21 Best Ice Cream Truck Treats, Ranked

Ice cream truck treats are a summer staple. The next time the truck rolls up, these 21 treats are by far the best options.

Think fast! The ice cream truck is about to peel out, and you have three seconds to run up and choose a treat. Which do you pick?

It’s arguably the hardest choice you ever had to make as a child. It’s not much easier now, if we’re being honest, so we rounded up the best ice cream truck treats of all time to give you a head start.

Full disclosure: It might backfire and make the choice even harder, because they all look flawless. Good luck.

21. Creamsicle

Creamsicle / Walmart

Maker: Popsicle

Why they’re amazing: The first popsicle was patented in 1923 by a young man named Frank Epperson. He actually evented it over a decade earlier when he was just 11. (It’s somehow fitting that a classic ice cream truck treat was invented by a kid, isn’t it?) Years later, the Creamsicle was added to the Popsicle brand’s arsenal.

It combined orange sherbet with vanilla ice cream. Weird combo, but it was great. For some reason, moms seemed to always choose Creamsicles, and we would always steal a bite.

20. Snowcone

JonGorr / Getty Images

Maker: Popsicle

Why they’re amazing: Whoever invented the snow cone was a genius. It’s literally just a cup full of crushed ice doused in flavored syrup. But when you spot someone walking by with a garishly colored snow cone on a particularly sunny day, you immediately start looking for the ice cream truck it originated from. It looks so good. You need one.

It was even better if you could eat it while taking a break from a long, hot day at the pool. The food dye probably isn’t great for you, but a snow cone every once in awhile never killed anyone.

19. Snickers Ice Cream Bar

snackjunkiefinland / Instagram

Maker: Mars

Why they’re amazing: The very first Snickers bar hit the shelves in 1930. It took a full 64 years for the company to test out a Snickers ice cream treat, but when they did, it was a huge hit. The Snickers ice cream cone was launched during National Ice Cream Month in July 1994. The version on a stick was added two years later.

The vanilla ice cream, chocolate and peanuts were similar to several other popular ice cream truck treats, but the Snickers bar includes something unique: thick, gooey caramel. Is 9 a.m. too early for ice cream? We’re asking for a friend.

18. Candy Center Crunch Bar

Blue Ribbon / influenster

Maker: Good Humor

Why they’re amazing: There are lots of ice cream bars that involve vanilla ice cream and milk chocolate. It’s a whole thing. Good Humor thought, hmmm, how can we make this better? Duh! More chocolate!

This is basically a Crunch bar with a healthy-sized chunk of chocolate shoved into the middle. The brand name was always the most popular, but the true ice cream lovers knew this one was even better.

17. Push-Up Pop

tpatrick1987 / Instagram

Maker: Nestle

Why they’re amazing: In other circumstances, sugary ice jammed into a cardboard roll would be weird. But, on a sweltering summer day, it was a thing of beauty. The brightly colored paper that rapidly turned into a melty, sticky mess invited waves of nostalgia.

It originally came in only orange sherbet flavor, but now Push-Ups come in tons of flavors. Just don’t forget the wet wipes.

16. Giant Neopolitan Sandwich

Good Humor

Maker: Multiple brands

Why they’re amazing: We can’t all be decisive. If you were the kid who stood in line at the ice cream truck quietly panicking because you couldn’t decide, you probably defaulted to the Giant Neopolitan. It had every basic ice cream flavor — strawberry, vanilla and chocolate — in one ice cream sandwich, so you didn’t have to choose between them. It had a little bit of everything.

You always had to sort of chew the chocolate cookie remnants off your fingers afterward, but they were so good you didn’t mind.

15. Toasted Almond Bar

nazojam14 / Instagram

Maker: Good Humor

Why they’re amazing: Every ice cream fan has a type. There are chocolate lovers. Vanilla connoisseurs. Strawberry aficionados. Then, there were the coffee people. (Can w interest anyone in a scoop of Jamoca Almond Fudge?) And, of course, there were the nuts. You know, the people who chose flavors like butter pecan, pralines and cream, and pistachio.

Good Humor took the hint and made the Toasted Almond bar. It still had the vanilla ice cream and chocolatey shell but with a core of almond ice cream in the center and a dusting of almond pieces. It was a unique flavor and probably one of the more high brow ice cream truck treats you could buy.

14. Drumstick

drumstick / Instagram

Maker: Nestle

Why they’re amazing: We can taste this picture just by looking at it. The original Drumstick was invented by I.C. Parker of Fort Worth, Texas, in 1928. Similar to a King Cone, the Drumstick had a scoop of vanilla ice cream nestled in a crispy sugar cone and fully encased in a chocolate shell and sprinkled with peanuts.

The best part? At the bottom, there was always an extra chunk of milk chocolate hiding.

13. Fudgsicle

popsicle / Instagram

Maker: Popsicle

Why they’re amazing: If you couldn’t decide if you wanted a popsicle or an ice cream bar, you picked a Fudgsicle. Fudgsicles weren’t honestly that creamy, but they were chocolatey.

That’s literally all they were. A frozen stick of icy fudge on a stick. Dreamy, don’t you think?

12. Lemon Ice

Popsicle / Complex.com/Pinterest

Maker: Popsicle

Why they’re amazing: When it was really, really hot out and you really should have been buying a bottle of water instead of ice cream, this is what you picked instead. It was by far the most refreshing, thirst-quenching ice cream truck treat.

The original lemon ices were a bit hard, and you had to dig into them with a dinky wooden spoon. The ice cream man also sometimes wheeled out a cherry or watermelon version, but lemon was always the best.

