Canstar Blue’s latest ice cream tubs review compares Golden North, Cadbury, Connoisseur, Weis, Bulla, Peters, Blue Ribbon (Streets), Sara Lee, Woolworths, ALDI Monarc, Ben & Jerry’s, Häagen-Dazs, and Coles on taste, consistency, variety, packaging, value for money and overall satisfaction.
See our Ratings Methodology.
Golden North has scooped up Canstar Blue’s customer satisfaction award for ice cream tubs for the FIFTH year in a row, with five-star reviews for taste, consistency, and overall satisfaction.
On a scorching summer’s day, there’s nothing like a big bowl of ice cream to cool you down! And with non-dairy, plant-based, gluten-free and nut-free options now widely available, almost everyone can indulge in this special treat. But with so many options to choose from, which ice cream brand serves up the best blend of taste and value? The supermarket freezer aisle is packed full of different brands, so which are worth a try?
To help you find out which brand you should be sinking your sweet tooth into, we’ve again surveyed more than 2,700 Australian consumers about the ice cream tub(s) they have bought and eaten from a supermarket or grocer in the last six months. Survey respondents scored brands on their range variety, taste, consistency, packaging, value for money and overall satisfaction. Brands that met the minimum required sample size of 30 responses are featured in our results. So, what did we find this year?
Aussies continue to melt for Golden North, with the brand scooping up the title of best-rated ice cream brand (for tubs) for the fifth year in a row! It got five-star reviews for overall satisfaction and other key categories.
Here are the best ice cream tub brands in Australia, as rated by consumers in Canstar Blue’s latest review:
Golden North remains the crème de la crème in our latest ice cream tubs review, with five-star reviews for taste, consistency, and overall satisfaction. ALDI’s Monarc rated best for value for money and Connoisseur for variety, while Cadbury also managed to score full marks for packaging design and consistency.
Today is the day you find out you’ve been living a lie! The ice cream you have in your freezer might not actually be ‘ice cream’ at all! According to Food Standards Australia New Zealand, ice cream is officially defined as “a sweet frozen food that is made from cream or milk products or both, and other foods, and is generally aerated”. A food that is sold as ‘ice cream’ must, by law:
This means many of the ‘ice cream’ tubs you buy from the supermarket are in fact confectionery due to the lack of dairy cream they contain. Generally speaking, however, we refer to all products in the freezer aisles as ice cream for the sake of our ratings. You know what we mean…
Golden North is proudly South-Australian made and owned, producing ice cream for almost 100 years. Its products are boasted for being 100% palm oil-free and nut-free, with most of its range also gluten-free.
The brand’s range features products including:
For those looking for something specific, Golden North’s Diet Plus range is specifically designed for people with diabetes and classified as having a low glycaemic index (GI). You can also check out the brand’s Country Style line for nut-free and gluten-free alternatives, or the Simply Better line-up for dairy-free options. Tub sizes come in various options including 1L, 2L and 5L, depending on which variety of ice cream you’re after.
Cadbury may be the king of the chocolate bar aisle, but did you know they’ve got a stake in the freezer section too? The range includes ice cream versions of Aussie favourites such as Cadbury Crunchie, Cadbury Dairy Milk Caramello and Cadbury Dairy Milk Marble.
These usually come in 1.2L tubs. You can alternatively pick up multipacks and a Freddo ice cream cake.
Move over, vanilla and chocolate. Connoisseur doesn’t have time for bland ranges and instead prefers to mix up unique combos such as:
The brand offers several collections such as Plant-Based, Connoisseur X Koko Black and Crafted By Australia. Aside from tubs, Connoisseur also sells ice cream cookies and sticks. The gourmet ice cream tubs are usually available in either 1L or 450ml tubs.
Weis is ‘the taste on everyone’s lips, including those looking for a fairly affordable dairy and gluten-free alternative. Made in the same state that houses the Big Mango, Queensland, it’s fitting that the brand’s Mango & Cream Bar is its most well-known and supposedly best-selling product.
The classic Half & Half Mango & Ice Cream bar is available in tub form, with a pine lime & ice cream also available. There’s additionally a dairy-free raspberry & dark chocolate combo to enjoy.
Bulla grabs life by the horns, making each day sweeter than the last with its Creamy Classics range, Murray Street Ice Creamery collection and Real Dairy line-up.
Bulla’s Creamy Classics tubs are available in 2L varieties, offering flavours including mint choc, vanilla & boysenberry, cookies & cream, choc chip and vanilla & boysenberry. More unique alternatives can be found in 460ml Bulla Murray Street Ice Creamery tubs, with options such as caramel maple & macadamias and blackberry swirl & brownie pieces. Lastly, the Real Dairy range features flavours like vanilla choc chip and choc vanilla in 4L tubs.
From Drumsticks and Life Savers to Icy Poles and the classic ice cream party cake, Peters is behind some of the biggest brands in the world. Its Original ice cream tub range is no exception, with 2L tubs available in flavours including vanilla, Neapolitan, Chocopolitan, Triple Delight and Rainbow. Peters also offers a Light & Creamy collection, which is labelled 97% fat-free and comes in 1.8L tubs. Flavours include raspberry ripple and choc, caramel & vanilla.
