What’s the best ice cream flavor?

This question has been occupying my mind since the beginning of springtime. The weather, albeit chaotic, has finally begun to feel like summer. Summer makes me think hot; hot makes me think cold; cold makes me think ice cream.

So, I decided to bother the high school student body about it.

I sent out a survey over basic preferences that some may have when it comes to ice cream (among other impersonal questions). Some questions in the survey included “What are your top three favorite ice cream flavors?” “What’s your favorite sports team?” and “Cup or cone?” These questions set out to explore any correlation between who likes ice cream, and why they like ice cream.

With 80 completed surveys to examine, here’s some of the intriguing data collected from the ice cream inquiry!

These two graphs are the first pair of comparisons that can be made taking into account the data given from the questionnaire. Interestingly enough, the same amount of people who identified themselves as a freshman, (37.5% or 30 voters,) matches up with the amount of vanilla ice cream enthusiasts who answered the survey. Though, contrarily, the majority of people who took the survey may be freshmen. This can’t be said for the best classic ice cream. With 43.8% of the votes (35 voters), chocolate seems to be the fan favorite. Only 15 people chose the arguably best option, strawberry.

But what is the best ice cream flavor? Of course, there’s no way to claim one flavor or the other, but I feel like I can highlight some of the answers from our survey that intrigued me, starting with the two who had the same exact formatted top three.

“Vanilla, cookies and cream, cookie dough,” Charli Pickard ‘28 and Raleigh Klein ‘27 said.

All three very solid flavors.

“3- pistachio 2- salt 1- dill pickle,”  Everett Craddock ’28 said.

I have to reward Craddock for having the most unique taste in ice cream flavors I’ve seen to date. I don’t know how my taste buds would react, but I’m glad dill pickle works for him. All ice cream flavors deserved to be loved equally.

And while these results may not correlate with the overall ice cream theming of this survey, I still feel obligated to share them as they were presented questions alongside some of the more important ones:

I find it interesting how evenly distributed this chart ended up being. With the majority of 30 people advocating for the subject, Science takes home the fan favorite. Followed by a tie in History and Math, leaving English in dead last. It’s a shame, as I am an English fan myself. Who doesn’t like a sweet little treat while sobbing your eyes out reading the best piece of literature you’ve ever seen? Either way, I’m glad we’re all able to put aside our differences and just cherish the fact that ice cream exists at the end of it all. No opinion could ever change that… perspective…

…Oh. I’ve spoken too soon. It’s actually with great (personal) displeasure that I have to unfortunately announce this next resulting poll. Do you lick or… bite, your ice cream? My teeth wince just asking the question. A literal third of the voters, however, have a different opinion. They seem to like the pleasure in pain. And, before you excuse the notion, please keep in mind that I was trying to refer to the classic sugar-cone-double-or-single-scoop-of-whatever type of ice cream. No popsicles or cup will ever save the culinary crime of biting into the original formula. Not only that, but the 27 of you who voted admitted to these crimes. Since this story is “purely” statistical, I shall wane from giving my true, honest opinion on what I think of that. However, I will leave you with a kind warning to please never step into an ice cream parlor again.

Speaking of cups and cones, I’ve neglected to mention the question of cups or cones. Cones take the win in a clean 65%-35% ratio, with 52 voting the former and 28 voting the latter. I give my personal grievances to the specific people who voted for the cup because they have braces. I was in your position for longer than I’d like to admit, and I can say without a doubt that cone was the better option in this case. The mess only accentuates the whole ice cream experience; it’s part of the fun.

But where does anyone get ice cream, anyway? It’s always nice to get some Bluebell or Ben and Jerry’s from the grocery store, but that isn’t as fun as visiting an ice cream parlor. So, I’ve decided to gather the top three entries for the best place that sells ice cream.

• First: Marble Slab (22 votes) — I’ve had Marble Slab before. It’s definitely great, and I get the appeal to the voters who decided to support it. While it may not be my personal favorite, it’s a strong contender with the consistency of the ice cream itself and topping choices.
• Second: Braums (14 votes) — I used to have Braums a lot. The banana split was my personal favorite, though I don’t visit it often anymore. Still, I like that Braums has its fans in Country Day. It’s a great place when it comes to variety, and I also recommend it to people who want to try.
• Third: Curly’s (12 votes) — I haven’t actually had Curly’s before. I don’t have much to comment on because of this fact, but the results have intrigued me to try it out. I wonder what the ice cream must be like there for it to be so popular.

Now, all this ice cream talk makes me hungry for ice cream. With Texas weather finally starting to warm up (thoroughly throughout the week,) I think it’s high time for me to enjoy some ice cream myself. One lick at a time.