11. Original Ice Cream on a Stick

goodhumor_icecream / Instagram

Maker: Good Humor

Why they’re amazing: Some people aren’t fans of surprises. The people who always had their desk neatly organized and their school binder coded by color were the ones who gravitated towards the Original Ice Cream on a Stick.

It was a tower of vanilla ice cream perched on a wooden stick and dipped in a shell of milk chocolate. Nothing more, nothing less. The chocolate usually broke into pieces with the first bite, but it was delicious anyway.

10. Original Ice Cream Sandwich

APitch / Getty Images

Maker: Multiple brands

Why they’re amazing: If you didn’t have one of these ice cream truck treats, did you even have a childhood? The iconic ice cream sandwich was first invented in the 1940s. Featuring a slab of vanilla ice cream sandwiched between two soft-baked chocolate cookies turned out to be a huge crowd-pleaser.

Each brand is slightly different, but after trying several variations, they all realized that the original recipe was the best. It’s a tradition that won’t change any time soon, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

9. Bomb Pops

originalbombpop / Instagram

Maker: Blue Bunny

Why they’re amazing: Firecrackers and Bomb Pops were basically the same things, but if the ice cream truck came around on the Fourth of July, choosing one of the two was practically the law. Each stripe was a different flavor. The original Bomp Pop featured cherry, lime and the always sought-after blue raspberry. What is it about turning red raspberries blue that makes it so much more enticing?

Now, there are multiple Bomb Pop flavors, including Jolly Rancher and Hawaiian Punch. There’s also a Tear Jerkers Bomb Pop that has a gumball at the end.

8. Screwball

Stickers. / Amazon

Maker: Popsicle

Why they’re amazing: The challenge of the Screwball was part of the reason for buying it in the first place. Each Screwball treat had a gumball hidden at the bottom, and finding it was unreasonably fun. It came in several different flavors, but cherry was one of the best.

If you try one of these, bite into the gumball with caution. It’s probably frozen solid, but that makes it even better.

7. Strawberry Shortcake

Strawberry Shortcake ice cream truck treat

goodhumor_ice cream / Instagram

Maker: Good Humor

Why they’re amazing: Strawberry Shortcake bars are nothing short of amazing. Good Humor was founded in the 1920s, and the Strawberry Shortcake bar has been an ice cream truck staple for decades. Vanilla, chocolate and strawberry are the universally agreed upon OG ice cream flavors, so it’s only fitting that ice cream trucks have a solid strawberry option.

This number was usually the best choice, with strawberry and vanilla ice cream coated with pink and white cake bits. Yum.

6. Chocolate Eclair

Good Humor

Maker: Good Humor

Why they’re amazing: The only problem with ice cream truck ice cream bars is that most of them feature vanilla ice cream. We have nothing against vanilla. It’s just that it’s, well, a little vanilla.

Chocolate Eclairs added a little spice, so to speak. They still featured vanilla ice cream but with a fudge ice cream core and a coating of milk chocolate and vanilla cookie crumbles. Good Humor, you won this round. We’ll take seven.

5. Crunch Bar

memoriesarecaptured / Getty Images

Maker: Nestle

Why they’re amazing: Nestle’s Crunch Bars are a hit every Halloween. The original chocolate bar came out in 1938 in Fulton, New York, and the ice cream version of the classic treat is just as satisfying.

It’s basically a standard Nestle Crunch Bar with milk chocolate and crispy, crackly puffed rice melted over a bar of vanilla ice cream.

4. Oreo Ice Cream Sandwich

creamysweetie._ / Instagram

Maker: Good Humor-Breyers

Why they’re amazing: The only thing better than Oreos and milk is this ice cream sandwich. Take America’s all-time favorite cookie, and fill it with Oreo flavored ice cream instead of the standard creme filling.

They’re both tasty, but something about an Oreo ice cream sandwich on a hot, summer day at the park just hits different.

3. King Cone

goodhumor_icecream / Instagram

Maker: Good Humor

Why they’re amazing: This cone is a thing of beauty, is it not? It’s what you chose from the neighborhood ice cream truck when you wanted an authentic ice cream cone, and boy, it did not disappoint.

The sugar cone was always crisp, never soggy, and the combination of roasted peanuts and a generous amount of gooey fudge was pristine. Plus, it avoided the whole “ice cream melting down the stick and getting all over your hands” business.

2. Klondike Bar

AnthonyRosenberg / Getty Images

Maker: Good Humor-Breyers

Why They’re Amazing: What would you do-oo-oo, with a Klondike bar? Who can see the shiny silver wrapper and not sing the jingle in their head? The Klondike bar dates back all the way to the 1920s. It’s the grandfather of ice cream truck treats, but it hasn’t lost any of its magic.

The Klondike bar isn’t fancy. It’s vanilla ice cream wrapped in a chocolate shell. Sometimes, the shell has crunchy rice pieces. There are variations. They’re all beautiful. The answer to the jingle? We’d run a 5K to chase down a truck with a Klondike bar.

1. Choco Taco

cvtsoftserve / Instagram

Maker: Klondike

Why they’re amazing: It doesn’t get better than this. The incredible, mouthwatering, crunchy chocolate shell of a choco taco was invented in Philadelphia by Alan Drazen, the Senior VP of the Jack and Jill Ice Cream Company.

People first got to try out the amazing ice cream truck treat in 1984, and it was love at first lick. Smooth vanilla ice cream swirled with fudge and topped with milk chocolate and crunchy peanuts? It’s the gold standard. The lowly Chipwich couldn’t compare.