Blue Ribbon is a Streets brand that has had many Australians tied around its finger (or should we say spoon) for many years with its Classics collection as well as new additions including Blue Ribbon Crafted Ice Cream and Blue Ribbon 308-372 Calorie Tubs.
The Blue Ribbon Classics range is available in 2L tubs and offers flavours such as choc mint, Neapolitan and cookies & cream. Lighter alternatives are available with Blue Ribbon’s light vanilla tub, which is said to be 97% fat-free. It’s also claimed to contain no artificial colours and 63% less fat than the brand’s regular 2L tubs.
Sara Lee puts a modern spin on traditional desserts we all know and love, especially when it comes to ice cream. Flavours include Decadent Latte Cookies & Cream, Extreme Rocky Road, Decadent Dulce De Leche and creamy mango, passionfruit & white chocolate. Each delicious pint comes in a 1L tub, which will typically cost you $10 at the checkout.
Some other sweet goodies available from Sara Lee include pies, cheesecakes, puddings, cakes and brownies.
Woolworths is another supermarket to offer its own homebrand line of budget-friendly ice creams. It has a couple of flavours to choose from, including a 2L tub of Hokey Pokey and a 1L tub of peanut butter & salted chocolate. Products like the Hokey Pokey are advertised as reduced-fat ice cream with 67% less milk fat than Woolies’ 1L ice cream. Woolworths also has a Plantitude range for those craving plant-based ice cream.
For a wallet-friendly sweet fix, German supermarket discount chain ALDI has its own line of homebrand ice cream tubs for a lick of the price of pints from other brands. The Indulge range includes flavours such as Vanilla Opulence and Triple Mudcake. ALDI Monarch will usually set you back just $4.49 for a 1L tub.
As one of the most well-known and popular brands of ice cream around the world, it seems people can’t scoop up enough of Ben & Jerry’s creative concoctions like Netflix & Chill’d and Half Baked. It has several ranges to choose from, including its regular ice cream pints and core pints, a non-dairy range, and a ‘Topped’ line-up. The brand’s Topped ice cream flavours are said to have more of the gooey, chocolatey layer, and chunks and swirls that fans know and love. Ben & Jerry’s is among one of the most expensive ice cream tubs featured in our review, checking out at $13 for a 458ml tub.
‘Try me once, love me forever’ is a pretty fitting motto for Häagen-Dazs, a popular go-to pick for sweet tooths around the world. The brand says its range of ice creams always starts with four simple ingredients, namely real cream, milk, eggs and sugar.
Rather than large tubs, the brand offers several 475ml pints in flavours such as cookie dough, mango & raspberry, strawberry cheesecake and Belgian chocolate. The brand also recently released its Duo collection, which packs two signature Häagen-Dazs ice cream flavours into one tub. You can find combos including dark chocolate & salted caramel crunch and Belgian chocolate & vanilla. Keep in mind that some flavours like cookie dough are exclusively available from Woolworths.
Compared to other supermarket chains, Coles has a wide variety of ice cream flavours and sizes to scan through. There are a few unique combos like Ultimate peanut butter cups, choc honeycomb, rum & raisin, honey caramel & macadamia, salted caramel fudge and cookie dough chocolate ripple. Coles also has dairy-free ice cream in flavours including coconut & mango with a passion fruit swirl.
Whether you want a tub for the whole family or just yourself, you can find products in 473ml, 500ml, 1L, 2L and 4L varieties. Similar to Woolies and ALDI, this homebrand range is on the affordable side, with tubs costing between $2.75 and $6.
When asked what their favourite flavour of ice cream is, vanilla was the most popular choice of survey respondents:
This report was written by Canstar Blue’s home & lifestyle journalist, Tahnee-Jae Lopez-Vito. She’s an expert on household appliances, grooming products and all things grocery and shopping. In addition to translating our expert research into consumer-friendly ratings reports, Tahnee spends her time helping consumers make better-informed purchase decisions on all manner of consumer goods and services, while highlighting the best deals and anything you need to be aware of.
Canstar Blue surveyed nearly 6,000 Australian adults across a range of categories to measure and track customer satisfaction, via ISO 26362 accredited research panels managed by Qualtrics. The outcomes reported are the results from customers within the survey group who have purchased and consumed ice cream in a tub from a supermarket or grocer within the last six months – in this case, 2,742 people.
Brands must have received at least 30 responses to be included. Results are comparative and it should be noted that brands receiving three stars have still achieved a satisfaction measure of at least six out of 10. Not all brands available in the market have been compared in this survey. The ratings table is first sorted by star ratings and then by mean overall satisfaction. A rated brand may receive a ‘N/A’ (Not Applicable) rating if it does not receive the minimum number of responses for that criteria.
Here are the brands that previously rated best in Canstar Blue’s ice cream tubs ratings:
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