Syno HubSyno Hub
Back to News
Lifestyle

Scoop of the year! We taste-test 99 of 2026’s most unusual ice creams, from the unbeatable to the unlickable

From olive oil to matcha, soy sauce to sage and onion stuffing, there’s a frozen designer dessert out there to tickle even the most jaded palate. Here’s the best –...

AAdmin
July 28, 2026
3 min read
Scoop of the year! We taste-test 99 of 2026’s most unusual ice creams, from the unbeatable to the unlickable

Lucy Knight on her mammoth taste test. Photograph: Alicia Canter/The Guardian View image in fullscreen Lucy Knight on her mammoth taste test. Photograph: Alicia Canter/The Guardian Taste test Ice-cream and sorbet Scoop of the year! We taste-test 99 of 2026’s most unusual ice creams, from the unbeatable to the unlickable From olive oil to matcha, soy sauce to sage and onion stuffing, there’s a frozen designer dessert out there to tickle even the most jaded palate. Here’s the best – and worst – of what’s on offer in Britain this summer

Lucy Knight Tue 28 Jul 2026 06.00 CEST Last modified on Tue 28 Jul 2026 06.06 CEST Share Prefer the Guardian on Google W hat’s with all the weird ice-cream flavours this year? It feels as if supermarkets and independent companies are vying to make the most novel alternatives to a good old scoop of vanilla. But which are actually worth having? I tried 99 varieties of ice-cream tubs and ranked them from sickeningly sweet to dinner party-worthy.

  1. Paxo sage and onion stuffing, Anya Hindmarch (One scoop £4.50 or 500ml tub £16, The Ice Cream Project, London) Anya Hindmarch’s Ice Cream Project has become a yearly summer fixture, in which the fashion designer collaborates with well-known brands to create nostalgic novelty flavours (at designer prices) for which customers queue round the block. This year the flavours skew toward roast dinners, and include Oxo (which I couldn’t try, being vegetarian) and Paxo. It tastes exactly like the stuffing … which isn’t really what I want from an ice-cream. Taste 1/10, Value 1/10, Originality 7/10

View image in fullscreen ‘It tastes exactly like the stuffing’. Photograph: PR 98. High protein chocolate brownie, Oppo (240ml, £3.50, Ocado) A disgraceful, claggy, protein bar-flavoured excuse for an ice-cream. Taste 1/10, Value 5/10, Originality 4/10

  1. Crunchie, Cadbury (425ml, £4.02, Asda) Sickly sweet; very, very orange in colour, with a weird, foamy, almost mousse-like texture. Taste 3/10, Value 5/10, Originality 2/10

  2. Hobnobs, McVitie’s (500ml, £4, Iceland) Grainy and overly sweet. Hobnob fans should stay away and avoid disappointment. Taste 3/10, Value 5/10, Originality 2/10

  3. Caramelised biscuit swirl, Oppo (475ml, £5.40, Ocado) This sickly-sweet ice-cream demonstrates exactly why “low-calorie” ice-cream shouldn’t be a thing. Taste 3/10, Value 5/10, Originality 3/10

  4. Jacob’s Mini Cheddars, Anya Hindmarch (One scoop £4.50 or 500ml tub £16, The Ice Cream Project, London) Cheese ice-cream apparently has a long history in the UK, but this version doesn’t do that history any justice. Slightly coarse texture and familiar Mini Cheddars flavour. Taste 3/10, Value 1/10, Originality 7/10

  5. Amarena cherry cheesecake, Hackney Gelato (460ml, £5.75, Waitrose) I wanted more cheesiness from this one, too, and a less synthetic cherry flavour. Taste 3/10, Value 5/10, Originality 3/10

  6. Cherry and mascarpone gelato, Crosta & Mollica (450ml, £4.60, Waitrose) Soft-serve style, prettily swirled in its recyclable box, underdelivers on flavour. Taste 4/10, Value 5/10, Originality 2/10

  7. Cornish sea salted caramel brittle, No 1 Waitrose (480ml, £4.50, Waitrose) Unlike most salted caramel treats, this was actually well salted, and the brittle was nice and crunchy – even if salted caramel ice-cream feels a bit old hat these days. Taste 4/10, Value 6/10, Originality 1/10

  8. Strawberry cheesecake, Häagen-Dazs (460ml, £5.75, Tesco) Overly sweet and artificial-tasting. Taste 4…