We independently evaluate all recommended products and services. If you click on links we provide, we may receive compensation. Learn more. What to Buy The 11 Best Ice Cream Delivery Services to Order Online Get specialty pints, ice cream cakes, mochi, and more delivered straight to your door. By Rochelle Bilow Rochelle Bilow Rochelle Bilow is a graduate of the French Culinary Institute, and the former social media manager at Bon Appétit and Cooking Light magazines. She has also worked as a cook on a small farm in Central New York and a Michelin-starred restaurant in New York City. Her first book, a food and farming memoir titled The Call of the Farm, was published in 2014. Her second book, a romance novel set in Scotland, will be published in February 2023. Food & Wine's Editorial Guidelines Updated on April 3, 2024 In This Article Expand In This Article ReviewsFactors to Consider FAQ Our Expertise Photo: Food & Wine / David Hattan Although there's always the DIY option to whip out the ice cream maker or snow cone machine at home, the best ice cream delivery services make it easy to order unique or special-occasion frozen treats online. Sure, it's a bit of an indulgence, but there's something special about ordering memorable ice cream pints from across the country to arrive straight to your doorstep. You can choose hard-to-find flavors, opt for plant-based and low-sugar brands, and even send ice cream cakes or classic sandwiches as a present. So, whether you’re just sampling new flavors, gifting someone special, or stocking your freezer, here are our current favorite picks for the best ice cream delivery options to savor and share. Now, let's dig in! Best Overall McConnell’s Fine Ice Creams PHOTO: McConnell’s Fine Ice Creams View On Mcconnells.com Celebrating its 75th birthday this year, McConnell’s has a long history of making indulgent, creative ice creams in Santa Barbara, California. Quality ingredients — including milk from a company-owned dairy — are the secret to the ultra-smooth, ultra-rich ice creams. The brand is dedicated to the best in flavors and mix-ins, too, with house-made sauces and swirls, locally grown fruits and nuts, and other high-end ingredients sourced from around the world. There's a fairly long flavor list available, which spans both traditional classics and more unusual limited-edition combinations like blueberry with bits of lemon glazed donut, or Garrison Brothers Whiskey ice cream with pecan praline bits. McConnell's selections even include nine dairy-free, oat milk–based options. The brand is the top pick for many Food & Wine staffers, including senior commerce updates writer Jason Horn. "I'm a cookies and cream fan, and the version from McConnell's is the best I've ever had," he says. "The sea salt cream ice cream has a deep, pure flavor, and the house-baked chocolate chip cookie pieces are soft, chewy, and perfect." Minimum Order: 4 pints | Shipping: Arrives within 2 to 10 business days (via UPS Ground; overnight also available) Best Subscription eCreamery 6 Month Ice Cream Subscription PHOTO: eCreamery View On Ecreamery.com The ideal gift for the adventurous ice cream lover, this club includes four mystery pints per month of classic and seasonal flavors. From mint chip and butter brickle to maple blondie and frosted sugar cookie, eCreamery keeps the treats flowing, and the subscription covers shipping, too. In addition to this 6-month option, you can also choose a 3-month or 12-month subscription. Or if you’re looking for less of a commitment, eCreamery makes personalized pints — who wouldn’t want to receive an ice cream delivery with a photo or message from their BFF on it? Includes: 6 monthly shipments of 4 pints each | Shipping: Nationwide Best Indian-Inspired Flavors Malai Choose Your Own Four Pints PHOTO: Goldbelly $90 At goldbelly.com Chai latte fans: Hold on to your hats. Brooklyn-based chef Pooja Bavishi has turned the spice-and-tea delight masala chai into an ice cream, and it's every bit as delicious as it sounds. Her Malai brand makes ice creams using Indian-inspired ingredients and flavor combinations, like rose with cinnamon-roasted almonds, lemon cardamom, and carrot halwa. Several options are vegan, like the coconut-based pineapple pink peppercorn, peanut-based spiced peanut crunch, and chocolate sorbet with swirls of fudge-like coconut burfi. You can't go wrong with this choose-your-own assortment of 4 pints, but there's also a 6-pint package as well as “Kulfi” Ice Cream Pops and the indulgent Gulab Jamun Ice Cream Cake, a sandwich of the rose and cinnamon-roasted almond ice cream between two giant slabs of saffron syrup–soaked cardamom cake. Includes: 4 pints | Shipping: Choose delivery date (Tuesday-Thursday only) Best Ice Cream Sandwich IT’S-IT Ice Cream Sandwich Sampler PHOTO: Goldbelly View On Goldbelly.com San Francisco may be known as the land of sourdough bread, but any current or former Bay Area resident will also know the ice cream sandwiches from IT'S-IT. First sold in 1928, these treats consist of a scoop of ice cream smashed between a pair of oatmeal raisin cookies, with the whole thing dipped in chocolate glaze. The brand has truly nailed the ice cream–to-cookie