Madagascar Bourbon)
This is the normal vanilla that you use in baking cookies, cakes, etc. It is what you normally think of when you think of vanilla flavor, including vanilla flavor ice cream from the store. Kirkland Pure Vanilla Extract has a good taste like store bought vanilla ice cream. You can use these to make vanilla ice cream if you want, but I prefer using Vanilla Plus, described below. I do use these vanillas in our Chocolate ice cream flavors or other ice cream recipes where vanilla is not the main flavor.
Nielsen Massey Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla Extract also has a good taste like store bought vanilla ice cream.
Vanilla (Plus)
King Arthur Pure Vanilla Plus is my personal favorite vanilla flavor to use when making Vanilla ice cream or several of our other related recipes where vanilla is a dominant flavor. It is a combination of Madagascar Vanilla and Tahitian Vanilla. To me it has an wonderful, earthy vanilla taste. I don’t know how else to describe it, but I strongly recommend you give it a try and do your own comparison taste tests.
Vanilla (Tahitian)
Nielsen Massey Tahitian Pure Vanilla Extract is very different from traditional Madagascar vanilla. It has a wonderful fruity almost cherry vanilla flavor. I love it in our Tahitian Vanilla ice cream, and also use it in several of our berry ice creams to bring out the fruity flavor.
