What Really Makes Van Leeuwen's Vanilla Ice Cream So Delicious

What makes Van Leeuwen Vanilla Bean ice cream so delicious is a combination of wholesome ingredients and small-batch attention to detail. I've always been more of a death-by-chocolate kind of girl — until recently. Next to the traditional birthday fare at a friend's recent party (like a generous slice of Susan's lemon cake) awaited a scoop of this brand's surprisingly scrumptious vanilla ice cream. Once its sophisticated flavor spread across my tongue, I was transformed, and so was my preconception of this often passed-over sweet. With every bite, I became more intrigued and more amazed, and I wanted to learn more.

It all started when Ben Van Leeuwen, his wife Laura, and his brother Peter teamed up in 2008 to create the Van Leeuwen ice cream company. The trio began by taking the classic ice cream truck concept and giving it a traditional upgrade. Then, the company's passion for creating the most delicious artisanal ice cream — made from the highest quality and freshest ingredients — made all the difference. With a fleet of six yellow trucks and scoop shops in ten states from New York to California, the brand succeeded. 

This ever-expanding ice cream chain has grown into nearly a quarter-of-a-million-dollars a day business by the end of 2024, with more than 30 other flavors being sold in nearly 50 scoop shops and 10,000 grocery stores. Find out more about what keeps ice cream fanatics coming back to this brand's anything-but-boring Vanilla Bean French Ice Cream.

Van Leeuwen's vanilla ice cream is far from ordinary. That's because it uses only cold-ground, whole Tahitian vanilla beans grown in Papua New Guinea to create this sophisticated and grown-up version of vanilla. So, what makes these beans so much better than those from other sources? The climate. The South Pacific's tropical climate offers the ideal conditions for growing vanilla orchids. The flower's gourmet quality beans are then able to produce floral, fruity, and cherry-like notes.

Processing these delectable pods for production is no easy task. Growers often sun-cure the fresh-picked beans, then soak them in vodka to concentrate and extract every ounce of that yummy vanilla flavor. Once aged, they are ground to a pulp so the team at Van Leeuwen's can add this final ingredient to its delicious ice cream custard base.

Typical vanilla ice cream is made with artificial flavoring extract, not whole beans. Freshly harvested pods deliver a more complex flavor to Van Leeuwen's vanilla ice cream. This essential ingredient also naturally enhances the ice cream's subtle sweetness, while adding a pop of pure vanilla essence. Plus, the little black seed specks add visual interest. Seeing them is usually a sure sign you're about to dip into a premium-quality dessert.

Whether you prefer your Van Leeuwen Vanilla Bean ice cream in a cup or a cone, you may be surprised by how important salt is to its delicious factor. We all know what salt does for other foods, and this one ingredient makes a big statement in this dessert's flavor profile. It adds a noticeable depth and balance that enhances the ice cream's natural ingredients. While you don't want a bowl of salty vanilla, there are only 100 milligrams or 4% of your recommended daily allowance per serving. That's plenty to create a delicious bowl of ice cream.

You won't find this perfect salt ratio in every brand's vanilla, and that's a shame. Salt vastly improves vanilla's universally recognizable floral traits — it comes from orchids, after all, and I don't see any reason why a company would want to hide that. In addition to boosting this ice cream's sweetness, albeit surprisingly, there's another way salt contributes to Van Leeuwen's unforgettable taste: It works to simultaneously bring out the cream's richness, helping to take this frozen concoction to the next level.

When you're striving to make the best ice cream, you want to start with the best dairy products. But does the milk and cream in ice cream really make a noticeable difference? I think so, and the Van Leeuwen family appears too, as well. The company makes its delicious vanilla ice cream with wholesome ingredients, including fresh, hormone-free milk sourced from local, New York farmers. These farmers choose not to give their cows bovine growth hormones like rBST or rBGH. While agencies like the American Cancer Society are still researching the potential health concerns of these additives — like increased cancer risk or antibiotic resistance — I love Van Leeuwen's commitment to keeping its vanilla natural.

