The Strawberry Ice Cream Brand That Takes The Crown For The Absolute Best

When it comes to fruity ice cream, strawberry easily stands above the rest as the most popular of them all. However, even die-hard fans of one of the most popular ice cream flavors in the United States know that not all strawberry ice cream is created equal. While many store-bought versions of the cold strawberry snack can satisfy your craving, we here at The Takeout believe that none do it as well as Van Leeuwen's Strawberry French Ice Cream.

Van Leeuwen's remarkable offering was ranked No. 1 overall on our list of the best store-bought strawberry ice creams, and for good reason. The delicious ice cream — which exclusively comes in pints, rather than the standard 48-ounce cartons — really stands out from the crowd due to its incredible utilization of quality components. With only six ingredients in its recipe, including delicious Oregon-grown strawberries and cane sugar, Van Leeuwen achieves unmatched taste and texture without unnecessary extras.

Of those six ingredients, perhaps the most integral to Van Leeuwen's Strawberry French Ice Cream is the egg yolk. While many ice creams in America consist of sugar, milk and cream – which is known as Philadelphia-style — Van Leeuwen utilizes egg yolk as a key ingredient, granting it the distinction of French-style ice cream.  Any ice cream comprised of 1.3% egg yolk or more in total weight can be called "French," a mark that Van Leeuwen's significantly exceeds. This method provides the ice cream with a thicker, more custard-like texture and a much richer taste. Even Van Leeuwen's Grey Poupon with Salted Pretzels flavor features this technique — and the chain has amassed a massive fanbase by using this method for most of its dairy-based offerings.

Van Leeuwen co-founder and CEO, Ben Van Leeuwen, explained why using egg yolk is so vital to the business. "When you're making ice cream, you're using cream, which has a lot of fat, and that will give you creaminess, but the cream won't give you the toothsomeness," he explained to Entrepreneur. "The egg yolks give you the toothsomeness. So it emulsifies and gives the product a little bit of solidness and chew, and we love that." As far as Van Leeuwen's Strawberry French Ice Cream goes? We clearly love it too.