Unveiling America’s Ice Cream Preferences: Cookies And Cream vs. Butter Pecan

Vanilla and chocolate are America's top two favorite ice cream flavors, and it's not even close.

But what is No. 3?

With a tad bit of controversy and a lot of cream and sugar the answer is Butter Pecan.

In Utah, that's not the case. Utahns love cookies-and-cream (or Oreo) ice cream more than any other with the exception of vanilla and chocolate.

But when looking at the entire nation, butter pecan surpasses cookies-and-cream in national sales. Butter pecan does especially well in southern states and in states that traditionally have high senior populations (like Florida and the Carolinas).

Perhaps the statistics should be weighted, maybe a per capita type number -- but they aren't. These are just raw numbers.

Other ice cream flavors that do well locally and nationally include chocolate chip, mint-chocolate chip and cookie dough flavors.

And amazingly, a relative newcomer has made it into the top 10 -- Moose Tracks. According to the website Denali Ingredients.com, that flavor was invented in 1988 and is described as "an indulgent combination of vanilla ice cream, peanut butter cups and now famous Moose Tracks Fudge® (a decadent dark chocolate thick and salty fudge).

The Moose Tracks^® name pays homage to a miniature golf course in the upper peninsula of Michigan called “Moose Tracks”. The golf course is located nearby to the first dairy to sell the Moose Tracks^® ice cream flavor.

For those who don't think butter pecan should be in the favorites list, have you tried it ... "A butter pecan ice cream is smooth vanilla ice cream with a slight buttery flavor, with pecans added."

OK, so what about around the world? I had a son that went to the Philippines on a mission and Filipinos actually like cheddar cheese flavored ice cream.

In Venezuela, banana ice cream is No. 1, while vanilla reigns supreme in the United Kingdom.

Not surprisingly, Colombians love chocolate, Italians really dig Neapolitan, and in Thailand, coconut ice cream tops them all.

A couple of strange ones: In the Netherlands, watermelon flavored ice cream is very popular and many South Americans really enjoy chocolate-brownie ice cream.

But the most puzzling one of all is Japan. In the Land of the Rising Sun, the No.1 preferred flavor of ice cream is ... green tea.

Um, OK.