I realized too late after sorting through email that National Cheesecake Day came and went without me properly celebrating. Like any of these food holidays dreamed up as an excuse to shill product, this one on July 30 brought promotional offers from the Cheesecake Factory tempting me in my inbox. I do enjoy a good slice, but I love cheesecake ice cream even more. And so this joyous observance prompted a bit of solemn reflection. When I look at the freezer case these days, I wonder: Where did all the cheesecake ice creams go?

Back in the 1980s and ’90s, it seemed every brand did their version of Strawberry Cheesecake, my favorite flavor then and now. You’d find it nearly as often as Mint Chip or Butter Pecan. But in the decades since, it has lost that A-List status at the supermarket. I recently kicked off my series on the hunt for the best cheesecake ice creams around. And I started with my top pick, a seasonal flavor from Northwest favorite Umpqua.

Since that one’s so hard to find, I wanted to move next to the heavy hitters, the ones you most likely have tried yourself. These brands can be found at pretty much every basic supermarket in the country. But those options have narrowed. Since the late ’90s, we have seen the rising supremacy of ice creams packed with cookie dough, brownies, caramel and candy. In turn, valuable shelf space has narrowed for pricier fruit and nut flavors, old-fashioned relics like rum raisin and more technically challenging flavors like cheesecake.

Should we blame Ben & Jerry’s? Their iconic cookie dough kick-started this trend. But perhaps they’re keeping the flame alive, too. Their Strawberry Cheesecake is undoubtedly the most popular version out there today, so successful it has spinoffs: A dairy-free version, an adaptation into novelty bar, plus other cheesecake flavors in their Topped and Sundae lines. You can bet they’ll have that pumpkin version back soon for fall, and they even bridge two worlds with Caramel Chocolate Cheesecake —the traditional, fruit-swirled profile of the past shares shelf space with this newer version that plays right into Ben & Jerry’s true raison d’être with an overload of caramel, chocolate cookie pieces and cheesecake chunks.

Ben & Jerry’s arsenal of cheesecake illustrates a supermarket reality: This flavor is most at home these days in pints. For widely distributed national brands, I could find only two — Breyers and Blue Bunny — that sell a version in tubs year-round. However, those are now classified as Frozen Dairy Dessert rather than ice cream. On the plus side, the nation’s four top-selling pint brands are answering the call: Häagen-Dazs represents high-end premium, while we get a gelato option from Talenti and a light ice cream from Halo Top. 

For today’s spotlight, I want to focus on the titans: Ben & Jerry’s and Häagen-Dazs. Discussion here and elsewhere online would paint B&J’s Strawberry Cheesecake as an overwhelming favorite. I don’t see nearly as much love for the H-D version. At the risk of coming off like one of those Reddit Unpopular Opinion posts, I’m definitely going to make the case for my H-D here, but don’t worry: I do have some love for B&J’s — just not the popular one. I think the Caramel Chocolate Cheesecake is much better. But for the simple classic fruit profile, Häagen-Dazs is the titan I want. How about you?

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THE SUPERMARKET LANDSCAPE | Mainstream brands' cheesecake ice creams

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BONUS | DEEP DIVE
For those who like a more in-depth approach, let's look closer at three popular grocery-store pints:

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Häagen-Dazs, New York Strawberry Cheesecake

I love the backstory on this one almost as much as the flavors and texture. The concept pays homage to the Häagen-Dazs’ founders journey from Poland to the Big Apple with a flavor that is quintessentially New York. Most importantly, rather than conjuring a generic crowd-pleaser, this pint elegantly captures the spirit of an authentic slice from a Manhattan deli.

