I tried 7 store-bought coffee-flavored ice creams, and my favorite was the cheapest

So, I decided to try all the ice cream brands with coffee flavors I could find at the grocery store in my hometown of Merrick, New York.

I was left with seven brands: Friendly's, Turkey Hill, Talenti, Breyers, Ben & Jerry's, Oatly, and Häagen-Dazs.

Turkey Hill was easily the most affordable option of the seven — it was the cheapest and had the most ice cream by volume.

It was also one of the lowest-calorie options, coming in at 170 calories per serving.

The texture of Turkey Hill's was perfectly creamy, but not melty. I much prefer "hard" ice cream to soft-serve, so I was pleased.

It really tasted like a smooth cup of iced coffee, but without the coffee breath.

Friendly's gives you a similar bang for your buck and is also 170 calories per serving.

As you might know, Friendly's is a fast-casual diner-esque chain that's known for its ice cream, so we had high hopes.

However, we were disappointed. We thought the ice cream basically tasted like a glass of milk with a hint of coffee flavor. The texture was similarly creamy, like Turkey Hill, but the taste and the aftertaste were enough for my mom to declare that she didn't "even want to keep it in the freezer."

We moved on, with some trepidation.

Breyers had even fewer calories, at 140 calories per serving.

It had an almost nutty flavor — certainly not like any cup of coffee that I've had before. However, even though it was semi-melting, I preferred this texture by far. It was very thick and creamy, which is how I like my ice cream.

The flavor was so strong, however, that I felt like I had coffee breath after.

Full disclosure: I love Oatly's oat milk, but I've tried a different flavor of Oatly's ice cream and hated it, so I had low expectations for their coffee flavor.

Their serving size has 210 calories.

Even though I prefer oat milk, my Insider colleagues ranked it dead last in a blind taste test of milk alternatives.

When we tried the Oatly, we agreed: It tasted and had the texture of coffee ices, not ice cream. For example, it was crunchier than your typical ice cream.

However, we also agreed that it was very tasty. While the coffee flavor wasn't exactly strong, it was pleasant. Kind of like how La Croix devotees joke that their seltzers taste like a fruit sneezed next to the can ... but in a good way.

If you love coffee and ice cream, but you can't have dairy, you can't go wrong with Oatly.

Sure, I had had four scoops of coffee ice cream already, but we were in too deep. I couldn't stop now.

Talenti is supremely popular and one of the only mainstream gelato brands out there. A serving will set you back a whopping 320 calories.

There are a few key differences between gelato and ice cream: Ice cream is more fattening, as it uses cream instead of gelato's milk; ice cream has more whipped air; and ice cream is served colder.

However, Talenti's offering had one of the highest calorie counts.

For us, texture really set Talenti back. While the coffee flavor was as solid as any other, the chocolate-chip taste didn't add anything, in our opinions, and the ground-up chocolate chips felt like a bad cup of coffee that still had grounds left over, like the last cup of coffee in the pot.

We thought it wasn't worth the extra calories or extra cents.

Häagen-Dazs, which uses all-natural ingredients, also had a high number of calories, coming in at 300 calories per serving.

Häagen-Dazs tasted the most like cream, or milk. The coffee flavor was very light, almost like a coffee milkshake, but icier. For all the hype about Häagen-Dazs, none of us could tell why it's so popular after tasting this one ice cream.

Sure, it may be all-natural and that's why it was the most expensive, but we would take the corn syrup of other brands any day.

All that's in there is: Cream, skim milk, cane sugar, and egg.

Ben and Jerry's describes the flavor as "Coffee Ice Cream with Espresso Bean Fudge Chunks."

It was, by far, the most caloric, at 350 calories per serving.

Unsurprisingly for me, a Ben & Jerry's stan, I loved this flavor. The espresso fudge chunks added a little kick to the coffee flavor, which was already strong and creamy, and they added a delightful crunch, as well.

This was the closest I got to knocking back an iced coffee — so even though it had the most calories and was the most expensive, I couldn't help but put it towards the top of my ranking.

The buzz was definitely real.

Breyers, Turkey Hill, and Talenti all had Colombian coffee.

From my favorite to least favorite, I ranked them: Turkey Hill, Ben & Jerry's, Breyers, Oatly, Häagen-Dazs, Talenti, then Friendly's.

My overall favorite was Turkey Hill, which had the best coffee flavor and was the most bang for your buck at 1.5 quarts for $3.99.

My least favorite was Friendly's, which I thought had an unpleasant flavor and a mushy texture — and was the only one we felt compelled to throw away.