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Coffee ice cream

Coffee ice cream is a light brown custard flavored with ground coffee or espresso, roasted and a little bitter.

Classic A classic you can buy almost anywhere. What the badge means

Coffee ice cream is a light brown flavor made with ground coffee or espresso. It sits in the coffee and tea section of our flavor library, and it is a classic you can buy almost anywhere.

This page covers how it tastes, how to make coffee ice cream at home, what to serve with it, how common it is and what the nutrition figures show.

What coffee tastes like

Coffee ice cream tastes roasted and a little bitter, softened by milky sweetness. The color is light brown, a shade that comes from the coffee mixed into a pale dairy base.

The flavor comes from ground coffee or espresso. Some makers steep whole coffee beans in the dairy instead and strain them out, which gives a cleaner coffee taste with no grounds left behind. Made as a French custard with egg yolks, it has a rich, smooth body. Made Philadelphia style with no eggs, it tastes lighter and lets the coffee come through more directly. Plain coffee needs nothing else, though chocolate-covered espresso beans or a fudge ripple are common add-ins.

Where coffee comes from

Coffee ice cream has a long record in American kitchens. Yankee Magazine notes that Fannie Farmer’s original 1896 cookbook includes a recipe for it, and that Rhode Island, home of coffee milk, loves it most.

It still sells well. In IDFA’s 2022 report, 47% of 132 makers and scoop shops named coffee among their ten best-selling flavors.

The flavor also has a regional pull. Instacart’s 2025 data shows New England, Oregon, New Mexico and Hawaii ordering more coffee than the country as a whole. Its June 2022 to May 2023 data found the same for Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Mexico and Rhode Island. In YouGov’s 2022 poll, Northeasterners were more likely than anyone else to like coffee ice cream, at 32%.

How to make coffee at home

The usual base style is French custard, made with egg yolks. Philadelphia style, with no eggs, works too. The Base Builder sets up a French custard base sized to your machine, in grams and cups. It gives a base formula built on standard food-science ranges, not a tested recipe.

There are two ways to get the coffee in. You can steep coarsely ground coffee or whole beans in the warm dairy, then strain them out before you finish the base. Or you can stir cooled espresso or instant espresso powder into the base. Steeping gives a gentler, rounder flavor. Espresso is quicker.

Plain coffee needs no mix-ins. If you want them, chocolate-covered espresso beans or a fudge ripple are common add-ins, folded in after churning. If you already have a coffee ice cream recipe you like, the Recipe Scaler resizes it to your machine and converts cups to grams.

Base formula

Open the Base Builder: French custard (egg yolks)

Other styles that suit it: Philadelphia (no eggs)

The Base Builder gives a base formula built on standard food-science ranges, not a tested recipe.

What to serve with coffee

Coffee ice cream goes well with chocolate, whether that is a chocolate sauce, a chocolate cake or a scoop of chocolate ice cream on the side. Caramel sauce suits it too, since the sweetness balances the bitter edge of the coffee. A pinch of cardamom brings out its warmth. For something crunchy, serve it with almond biscotti, which you can dip straight into the scoop.

  • chocolate
  • caramel sauce
  • cardamom
  • almond biscotti

How common coffee is

Our badge for coffee is a full moon, labeled Classic: a classic you can buy almost anywhere. The badge says how easy the flavor is to find, not how much people like it.

In IDFA's April 2026 survey of 2,205 U.S. adults, coffee ranked 13th of 40, with 14% picking it as one of up to five favorites, and 4% naming it their single favorite. In IDFA's April 2024 survey of 2,203 U.S. adults, it ranked 12th of 40, also at 14%. In Instacart's 2025 order data, coffee was No. 8 in the top 10, at about 4.5% of ice cream orders.

How it ranks in surveys and order data

SurveyResult
IDFA survey, April 20262,205 U.S. adults, online, April 7-9, 2026, margin of error +/-2 pointsRanked 13th of 40: 14% picked it as one of up to five favorites
IDFA survey, April 20262,205 U.S. adults, online, April 7-9, 2026, margin of error +/-2 points4% named it their single favorite
IDFA survey, April 20242,203 U.S. adults, online, April 16-18, 2024, margin of error +/-2 pointsRanked 12th of 40: 14% picked it as one of up to five favorites
Instacart orders, 2025Instacart ice cream orders during 2025No. 8 in the top 10: about 4.5% of ice cream orders
  1. Rare Rare enough that you would most likely make it at home.
  2. Hard to find Look for it in specialty shops and seasonal runs.
  3. Sometimes found Found in some shops and some grocery freezers.
  4. Easy to find Common in most grocery freezers.
  5. Classic A classic you can buy almost anywhere.

Nutrition, roughly

FoodData Central has no record for coffee ice cream itself. The figures on this page are for a plain vanilla base, regular to rich: 207 to 249 kcal per 100 grams. A 1/2 cup (66 g) portion of regular vanilla is about 137 kcal, 7.3 g fat and 14 g sugars. These are for a plain base, not for this flavor, and the coffee, mix-ins and sweeteners change the numbers.

Nutrition per 100 grams

FoodData Central record Calories Fat Saturated fat Sugars Protein
Ice creams, vanilla FDC 167575 1/2 cup (66 g): about 137 kcal, 7.3 g fat 207 kcal 11 g 6.79 g 21.2 g 3.5 g
Ice creams, vanilla, rich FDC 167573 249 kcal 16.2 g 10.30 g 20.6 g 3.5 g

FoodData Central has no record for coffee itself: these are the figures for a plain vanilla base, regular to rich. Mix-ins and sweeteners change them.

Questions people ask

How do you make coffee ice cream at home?

Make a French custard or Philadelphia base, then flavor it with coffee. Steep coarsely ground coffee or whole beans in the warm dairy and strain, or stir cooled espresso or instant espresso powder into the base before churning.

Should coffee ice cream have eggs in it?

It usually does. The common base style is French custard, made with egg yolks. Philadelphia style, with no eggs, also works and gives a lighter result where the coffee comes through more directly.

What toppings go well with coffee ice cream?

Chocolate and caramel sauce both suit it well. A pinch of cardamom adds warmth, and almond biscotti give it some crunch. Chocolate-covered espresso beans or a fudge ripple are common add-ins too.

How popular is coffee ice cream in the U.S.?

It is a classic you can buy almost anywhere. In IDFA's April 2026 survey of 2,205 U.S. adults, it ranked 13th of 40, with 14% picking it as one of up to five favorites.

Coffee and tea ice cream flavors · All flavors

Plan and make it with these

Sources

  1. 7 Old-School New England Ice Cream Favorites Yankee Magazine
  2. Ice Cream and Frozen Novelty Trends 2022 report (132 makers and scoop shops, 1,002 consumers) International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA)
  3. Pint-Sized Obsessions: Instacart Maps America's Favorite Ice Cream (2025 orders, July 2026) Instacart
  4. Instacart's most popular ice cream flavor by state, June 2022 to May 2023 (as reported by FOX 35 Orlando, July 26, 2023) Instacart
  5. America's favorite ice cream flavors (poll of July 13 to 18, 2022) YouGov
  6. Ice cream preferences of U.S. adults, topline results (Morning Consult for IDFA, April 7 to 9, 2026) International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA)
  7. Ice cream survey of U.S. adults, topline results (Morning Consult for IDFA, April 16 to 18, 2024) International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA)
  8. Ice creams, vanilla (FDC 167575) U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service
  9. Ice creams, vanilla, rich (FDC 167573) U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service

Every data source the site uses is on the Sources page.