We visited one of Van Leeuwen’s newest locations, its scoop shop in Philly. The shop offered a bevy of flavors, and they let us try as many as we wanted. Did we try 5-8 flavors each? You bet we did!
It was a great way to get a full taste of Van Leeuwen’s range of flavors. To name a few, we tasted chocolate, mint chip, vegan brown sugar cookie dough chunk, honeycomb, peanut butter brownie chip, marionberry cheesecake…. It was truly a delectable cross section of flavors. Overall the ice cream was super creamy and delivered on flavor.
We were very impressed by their selection of vegan ice cream options, as well as the notation on their flavor board of any allergens (including gluten) in the different flavors. We love to see that!
Van Leeuwen Ice Cream began as a yellow ice cream truck in NYC with a mission that we strongly support: make good ice cream that makes you feel good. It doesn’t get any better than that for an ice cream mission! We are very thankful they decided to expand to stores in multiple cities and nationwide pint sales. Our flavor review below is short, but we guarantee you can’t go wrong with any of their delicious flavors (like we said, we tried almost all of them)!
The Flavor Review:
Mint Chip: I love chocolate and peanut butter in ice cream, but mint will forever be my ultimate favorite. With that being said, mint can be a hard flavor to make well and I am a pretty tough judge of it. Van Leeuwen’s Mint Chip is classic and did not have an artificial mint taste that sometimes happens. Their Mint Chip is a white mint (my preference so yay!) instead of the well known green mint. I was impressed with all of the flavors I sampled being creamy and smooth with bold flavor and adequate mix-ins and this was definitely true for Mint Chip. The chocolate chips/specks throughout were the perfect proportion and tasted like good quality chocolate. I will definitely be eating more of this in the near future!
Chocolate Fudge Brownie: Okay, this was the best Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream I have ever had in my life. No joke. The chocolate base was rich and creamy, but what made the flavor spectacular were the rich, thick swirls of fudge and the hearty chunks of brownie. It was an explosion of fudge and chocolate and brownie in my mouth with every bite. Honestly, I could not ask for more out of a chocolate fudge brownie ice cream. I’m still thinking about it.
Overall Scoops (out of 5):
Natalie – 4.75 Scoops: I loved our experience at Van Leeuwen! The staff we interacted with was so friendly and knowledgeable about their flavors and made for a fun experience of trying SO MANY flavors. I was impressed with all of the flavors I sampled being creamy and smooth with bold flavor and adequate mix-ins. Although their ice cream is now sold nationwide, it still tastes homemade and small batch. The seasonal flavors made choosing what to order difficult but the creativity of flavors is so much fun! During our visit the shop was out of a few advertised flavors I wanted to try/order so that was a bummer, but ultimately I still loved the ice cream and can’t wait to keep trying more of their fancy flavors.
Rebecca- 4.7 Scoops: This ice cream was absolutely delicious. It was rich, creamy, and tasted amazing. It was everything you could want from a homemade ice cream. The range of flavors was spectacular and took into account those with dietary restrictions. While I was disappointed that they had run out of some flavors that I wanted to try, I greatly enjoyed every flavor that I was able to try. And, as I mentioned, the Chocolate Fudge Brownie was unparalleled. For that reason alone, I would rank Van Leeuwen as one of the best ice creams I’ve had throughout this journey.
The Inside Scoops 