You may be surprised to learn that not all ice cream mixes contain fresh milk. Comelle's version incorporates skimmed milk powder from Lakeland Dairies. Seeing that ingredient on my ice cream label doesn't sound appetizing at all. Well, you won't find that ingredient in Van Leeuwen's products. Whole milk is the top choice for its vanilla ice cream, because of its higher fat content. These milk solids help create this product's ultra-creamy texture and velvety mouthfeel by preventing ice crystals from forming.

The real secret ingredient to the rich, creamy texture of Van Leeuwen's Vanilla Bean ice cream is eggs. Each scoop includes a generous helping of yolks — double the amount in traditional ice cream, in fact. This simple ingredient helps create this frozen dessert's unforgettably dense texture. When sampling some of the brand's Vanilla Bean ice cream, I discovered that eggs provide a richer flavor, in addition to a custard-like quality. Its creamy mouthfeel and caramel notes truly set it apart from other company's yolk-less vanillas.

Called French Ice Cream by the Van Leeuwens' and the ice cream industry in general, this version's fatty, yolky content helps create a product with a thicker texture, almost reminiscent of flan. Egg yolks also contain lecithin, a natural emulsifier, which helps bind water and fat molecules together for a smoother cream base. Egg proteins also get in the game by trapping ice crystals to prevent a grainy texture. They even help stabilize the ice cream, reducing its tendency to melt before you can get it from your spoon to your mouth. After all, it's Van Leeuwen's icy texture that makes this recipe a delicious frozen dessert and not just a glass of milk.

One big reason why this brand's ultra-premium Vanilla Bean French Ice Cream tastes so delicious is its high butterfat (also known as milkfat) content. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, ice cream must contain at least 10% milkfat, otherwise, it's considered a frozen dairy dessert. Some makers may consider that percentage good enough for their products, but not Van Leeuwen. Its contribution to the vanilla ice cream world tops out at an awe-inspiring 18% butterfat.

This amount of butterfat helps make eating Van Leeuwen's ice cream a memorable experience. Besides adding some wonderful traits to the recipe — like a boost to its already smooth, velvety texture — this ingredient also adds some of its own rich, creamy flavor (that makes ice creams like this one taste more decadent than low-fat versions). Butterfat also absorbs the taste and aroma of other ingredients, like vanilla, adding to Van Leeuwen's delicious factor.

There is a hard line when it comes to adding butterfat to ice cream, though. Too much of this satisfying ingredient and you'll end up with a dessert that leaves behind an awful fatty film on your palate. Thankfully, the Van Leeuwen's knew exactly when to stop.

Van Leeuwen's Vanilla Bean French Ice Cream has 23 grams of pure cane sugar in each ⅔ cup serving. This maker only uses cane sugar, a form of sucralose, which is the gold standard for ice cream production. It's a major player in the frozen dessert world because of how it adds to the ice cream's texture and lip-smacking flavor. It adds to the texture and enhances the vanilla's warm, syrupy aroma. Cane sugar is also minimally processed and adds slightly bitter and fruity notes to this ice cream. It also holds on to its natural hints of molasses after the refining step, so those subtle earthy and smokey traits are left behind to enjoy.

Yes, it's definitely possible to overindulge in sugar. However, an occasional scoop of ice cream can boost your energy and temporarily fuel your brain, according to WebMD. I believe this is yet another factor in what makes this vanilla ice cream so delicious. Plus, there's no need to fret too much. Van Leeuwen's easy-to-love vanilla ice cream has less sweetener than Ben and Jerry's vanilla, which contains 28 grams of total sugar.

Do you ever wonder what real, old-fashioned ice cream used to taste like before modern companies pumped it full of additives? Well, it's time to get a pint of Van Leeuwen's vanilla. I don't know about you, but eating a bowl laced with artificial flavors doesn't sound too appetizing. This company's delicious products are free of preservatives, stabilizers, unnatural emulsifiers, weird chemicals, and cheap fillers. Without the additives, you can taste the true potential of that vanilla orchid's yummy pod.

