What’s the Deal with Halo Top Ice Cream?

Ice cream is one of the most magical treats on the planet, but no one is ever going to tell you it’s the “healthiest” option at the grocery store. If you have a hard time not finishing a pint when it’s in your home and want to avoid temptation, the easy option is to skip the freezer aisle. But it turns out it doesn’t have to be that way.

A quick stroll on Instagram — especially in the wellness and weight-loss community — and you’ll notice brightly colored pints of ice cream with the label “Halo Top” on the lid. Halo Top is a low-calorie, low-sugar, high-protein ice cream. A single pint of ice cream from Halo Top has anywhere between 240 to 360 calories and up to 24 grams of protein. And the best part? It actually tastes pretty decent, too.

Halo Top ice cream has been around since 2012, but it only really become popular in the last year or two. The company is pretty small, so it’s really been a word-of-mouth kind of success.

With a lot of “diet” products, you normally see a ton of things you can’t pronounce on the label. Halo Top prides itself on using “all-natural” ingredients so that the product tastes just like real ice cream. They are transparent on their site, where they clearly show the label and ingredients for each ice cream flavor. If this is something you care about, I highly recommend taking a look through the website.

With Halo Top you might see a couple added sweeteners like erythritol and stevia, but you won’t see corn syrup (besides in the sea salt caramel flavor). You’ll find the standard milk, eggs, and cream, and then see an added protein concentrate. Many ingredients on the label also indicate that they are organic.

The big question is whether or not this “healthy” ice cream actually tastes good. Can it really replace your favorite tub of Ben & Jerry’s? I would argue that no, it doesn’t totally taste like ice cream, but it’s pretty damn close. Halo Top is to ice cream as whipped cream cheese is to regular cream cheese. There’s more air in Halo Top and it can be a little icy at times. The texture is good, but because there isn’t a ton of fat in Halo Top, you don’t get the same mouthfeel.

Halo Top has an ever-growing roster of flavors, and some are better than others. There are the standard vanilla and chocolate, but also things like birthday cake and red velvet. I’d recommend both strawberry and mint chip, because they have a great texture and the flavors are more prominent like in actual ice cream.

The easiest way to find out if you can buy Halo Top near you is to enter your zip code into the Halo Top website. I’ve been seeing the brand more and more around New York grocery stores, but Whole Foods is always a safe bet.