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Teaberry ice cream

A bright pink ice cream with a minty, spicy wintergreen taste, loved in Pennsylvania and hard to find elsewhere.

Hard to find Look for it in specialty shops and seasonal runs. What the badge means

Teaberry ice cream is a pink ice cream with a cool, spicy wintergreen flavor. It is a regional favorite and hard to find outside specialty shops and seasonal runs.

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

What teaberry tastes like

Teaberry ice cream is bright pink. The flavor is minty and spicy, close to wintergreen. Despite the name, it tastes of neither tea nor berries, which surprises a lot of people on the first spoonful.

It is made from a plain vanilla-style ice cream flavored with teaberry flavoring, which is a wintergreen-type flavor, and colored pink. There are no chunks, swirls or other mix-ins, so the texture is smooth and creamy, like a good vanilla. The pink color comes from added coloring, not from the flavoring itself. The result looks sweet and fruity but tastes cool and a little sharp.

Where teaberry comes from

Atlas Obscura reports that teaberry ice cream tastes neither like tea nor berries but minty and spicy. The berries grow on an evergreen plant native to New England. Atlas Obscura also says Pennsylvanians love the ice cream, and that most of it is found in Pennsylvania.

According to Atlas Obscura, a teaberry gum from the D.L. Clark Company reached its peak popularity in the 1960s. Atlas Obscura adds that smaller makers often sell teaberry ice cream seasonally, because the berries ripen in mid-autumn. That is one reason it can be hard to find for much of the year, and why a pint made at home can fill the gap when no shop near you has it.

How to make teaberry at home

Teaberry uses a Philadelphia-style base, which means no eggs: just dairy, sugar and flavoring. The Base Builder sets up that style for you and sizes the base to your machine, in grams and cups. It gives a base formula built on standard food-science ranges, not a tested recipe.

To make teaberry ice cream, start with a vanilla base. Stir in teaberry or wintergreen flavoring and add pink color to the base before you churn it. Wintergreen flavoring is strong, so add a little, taste the base, and add more only if you want a bolder flavor. Add the color a drop at a time until you reach the shade of pink you like. There are no mix-ins to fold in at the end.

If you already have a teaberry recipe you like, the Recipe Scaler resizes it to fit your machine and converts cups to grams.

Base formula

Open the Base Builder: Philadelphia (no eggs)

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

What to serve with teaberry

Teaberry is a natural match for chocolate sauce. The cool, minty flavor works with chocolate much the way mint does, and the dark sauce looks good against the pink. It also pairs well with vanilla. Serve a scoop of each side by side, or set out vanilla for guests who want something milder next to the wintergreen. For a simple sundae, top a scoop of teaberry with warm chocolate sauce.

  • chocolate sauce
  • vanilla

How common teaberry is

Our badge gives teaberry a waxing crescent, 2 of 5, labeled "Hard to find": look for it in specialty shops and seasonal runs. The badge shows how easy the flavor is to find, not how much people like it.

No survey we use lists teaberry by name, so the badge is our own judgement of how easy it is to find. Atlas Obscura says most teaberry ice cream is found in Pennsylvania, and that smaller makers often sell it seasonally because the berries ripen in mid-autumn. Outside that region, making it at home may be your surest option.

No survey we use lists this flavor by name, so its badge is our own judgement of how easy it is to find.

  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 teaberry ice cream, so the figures shown are for a plain vanilla base, not for this flavor. Regular vanilla has 207 kcal, 11 g fat and 21.2 g sugars per 100 grams, or about 137 kcal per 1/2 cup (66 g). Rich vanilla has 249 kcal and 16.2 g fat per 100 grams. Your flavoring and sweeteners will change these 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 teaberry itself: these are the figures for a plain vanilla base, regular to rich. Mix-ins and sweeteners change them.

Questions people ask

What does teaberry ice cream taste like?

It tastes minty and spicy, a lot like wintergreen. Despite the name, it tastes of neither tea nor berries. It is also bright pink, so many people expect a fruit flavor and get a cool mint taste instead.

How do you make teaberry ice cream at home?

Start with a Philadelphia-style vanilla base, which has no eggs. Stir in teaberry or wintergreen flavoring, color the base pink and churn it. The Base Builder sets up that base style, built on standard food-science ranges.

Where is teaberry ice cream most popular?

Pennsylvania. Atlas Obscura says Pennsylvanians love teaberry ice cream and that most of it is found there. Smaller makers often sell it seasonally because the berries ripen in mid-autumn.

What should I serve with teaberry ice cream?

Chocolate sauce is a good match, since the cool wintergreen flavor works with chocolate the way mint does. Vanilla also pairs well, either as a topping base or as a milder scoop served alongside.

Regional and international ice cream flavors ยท All flavors

Plan and make it with these

Sources

  1. Teaberry Ice Cream Atlas Obscura
  2. Ice creams, vanilla (FDC 167575) U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service
  3. 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.