Blue Bell Mint Chocolate Chip (Ninja Creami Copycat)

This Ninja Creami Copycat Blue Bell Mint Chocolate Chip is cool, creamy, and that unmistakable bright green — with shards of dark chocolate that snap when you bite them. It’s the closest you’ll get to the gold-rimmed carton without leaving your kitchen.

Oh, this one is so good. I’ve made a lot of mint ice cream over the years, and I’ll be honest — most homemade versions miss. They come out either tasting like toothpaste or looking sad and beige, with chocolate chips that just sit there like little waxy pebbles. Blue Bell’s version doesn’t do that. It’s refreshing, the mint is cool without being sharp, and the chocolate shatters instead of chewing.

So I went digging into what actually makes theirs different — and it turns out the whole secret is in two places: peppermint oil instead of mint extract, and chocolate “chips” made with coconut oil. Once I copied both of those, my pint tasted like the real thing. Let me show you.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• It tastes like the carton. Cool, creamy, peppermint-forward — not toothpaste, not spearmint gum.
• The chocolate actually snaps. My drizzle trick makes thin shards that shatter, just like Blue Bell’s.
• That signature green. Blue Bell’s mint chip is famously, almost unapologetically bright green. We’re leaning in.
• Five minutes of hands-on time. Whisk, pour, freeze, spin. The Creami does everything else.
• Year-round, but especially good in summer. Nothing beats mint chip on a 100° afternoon.

What Makes Blue Bell Mint Chocolate Chip Different?

If you’ve ever wondered why Blue Bell’s mint chip hits differently than everybody else’s, here’s what I found on the carton:

• It’s peppermint, not “mint.” Blue Bell lists peppermint oil in the ingredients — not a vague mint flavor. Peppermint is cooler and cleaner on the finish, where spearmint tastes more like chewing gum. This is the single biggest thing to get right.
• The chips aren’t really chocolate chips. Blue Bell uses dark chocolate flavored chips made with coconut oil. That matters a lot more than it sounds. Coconut oil sets up hard and brittle in the freezer but melts right at body temperature, so the shards snap when you bite down and then disappear on your tongue. Regular chocolate chips are made to hold their shape in a hot oven — which is exactly the wrong quality in ice cream. Frozen, they turn into little rocks you have to chew.
• The green is loud. Blue Bell colors theirs a bright, cheerful green. Some brands go pale and natural. If you want it to look like the carton, don’t be shy with the food coloring.
• It’s real ice cream, and it’s rich. Blue Bell isn’t making a low-fat product. Full-fat dairy is doing the work here.

Ingredients

• Heavy cream – The backbone of that dense, rich Blue Bell texture. Don’t substitute half-and-half.
• Whole milk – Balances the cream so the base isn’t heavy or greasy.
• Granulated sugar – Sweetens and, just as importantly, keeps the pint from freezing rock hard.
• Cream cheese, softened – My secret weapon in every Creami base. Two tablespoons give you that dense, commercial-style creaminess and fight off ice crystals.
• Peppermint extract – The star. Peppermint, not mint or spearmint. If you can find peppermint oil, even better — see my note below.
• Vanilla extract – You won’t taste it directly, but it rounds out the mint and keeps it from tasting flat.
• Salt – Just a pinch. It makes the mint taste more like mint.
• Green food coloring – For that classic Blue Bell green. Totally optional if you’d rather go natural.
• Dark chocolate – Chopped bar or chips, for the shards.
• Refined coconut oil – Just a teaspoon, melted into the chocolate. This is what makes the shards snap. Use refined so it doesn’t taste like coconut.

How To Make Ninja Creami Copycat Blue Bell Mint Chocolate Chip

Step One: In a medium bowl, whisk the softened cream cheese and sugar together first until they’re completely smooth — this is the step people skip, and it’s why they end up with cream cheese lumps. Once it looks like frosting, slowly whisk in the milk, then the heavy cream.

Step Two: Add the peppermint extract, vanilla, and salt. Whisk until the sugar is fully dissolved — rub a little between your fingers to check for grit. Add green food coloring a drop at a time until you hit that bright Blue Bell green.

Step Three: Pour the base into your Ninja Creami pint, staying below the MAX fill line. Snap on the lid and freeze flat for at least 24 hours. A tilted pint freezes lopsided and spins unevenly.

Step Four: Remove the pint, let it sit on the counter for 5–10 minutes, then install it in the Creami and run the Ice Cream function. If it comes out crumbly — totally normal — add a splash of milk and run Re-Spin once.

Step Five: Make the chocolate shards. Melt the dark chocolate with the coconut oil (20 seconds in the microwave, stir, repeat until smooth) and let it cool until it’s just barely warm. Dig a well in the center of your spun ice cream, drizzle the chocolate in a thin stream, and run the Mix-In function. The chocolate freezes on contact and the paddle breaks it into shards.

Step Six: Scoop and serve. Or smooth the top, freeze another 10–15 minutes, and serve it firmer.