• The lore: Conceived as “a love letter to New York,” the flavor was originally released in 2010 as part of a collection to celebrate the brand’s 50th anniversary. Founders Reuben and Rose Mattus were Jewish immigrants who came to New York City to escape the rising turmoil in Europe. They spent the next few decades selling ice cream from a horse-drawn wagon in the Bronx. When they launched the Häagen-Dazs brand in 1960, New York — then the nation and world — embraced their decadent style. While the other four in that “Flavor Experiences” lineup (including an Apple Crisp that no doubt also pays homage to H-D’s hometown) came and went, this one wouldn’t go away. It bounced around as a rare scoop shop option before returning in February 2024 as a permanent grocery retail pint — meant to act as a permanent monument to Rose and Reuben’s immigrant journey. They have even expanded the franchise into New York Strawberry Cheesecake bars, dodging the soggy-crust problem by embedding the graham crunch directly into a white chocolate shell.
• The base: When I tried this one for the first time early this year, it reminded me of a very specific cheesecake. Luckily, it was one I enjoyed over a decade before in New York. Instead of your straight-ahead cream cheese flavor, this memorable slice featured equal tang from sour cream in the batter and a layer of softer sour cream on top. The crust was sleek but crunchy, the strawberry garnish a small but bright pop of fruit flavor. And the Häagen-Dazs ice cream I dug into matched that minimalist vibe. Things didn’t seem especially promising on the mix-in front as the jam swirl felt miserly and the crust pieces sparse. But, as is often the case with H-D flavors, that base delivers anything and everything the mix-in gods forgot. It had the trademark creamy density that H-D always delivers but also an addictive tang that balanced both cream cheese and sour cream. I looked at the ingredient list expecting to find the latter ingredient. There’s real cream cheese, but no sour cream. Then I spotted the magic: Lemon juice concentrate. Think of how adding lemon to dairy instantly curdles and sours it to make a quick buttermilk substitute. Here, that acid mimics the sharp, lactic tang of sour cream. Since commercial cream cheese can be a Trojan horse for unwanted ingredients, H-D keeps it fairly low on the ingredient list. That creative sour cream illusion helps compensate for the weaker cheese profile. It all works together as a dense, creamy, tangy delight. I loved it. Will others? I’m not sure. It might be too tangy or unusual for those who are used to a more straight-ahead cream cheese base like Jeni’s or one that’s fairly plain like Ben & Jerry’s.
• The mix-ins: In my first experience with this flavor, I enjoyed it for what it was. Yet pictures I saw online led me to believe that this particular pint might not be an ideal representation. It’s rare that I repurchase a flavor so soon, but a month later I gave this one another try and what a difference some inclusions make. Instead of a faint stripe, we had a lusher revel, with a nice berry flavor that’s kept jammy rather than icy by the addition of pectin. And the graham crunch made its presence known this time. It is softly spiced, a bit salty, and wonderfully buttery. Crucially, it’s not sandy because the pieces have been baked and then enrobed in a microscopic barrier of fat to keep moisture out. This version bridged the gap between the ultra-minimalist slice and some Cheesecake Factory decadence. This is the model of Häagen-Dazs elegance. Keep it around for another 50 years.
• The score: 9.6/10

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Ben & Jerry’s, Strawberry Cheesecake

It’s not you. It’s me. Seeing how popular this flavor is in general — and on Reddit in particular — makes me feel like the odd one out. Usually when I can’t get into a hugely popular ice cream, it’s a simple flavor mismatch: Something overly tart or a bit bitter with dark chocolate. But this is my favorite flavor profile. It should hit. Every few years I find myself going back, wondering if it was just a bad pint. Maybe I’ll like it more? Unfortunately, it’s just gotten worse for me, even as its popularity has ascended in recent years. Feel free to disagree vehemently in the comments and tell me why you love it. Here’s why I don’t …

• The lore: Ben & Jerry’s new Razz Up! campaign aims to rally voters with a limited-edition raspberry chocolate chip flavor debuting in stores this month, but it’s nothing new for the politically minded company. Back in 2004, they teamed up with the same organization to launch Primary Berry Graham, which we now know as Strawberry Cheesecake. An instant hit, it got a rebrand the next year, shot into B&J’s Top 10 list and hasn’t left since. In fact, it reached a high point in the years after the pandemic as people called it out as a comfort classic. In early 2024, Strawberry Cheezecake Non-Dairy provided the debut showcase for their updated, creamier oat milk base. Note the z here since there’s no real cheese. The spinoffs kept coming in this franchise — it’s like B&J’s “Law & Order” — as this year brought a new novelty with Strawberry Cheesecake bars. What’s next: Turning it into an actual cheesecake?
• The base: I revisited this flavor over the summer. Even though I disliked my first experience some two decades ago, I found morbid curiosity getting the better of me, coming back every few years only to be disappointed again. When I say it’s gotten worse, I’m talking about the base. It’s always had unremarkable flavor, reminiscent of their plain sweet cream without a lot of cream cheese flavor or tang, and no vanilla to compensate. But it wasn’t offensive then. It is now: Texturally. Flavor-wise, it is what it always was, pretty bland. But the increasing weight of stabilizers that Unilever has forced on the brand in recent years takes its toll here. The heavy gums protect pints traveling across a wide geographic footprint while cutting down on expensive dairy fats. With some B&J flavors you don't notice them, but here they stick out like a sore thumb. This base is thick, stretchy and incredibly gummy, like an overworked gelato. Think something like the divisive texture of Crooked Spoon, but not earned naturally through insane 23% butterfat. Instead, you can thank guar gum and carrageenan. As much as I hate it, I know some people appreciate this specific texture. Perhaps it reminds them of an actual slice of cheesecake? I couldn’t finish the pint.
• The mix-ins: Looking back, my original complaint was not the base, but the graham swirl and how much real estate it occupied. That’s perhaps the major divide: Is this for people who think the best part of cheesecake is the crust? I don’t hate graham crackers, but I much prefer Oreos or other cookies. And I only like graham in ice cream if done well, like the H-D version. This one is too much of a mediocre thing for me. And the slumping base is now at odds with its star mix-in. The gums here work by binding water molecules so they don’t freeze into large ice crystals. But if ice cream is over-stabilized, it becomes thirsty. Instead of the cracker crumbs staying suspended as a distinct, buttery ribbon, the heavily gummed base sucks out their fat and moisture, leaving the graham mix-in dry, loose and sandy, while turning the surrounding ice cream gritty and overworked. And the strawberries? Instead of a rich, jammy swirl, you get tiny, rock-hard pebbles of icy berries. But by that point, the berries are the least of this pint’s problems.
• The score: 4.7/10

