Delicious Ice Cream Flavors We Wish Would Come Back

Vanilla ice cream with real apples, crumbled crunchy crust, and a swirl of cinnamon-flavored caramel, this homey treat, created in 2006, now resides in the company’s “Deep Freeze” of retired flavors.

Another denizen of the Baskin-Robbins Deep Freeze, dating from 2002, this nostalgia-inducing creation combined chocolate ice cream, toasted-marshmallow mousse, chocolate flakes, and shards of graham cracker.

Launched in 1986 as a promotional tie-in with the TV show “Miami Vice,” this was a cool, tropical sorbet made with a purée of limes and lime juice mixed with pink grapefruit ice — tart and tasty, but now consigned to the Deep Freeze and just as forgotten as the drama it was based on. (Just to confuse things, Baskin-Robbins subsequently added in a sorbet called Miami Vice, which combined strawberry and piña colada flavors — not the same thing at all.)

This agreeable concoction of Irish Cream liqueur ice cream bulked up with crumbled chocolate-chocolate chip cookies and a swirl of coffee fudge appeared in limited quantities in 2004, then had a regular run from 2005 through 2012.

One of the least gimmicky, most straightforward Ben & Jerry’s flavors ever, this glorious summery ice cream endured from 1986 through 1991. The epitaph on its headstone in the Flavor Graveyard reads “Fresh-picked peaches / trucked from Georgia / Tasted great but couldn’t last / ‘Cuz Georgia’s quite a-ways away / & trucks don’t go that fast.”

This unlikely sounding mix of white-fudge-covered caramel popcorn, toffee-coated peanuts, and a caramel swirl, stirred up with caramel ice cream, was surprisingly delicious but might well have been a little too tooth-achingly sweet for most ice-cream-lovers and only lasted one year, 2000.

A tribute to the Woodstock-era legend of the same name (born Hugh Romney) — a character once described as “a positively ill classic hippy flower geezer icon” — this appropriately nutty caramel, cashew, and Brazil nut ice cream enhanced with roasted almonds and a chocolate hazelnut fudge swirl was in the Ben & Jerry’s repertoire from 1993 through 2001.

Anyone who’s ever tasted wild Maine blueberries knows that they’re on a different level altogether than the conventional supermarket variety. For a glorious year or so, in 1992 and ’93, Ben & Jerry’s somehow managed to translate their flavors into this irresistible ice cream.

This riff on the popular red-hued red velvet chocolate layer cake was introduced in 2011 and originally co-branded with “Ace of Cakes” star Duff Goldman. It involved red-velvet-cake-flavored ice cream into which were mixed pieces of the actual cake and ribbons of cream cheese frosting — a delight for anyone who likes the cake itself, but unfortunately now retired.

This very thick and creamy frozen custard flavored with cocoa and malt extract was in stores only in 2015 and 2016. It was reminiscent of an old-style malted milkshake, rich and satisfying. The company — whose products are labeled Dreyer’s in the western U.S. and Edy’s elsewhere — subsequently discontinued its whole frozen custard line.

This tart, intensely fruity sorbet, based on blackberries and cabernet sauvignon grapes, was introduced in 2011. It may have been too bold and tangy for general audiences, and unfortunately has been discontinued.

Crema catalana is the Spanish version of France’s crème brûlée, a dense custard with a hard caramelized sugar topping, and a Catalan chef invented crema catalana ice cream circa 1974. Häagen-Dazs came up with its own version — creamy custard ice cream with caramel swirls — sometime later, but it was retired in 2016 and is now consigned to the company’s list of “Sweet Memories.”

This presentation of peanut butter ice cream laden with bits of salted fudge and chocolate-covered peanuts was almost — but not quite — too much of a good thing. It was released in 2017, but unfortunately the company has since consigned it to its Sweet Memories department.

A 2015 release in the company’s Artisan Collection series, this was an elaboration of its tres leches ice cream (based on Latin America’s popular tres leches cake, made with evaporated milk, condensed milk, and heavy cream). Brigadeiros are Brazilian confections of condensed milk, cocoa powder, and butter — and this ice cream emulated them with swirls of cocoa sauce and sweetened condensed milk. Any fan of intense caramel flavors would have loved this ice cream.

A short-lived entry in the Häagen-Dazs Destination Series, made with vanilla ice cream, crumbled shortbread cookies, and ribbons of tangerine curd, this refreshing, buttery, sweet-tart frozen treat was rolled out in 2016. It was said to evoke teatime in the U.K., though neither ice cream nor tangerines are typical teatime fare — but when something tastes this good, who’s going to nit-pick?

When Starbucks got out of the supermarket ice cream business in 2013 after 17 years, the disappearance of this simple but delicious confection of coffee ice cream with chocolate chunks was the most bemoaned by fans.

Introduced in 2015 and retired several years later, this rich gelato mixed real oatmeal cookie pieces, dark brown sugar, cinnamon, and raisins into vanilla ice cream. Serving it, Talenti’s website promised, “will quickly launch you into Figurative World’s Best Grandma status.” That possibility may have deterred some purchasers. Their loss.

Pennsylvania-based Turkey Hill Dairy sold this vanilla ice cream full of strawberries and stewed rhubarb — a classic summer pie combination — from 1996 through 2001. It was a finalist in the company’s Ultimate Flavor Tournament, which asked ice cream lovers to choose one retired flavor to bring back — but it lost to Caramel Brownie Overload.