Pro Tips for the Best Mint Chocolate Chip

• Peppermint, not mint. I’ll say it a third time because it’s the whole recipe. Bottles labeled “mint extract” are usually a peppermint-spearmint blend, and spearmint is what makes homemade mint ice cream taste like gum.
• Go easy. Peppermint is powerful, and cold mutes flavor less than you’d think here — the mint reads stronger frozen, not weaker. Start at ¼ teaspoon extract. You can always stir a drop more into the base; you can’t take it out.
• Using peppermint oil? Cut the amount way down — roughly ⅛ teaspoon, or about 3–4 drops. Oil is dramatically stronger than extract. This is what Blue Bell uses, and it’s the cleanest mint flavor you can get at home.
• The drizzle beats the chip. Every time. Straight chocolate chips freeze into hard pebbles. The coconut oil drizzle gives you brittle shards that melt on your tongue — the actual Blue Bell texture.
• Cool the chocolate before you drizzle. If it’s hot, it’ll melt streaks into your ice cream instead of setting into shards. Warm, not hot.
• Freeze flat, and freeze the full 24 hours. Both of these matter more than any ingredient.
• Don’t overfill the pint. Past the MAX line means overflow and an uneven spin.

Variations & Mix-In Ideas

• Grasshopper: Fold in crushed chocolate sandwich cookies along with the shards.
• Mint fudge ribbon: Dig a trench and ribbon in thick hot fudge — the same swirl trick behind my Blue Bell Homemade In The Shade, which is vanilla with a fudge swirl. Mint plus that ribbon is a very good idea.
• Andes-style: Swap the dark chocolate shards for chopped Andes mints during the Mix-In cycle.
• Peppermint bark (holiday version): Add crushed candy canes with the shards and tint it pale pink instead of green.
• Shamrock shake: Spin a pint on the Milkshake function with a splash of milk — basically my Ninja Creami Shamrock Shake in scoop form.
• Cookies & mint: Fold in crushed chocolate sandwich cookies the way I do in my Blue Bell Cookies ‘n Cream.
• Dairy-free: Full-fat coconut milk in place of the milk and cream, plus a dairy-free cream cheese. The coconut plays surprisingly well with mint.

How To Store Ninja Creami Ice Cream

Smooth the top, snap the lid on, and store the pint in the coldest part of your freezer for up to 2 weeks. Homemade ice cream has no commercial stabilizers, so it firms up harder than store-bought. To bring it back to scoopable, just Re-Spin the frozen pint, or let it rest on the counter for 10–15 minutes before scooping.

More Blue Bell Copycats to Try

Working your way through the Blue Bell freezer case? Don’t miss these:

• Copycat Ninja Creami Blue Bell Vanilla Ice Cream — their #1 best-seller and the foundation of the whole series.
• Ninja Creami Butter Pecan (Copycat Blue Bell) — buttery, brown-sugar sweet, loaded with toasted pecans.
• Ninja Creami Copycat Blue Bell Cookies ‘n Cream — smooth vanilla packed with chocolate sandwich cookies.
• Ninja Creami Copycat Blue Bell Homemade In The Shade — creamy vanilla with a thick chocolate fudge swirl.
• Ninja Creami Copycat Blue Bell Rocky Road — chocolate base with almonds and marshmallows.
• Ninja Creami Blue Bell Dutch Chocolate — deep, mellow Dutch-cocoa chocolate.
• Ninja Creami Blue Bell Chocolate Lava Cake — their limited-edition summer release, copycatted.

And if mint is your thing, don’t stop here: Ninja Creami Copycat Baskin Robbins Mint Chocolate Chip is the scoop-shop take on the same flavor, and my St. Patrick’s Day Ice Cream turns that green mint base into a holiday dessert.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Blue Bell Mint Chocolate Chip? It’s Blue Bell’s refreshing green mint ice cream studded with dark chocolate flavored chips. It’s one of their most popular year-round flavors and a fixture in the half-gallon carton.

What’s the difference between Blue Bell Mint Chocolate Chip and Homemade in the Shade? They’re completely different flavors — people mix them up because of the name, but there’s no mint in Homemade in the Shade at all. That one is Blue Bell’s Homemade Vanilla with a swirl of rich chocolate fudge sauce. Mint Chocolate Chip is a green peppermint base with chocolate chips. If you want the fudge swirl, that recipe is right here.

Why does my homemade mint ice cream taste like toothpaste? Almost always too much extract, or the wrong kind. Use peppermint (not spearmint or generic “mint”), and start with less than you think — ¼ teaspoon of extract per pint is plenty.

Can I use regular chocolate chips instead? You can, and it’s still good — but they’ll be firm little pebbles rather than shards. Baking chips are engineered to hold their shape under heat, which works against you in ice cream. The melted-chocolate-plus-coconut-oil drizzle is what gets you the real snap.

Do I need the food coloring? Nope. Your ice cream will be pale cream colored and taste exactly the same. But Blue Bell’s is famously bright green, so if you’re going for the copycat look, you’ll want a few drops.

Do I need the cream cheese? It’s not required, but those two tablespoons are what give the base its dense, true-to-Blue-Bell texture and keep ice crystals away. If you skip it, use 1 tablespoon of instant vanilla pudding mix instead.

Why is my Ninja Creami ice cream crumbly? Completely normal on the first spin, especially with a hard-frozen pint. Add a splash of milk and run Re-Spin once or twice.

Can I make this without a Ninja Creami? This recipe is written for the Creami — the machine’s spin is what creates the dense texture, so the ratios won’t translate directly to a churn or no-churn method.

How long does it keep? Up to 2 weeks in the covered pint. Re-Spin before serving for the best texture.