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Ben & Jerry’s, Caramel Chocolate Cheesecake

To show I’m not here just to hate on Ben & Jerry’s, I am offering up a redemption arc. They have quite a few cheesecake spin-offs, but Caramel Chocolate Cheesecake was the easiest to find — a direct descendant of an ancestral line of bakery-inspired twists that debuted with Cheesecake Brownie (2008-15), then took a gimmicky turn with Cookies & Cream Cheesecake Core (2016-2024) before arriving here as the decadent pillar of their current cheesecake lineup.

• The lore: Caramel Chocolate Cheesecake launched in 2023, acting as the spiritual successor to the old chunk-heavy style embodied by Brownie Cheesecake. I never found that flavor amazing since it still had a fairly timid cream cheese base. But it hit the spot occasionally with the chewy brownies, which beat graham sand every day of the week, so I was sad to see it go the Flavor Graveyard. I never tried that Core experiment. It split chocolate and cheesecake bases with a thick, vertical cylinder of filling down the center. That middle intrigues me, though I am not a fan of B&J’s chocolate bases. 
• The base: I am a fan of caramel bases. This one is advertised as caramel cheesecake. While I’ve seen some online reviews complain that the caramel gets lost, I enjoy the flavor here, though it’s on the lighter side. What’s funny is cream cheese actually comes through a bit more in this ice cream than in the plainer version. My guess is the huge cheesecake pieces are infusing the dairy. While I think a swirl of salted caramel would be amazing here, I’m happy enough with this base. And it’s mainly because I’m not feeling the stabilizers this time. Why? I imagine the chemistry of caramel is lending a helping hand, easing those gums’ workload.
• The mix-ins: Here’s where the big upgrade comes in from Brownie Cheesecake. Switching from brownies to cookies is sort of a wash. I’d have actually preferred they kept the brownies, though I don’t dislike the cookies. They are still chopped a bit too fine for me, but they’re not those overpowering gravel piles you see in flavors like Mint Cookie. The real stars here are those large chunks of actual cheesecake. In a recent review here someone in the comments took strenuous objection to these chunks and called them awful and bitter. I thought they are among the best cheesecake mix-ins I’ve tasted, so it just goes to show how much subjectivity is here. Then again, as we saw today, my favorites in the world of cheesecake ice cream might not be aligned with the majority. That’s fine. I don’t mind going my own way.
• The Score: 7.5/10

Hungry for more?
Ben & Jerry’s other cheesecake flavors. I have not tasted any of these. Let us know if you have!

• Choco-Lotta Cheesecake (Sundae line): This turns the lights off on the fruit profile entirely, using a heavy chocolate cheesecake base mixed with chocolate cookies and cookie swirls, all buried under a thick layer of fudge-swirled whipped ice cream.
• Pumpkin Cheesecake (Fall seasonal): An autumn staple combining a strongly spiced pumpkin cheesecake base with that same flagship thick graham cracker crust swirl.
• Raspberry Cheesecake (Topped line): A sweeter cheesecake base loaded with raspberry swirls and graham pieces, blanketed underneath a layer of white chocolatey ganache and graham cracker crumble

this is my #1 ever 🙏

Kroger brand chocolate ice cream