ratio for an optimal eating experience. Thanks to Goldbelly, you can now get these iconic regional desserts anywhere in the country, with a package that includes a little of everything. This sampler gets you 42 sandwiches, including a half-dozen of six different ice cream flavors with the traditional oatmeal raisin cookies, plus another half-dozen of vanilla with chocolate chip cookies. And if you're gifting one to a homesick IT'S-IT fan, you can add on a branded t-shirt, sweatshirt, or hat. Includes: 42 ice cream sandwiches (6 each of vanilla, mint, cappuccino, strawberry, pumpkin, chocolate, and Chips-IT) | Shipping: Choose delivery date (Tuesday-Friday only) Best Classic Flavors Caffè Panna Classics Ice Cream 6-Pack PHOTO: Goldbelly View On Goldbelly.com Caffè Panna is at its heart a neighborhood joint in New York City, but founder Hallie Meyer learned her trade at a Roman gelateria and has serious ice cream cred. This assortment puts an American spin on Italian technique with 6 pints of old-school favorites. You get vanilla, chocolate, and cookies and cream, of course, along with a coffee stracciatella, strawberry shortcake with chunks of house-made Graham crackers, and vanilla with peanut butter swirl. Every flavor is big, bold, and very indulgent. Includes: 6 pints (vanilla, chocolate, Red Flag, Caffe Bianco Stracciatella, Cookies 'n Panna, Aud's Dream) | Shipping: Choose delivery date (Tuesdays only) Best Boozy Ice Cream Tipsy Scoop Boozy Favorites Ice Cream Collection PHOTO: Goldbelly View On Goldbelly.com Tipsy Scoop's pints don't just taste like margaritas, limoncello, and spiked coffee; they contain the hard stuff. These sorbets and ice creams use real vodka, tequila, and liqueurs. (They're 5 percent alcohol at maximum, which is about equivalent to a pilsner.) Alcohol interferes with freezing, which makes getting good texture in boozy ice cream a challenge, but Tipsy Scoop has found the right balance for smooth creaminess. This 6-pint assortment would make for a great "cocktail" party, or a special birthday treat for the right person. But if you do give it as a gift, make sure to let the recipient know ahead of time! Because there's alcohol in this ice cream, someone 21 or older will have to show ID to receive the package. Includes: 6 pints (spiked hazelnut coffee, cake batter vodka martini, raspberry limoncello sorbet, mango margarita sorbet, 2 pints vanilla bean bourbon) | Shipping: Choose delivery date (Tuesday-Saturday only) Best Mochi Ice Cream Mochidoki Signature Box Set PHOTO: Mochidoki View On Mochidoki.com Mochi is a Japanese confection made by pounding glutinous rice into a sweet, chewy paste. When you wrap it around a ball of ice cream, the combination of textures and mouthfeels creates a dessert sensation like no other. There are plenty of mochi ice cream brands available today, but our top pick is Mochidoki. Its treats have a nice thin layer of mochi whose flavor matches the ice cream inside, in the perfect size to finish in two or three bites. This infinitely snackable set gets you eight flavors (two of them vegan), an ideal sampler of Mochidoki's options. The individual four-packs are also perfect to give as a gift or bring along for a potluck dessert. Includes: 32 mochi ice cream bites (4 each of vanilla chip, strawberry, cake batter, matcha, black sesame, purple sweet potato, vegan mango, and vegan passion fruit) | Shipping: Ships Monday-Wednesday only (ground or 2-day available depending on location) Best Ice Cream Cake Davey’s Ice Cream Vanilla + Cookies & Cream Ice Cream Cake PHOTO: Goldbelly $100 At goldbelly.com This show-stopper of a cake is pretty much all ice cream. Its thick layers of vanilla and cookies and cream are held together with crunchy Oreo fudge and topped with a little whipped cream and some rainbow sprinkles. It's a fun classic that everyone will love, made extra-fancy by a famed ice cream shop in New York's East Village. This 6-inch cake will feed eight to 10 people. It can ship in as quickly as 3 days, but we say to avoid the stress and order it well ahead. It'll stay pristine and party-ready in the freezer for up to a full month. Shipping: Choose delivery date (Wednesday-Friday only) Best Vegan Van Leeuwen Peanut Butter Brownie Honeycomb Non-Dairy Frozen Dessert PHOTO: Instacart View On Wholefoodsmarket.com From a single ice cream truck in 2008, Van Leeuwen has grown to a brand with scoop shops in more than 10 cities nationwide. Its dairy ice creams are delicious, but we're especially big fans of the vegan options. Non-dairy ice creams can have an unpleasant ice texture, but Van Leeuwen uses a mix of cashew, oat, coconut, cocoa butter, and presumably a little magic to create a legitimately creamy mouthfeel. Of the several vegan flavor options, the chunk- and swirl-filled peanut butter brownie honeycomb is our top pick, but you really can't go wrong. Other choices include strawberry shortcake, brown sugar chunk, and churros and fudge. Shipping: Local delivery Best Culinary Flavors Salt & Straw Pick Your Pints Ice Cream Collection PHOTO: Salt Straw View On Saltandstraw.com Based in Portland, Oregon, Salt & Straw makes some ice cream flavors that wouldn't seem out of place in