We Tried 10 Candy-Brand Ice Cream Bars; This One Came In Dead Last

Sam Zwick/Mashed

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Candy-brand ice cream bars are like catnip to our inner children. They combine our favorite candy bars with all the classic goodness of ice cream, a sweet treat that hits us both in our taste buds and sense of nostalgia. Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to be the case with Nestlé Crunch ice cream bar.

This was always going to be an uphill battle. Nestlé Crunch already ranked last in our taste test of 20 popular candy bars. One big negative for the ice cream version was that it wasn't actually made with ice cream — it's more of a frozen dairy dessert, meaning it doesn't fit the USDA's standards for ice cream. Frozen dairy desserts are more common than you might think, but they aren't always bad. In the case of the Crunch bar, however, it translated to a filling that wasn't creamy at all, which is sad to say about an "ice cream" bar. Thus, it came in last in our ranking of candy-brand ice cream bars.

However, the cardinal sin committed by the frozen dairy Crunch bar was that it wasn't crunchy at all. It's possible Nestlé didn't anticipate how much the additional moisture of frozen dairy would affect the crisped rice in the chocolate coating, so it ended up being on the chewy end during our taste test. Since the Crunch ice cream bar was neither crunchy nor did it taste like ice cream, all it really succeeded in was disappointing us.

Sam Zwick/Mashed

If you're really looking to get your candy bar fix in ice cream form, you'll have a much better time with the top three products from our rankings. The hands-down best candy ice cream bar we tasted was Butterfinger. Not only did it have real Butterfinger-flavored ice cream as its filling, but it also improved upon the candy bar's typically dense wafer, adapting it into a lighter, crispier form that plays more nicely with ice cream.

Baby Ruth earned the second-best spot with a thick, rich chocolate coating and caramel inner layer, and roasted peanuts mixed in to enhance the treat's sweetness with a touch of salt. Coming in third place was Reese's crunchy peanut ice cream bar, which won us over with its peanut butter-flavored ice cream and signature peanut butter layer, despite being the most expensive among all the bars tried.

But we get it — none of those have the same combination of crisped rice and chocolate that fans of Nestlé Crunch might be looking for. Thankfully, Walmart has a well-reviewed alternative in its Great Value Vanilla Crunch ice cream bars. Customers loved the thick chocolate, crunchy rice, and rich, creamy flavors. Great Value, in general, has some pretty good ice cream options, with its own offering ranking high in our ranking of grocery-store ice cream sandwiches.