Whether it’s Carvel soft serve or Ben & Jerry’s Phish Food, there’s no denying China can’t quite satiate those ice cream cravings. Unfortunately, we’re stuck with few choices and expensive prices for premium dairy products (e.g., 30RMB for a tiny cup of Häagen Dazs). Family Mart, KFC, and Dairy Queen come to the rescue with cheap but enjoyable frozen treats, but which one will get you the most bang for your buck? In a 36-hour time period, I sampled all three to ensure the most accurate critique. Family Mart Soft Serve 6RMB

Ah, those ubiquitous green and blue stripes and catchy (but eventually annoying) jingle every time someone walks through the door. Besides their budget-friendly baozi and onigiri, Family Mart offers vanilla soft serve during warmer seasons. Their ice cream is light and airy, but melts very quickly. The vanilla taste is noticeably artificial. As expected from cones out of a box, they were tasteless and had a Styrofoam-like crisp to them. In this case, the quality matches the price, but it’s decent enough to regularly buy, especially when there are two locations in between the dorms and academic building. KFC Soft Serve with Chocolate Sauce 11RMB

Your alcohol-induced munchies always drag you to KFC, and for good reason. How can anyone resist a Zinger with fries at 2am? On the sweeter side of things, KFC’s soft serve is a step up from Family Mart’s with less artificial taste and creamier texture. I’m not a huge fan of the chocolate sauce, which was too sweet for me. Thus, my KFC dessert of choice remains the Portuguese egg tart. Would I make a trip here just for the ice cream? No. But for the egg tarts? Yes. Dairy Queen Oreo Blizzard 21RMB

I have a soft spot for McDonald’s Oreo McFlurries, but the Chinese rendition of it doesn’t cut it for me. This is where Dairy Queen’s Blizzards come in. Everyone always asks: can you really hold it upside down? Yes, you can. And the denseness of their ice cream makes all the difference. For me, Dairy Queen was the clear winner. Their ice cream was thick and rich, with no traces of fake flavorings. And if there were, well, the Oreos did a good job of concealing it.

This article was written by Tatiana Bautista. Send an email to [email protected] to get in touch. Photo Credit: Tatiana Bautista