In the ice cream industry, there are several commonly used preservatives, like potassium sorbate, which prevent mold. Makers may also use food stabilizers and emulsifiers like monoglycerides and diglycerides, microcrystalline cellulose, and propylene glycol mono-fatty acid esters. Some ice cream lovers may have an allergic reaction to these chemicals that are added during the manufacturing process. Some of the most harmful chemicals are often inorganic additives, like magnesium hydroxide, which could cause nausea for those that have a sensitivity. That's why I'm glad Van Leeuwen took a preservative-free approach when it made its Vanilla Bean ice cream.

Despite Van Leeuwen's short ingredient list, this vanilla ice cream is anything but plain. The company chose its wholesome products wisely. There are just seven ingredients, and you can even pronounce them all. Take a look at the clean label, and you'll find milk, cream, cane sugar, egg yolks, vanilla extract (grain alcohol and vanilla bean), salt, and vanilla beans.

The founding trio scoured the world — from Tahiti to local dairy farms — for the best products. And it hasn't stopped using them. This practice from the company's ice cream truck days continues with the management of its grocery pints and sweet shops. This bold practice of sticking to only wholesome ingredients sets this family's authentic desserts apart from peers, while helping it accomplish its mission to make good ice cream that feels good, too.

Do you know what you won't see on the label? Fake sugars or high fructose corn syrup nor thickening agents like carrageenan, cellulose gum, or guar gum aren't on this list. A few other ingredients are missing from this delicious ice cream, like highly processed milk powder and condensed milk, which seem to be the norm in the industry right now. As someone who watches what I put in my mouth, I had zero regrets about gobbling it up. These simple ingredients escalate what some view as a basic flavor into something truly extraordinary. Just like old-fashioned ice cream should be. It's one of the highest-quality ice creams you can buy, and it doesn't require a long list of ingredients to capture this top spot for frozen dessert lovers.

Van Leeuwen's upgraded, 5,000 square-foot Brooklyn factory makes all its ice cream flavors in small batches, including its delicious Vanilla Bean. This admittedly labor-intensive process is yet another way this company ensures its ice cream is outstandingly indulgent. While it's tempting for any growing business to cut corners, the owners of this one continue to resist the urge. Its team sticks to producing just 500 gallons of frozen goodness at a time. In contrast, Ben & Jerry's Waterbury, Vermont plant puts out 350,000 pints (or 43,750 gallons) a day from this location alone. That's a lot of ingredients to keep track of.

Thanks to these small production runs, this brand makes its ice cream more often, ensuring remarkable freshness every time. This mindfulness also allows for greater quality control, especially when your goal is to master the perfect overrun. This process measures how much air the company churns into every batch of its ice cream. Van Leeuwen puts just 30% overrun in its vanilla, meaning it comes out denser and creamier than companies that pump 50% or more air into their products.

Van Leeuwen's vanilla ice cream is a sweet treat on its own. Even plain, it will impress your party guests who, like me, usually dismiss it as boring. But the mellow, slightly sweet flavor of those Tahitian vanilla beans also offers tons of versatility. 

You can pair it with a lengthy list of toppings, sauces, and mix-ins, like my favorite: walnuts. Its delicate flavor won't overwhelm whatever you serve with either, because it works as an excellent base for creating other tempting combinations. Looks for something with a bit of tartness or saltiness, or a temperature contrast, like an appealing, made-from-scratch brownie.

Texture is also another important consideration. You can try adding some granola for a crunchy contrast to Van Leeuwen's ultra-creamy vanilla. Its rich, eggy flavor is an especially good contrast to a plate of fresh fruit, like strawberries, or a slice of apple pie, for example. Multiply its delicious factor experientially and mix it up in a shake with a few slices of banana and a graham cracker. I also love a dollop atop a chilled mug of root beer for a little childhood nostalgia or just keep it simple and drizzle some hot fudge over your scoop. The possibilities are endless.