The Best Ice Cream Scoops of 2026

A good, high quality ice cream scoop can mean the difference between quickly and easily gliding through a fresh (or freezer-burned) pint, and straining your hand muscles trying to get something merely resembling a round scoop. Luckily, we did all that heavy lifting for you, and found the best ice cream scoops for all of your dessert needs.

Our top pick is the OXO Good Grips Stainless Steel Ice Cream Scoop (available at Amazon for $12.99) for its unmatched performance, and the Zeroll 1020 Original (available at Amazon) made the list as a best upgrade pick for a slightly pricier option that's reminiscent of classic ice cream parlors.

How to Choose the Best Ice Cream Scoop for You

Weight

Finding an appropriately weighted ice cream scoop is a delicate balance. Too heavy, and it becomes a struggle to handle while scooping. Too light, and it won't dig into hard, frozen ice cream pints very well.

Ice cream scoops we tested ranged from 3 to 12 ounces, but the ideal scoop will fall somewhere in between. Our top two winners weigh in at 9 and 4 ounces respectively, but one of the keys to their success is a weighted balance.

If the head of a scoop is much heavier than its handle, you'll find it difficult to successfully dig through an ice cream pint. It becomes much less comfortable for the user, resulting in a loss of control that makes ice cream scooping much more frustrating and less uniform.

Material

Stainless steel is a no-brainer when it comes to kitchen utensils, thanks to its inherent resistance to rust and chipping. But there are other durable materials that are great options for ice cream scoops.

Zinc or aluminum alloys, for example, are popular alternatives that are also strong, long-lasting, and effective at ice cream scooping. But steer clear of any non-metal scoops—like plastic—as they won't easily dig through ice cream or last quite as long.

Lever Or No Lever?

In some cases, the inclusion of a lever can take a scoop from good to great, aiding the dispensing process and assuring that scoops get dropped in the optimal shape without getting broken along the way. It's especially useful when working with something like cookie dough, which is prone to stick to a scoop even more than ice cream.

But these benefits are only true if a lever is made well. During testing, we noticed certain levers getting stuck as we pressed them, which had me believe they might have been better without that added feature.

We recommend looking into the mechanism behind the lever in a scoop. Those with a spring incorporated tend to be more user-friendly than those without, which require you to manually move the lever back and forth, and oftentimes get stuck. On the other hand, opting for a lever-less scoop with an appropriately curved head means you might not even need a lever to get your balls of ice cream easily dispensed.

What's The Best Temperature To Scoop Ice Cream?

We know it can feel impossible to wait for that instant satisfaction when your ice cream craving hits, but experts say you shouldn't try to scoop immediately after pulling a pint out of the freezer.

That's because most freezers are set around 0°F, and ice cream's high butterfat content makes it way too hard to scoop at that temperature. (Even our top scoop picks took some elbow grease to scoop at this temp.) Plus, flavor is also impacted based on temperature; that mocha chip just won't taste the same when it's still fully frozen.

It's recommended that you let your pint get up to between five and 10 degrees Fahrenheit before you start the scooping process (or whenever you notice it's starting to soften when you touch it).

To make this waiting game even longer, experts also advise letting this temperature come down slowly in the fridge (for about 15 minutes). That's because letting it sit on your countertop means it's more likely to melt unevenly, especially around the edges. Trust us—the results are so worth the wait.

Pro Tips For Scooping

In addition to making sure your pint is at the right temperature for scooping, there are a few other tricks to get the most out of your ice cream experience.

If you're a regular at ice cream shops, it's likely that you've seen employees keep their scoops in a tub of water in between uses. And yes, part of this reason is to clean any residual ice cream off before the next use—but it also helps warm the head to make gliding through tubs easier.

Plus, this trick makes releasing the ice cream much easier, as it's less likely to get stuck on the scoop when transferring to a cup or cone. So it might not be a bad idea to give yours a little rinse beforehand.

When it comes to the actual scooping, try to keep your pint leveled and flat (to avoid future patches of freezer burn). Then, aim to scoop in a clockwise motion around the circle of the pint until a spherical shape of ice cream appears, rather than digging into it like you would a bowl of mac and cheese, for example. It might even be best to twirl the pint as you scoop to make the process less strenuous.

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