a Michelin-starred restaurant. Its arbequina olive oil, honey lavender, and pear and blue cheese are great examples, combining sweet and savory for a sophisticated experience. But it's the strawberry honey balsamic with black pepper that earns the highest recommendation from executive editor Karen Shimizu and associate editorial director Chandra Ram. "That one is perfection!" Ram says. Salt & Straw will ship any of its flavors anywhere in the continental U.S., but the catch is that you have to buy 5 pints at a time. This option lets you choose any combination you want, whether that's five of the strawberry honey balsamic or an assortment of unique and more familiar flavors. You can also throw in a sixth pint for a discount. (Try the marionberry coconut sherbet and the salted, malted chocolate chip cookie dough!) Includes: 5 or 6 pints | Shipping: Ground or 2-day available depending on location (ships weekdays only) Best Low-Sugar Enlightened Brownie & Cookie Dough Frozen Greek Yogurt PHOTO: Instacart View On Instacart.com If you’re watching your carb intake, you’ll want to check out Enlightened. The brand's frozen yogurts have up to 75 percent less sugar than traditional brands, but their flavor is also nothing short of revelatory. Its delicious consistency is thanks to Greek-style yogurt, whose higher protein content and thicker texture make it rich and creamy. With its two kinds of dough chunks and chocolate chips, this flavor is an indulgent delight. Shipping: Local delivery Factors to Consider Ingredients Ice cream isn’t complicated to make — at its heart, it’s just cream, milk, eggs, and sugar. Some brands keep things simple and focus on the best individual ingredients, while others pack in the mix-ins. Any ice cream you can buy online should have a full list of ingredients available for all flavors; if food allergies are an issue, check before you order. Flavors If you’re splurging on specialty high-end ice cream, you may not want to take a risk on an unfamiliar flavor. While choosing vanilla may seem, well, vanilla, there’s a sneaky value in ordering it: “Vanilla is 28% of all ice cream sold and if a brand makes a great vanilla they are more likely to nail other flavors too,” says Gabrielle Yacoob, Head of Design, Development, and F&B at The Museum of Ice Cream. That said, the bold and brave are often rewarded. And haven’t you always wondered what everything bagel–flavored ice cream tastes like? Shipping Not every ice cream brand is set up for shipping: It takes special care to keep pints frozen on a cross-country journey. “Ice cream is shipped in thick-walled styrofoam containers with dry ice inside to maintain frozen temperatures through the shipping process,” says Dana Cree, author of the cookbook Hello, My Name Is Ice Cream and founder of Chicago's Pretty Cool. Companies that ship ice cream generally have the process down to a science, giving you specific options based on where you're shipping to and only sending out orders on specific days of the week so they don't end up stuck in a delivery warehouse for days. But don’t push the timing, Cree says. “Pick a day when you know the recipient will be home, ship early in the week, and ship to a residence.” If you're sending ice cream as a gift, it's not the time for surprises; tell the recipient what's coming so they can stick it in the freezer as soon as it arrives. Frequently Asked Questions How expensive is it to send ice cream delivery as a gift? Well, it’s not cheap. Yacoob says that overnight or second-day delivery (at maximum!) is crucial for keeping the texture intact, which makes shipping a significant part of the cost. Many online ice cream retailers include shipping in the total price — and you often have to order several pints at once to make the shipping costs worthwhile. Others charge separately and may have different rates for different parts of the country. Either way, you can expect to pay a little extra to get regional or specialty ice creams you can't get otherwise. How do I safely dispose of dry ice after I open my ice cream? Dry ice, which is carbon dioxide in solid form, works very well for transporting ice cream. It's incredibly cold, at about -109°F, and can stay that way for days. But it can be dangerous; you absolutely should not touch it with bare skin. Instead, Yaboob says to use gloves or oven mitts to transfer leftover pieces of dry ice into the sink where it can slowly melt away over a few hours. It's crucial to keep it out of reach of kids. What should I do if my ice cream arrives melted? Besides feeling crushing disappointment, you should contact the company you ordered it from right away. Most ice cream brands guarantee that orders will arrive frozen and will give you a refund or replacement — but you have to get in touch within a few hours of delivery. Our Expertise Rochelle Bilow is a food writer and editor with over a decade of professional experience. Previously a senior associate editor and social media manager at Bon Appétit and Cooking Light magazines, Rochelle is also a novelist, a culinary school graduate, and a former professional baker and line cook. Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Tell us why! Other Submit