Blue Bell's king cake ice cream goes national: Plus 8 local ones to try - NOLA.com

Angelo Brocato's king cake ice cream. Photo by Ann Maloney, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

Blue Bell takes its king cake ice nationwide: Plus 8 local Carnival ice creams to try

People love king cake in any form. King cake ice cream is no exception. Blue Bell discovered that when they sold king cake ice cream in Louisiana last year. It did so well, they are taking it nationwide in 2019.

“We have been making Mardi Gras King Cake since 2012, but the flavor has mostly been sold in areas known for the celebration such as Louisiana and Alabama,” Carl Breed, corporate sales manager for Blue Bell, said in a press release. “Last year a grocery store in Louisiana posted about the flavor’s arrival on its Facebook page and we started receiving requests from all over the country. After that, we decided to share this festive flavor with everyone in our distribution area.”

Want to try it? Find out when the groceries stock the coolers, because last year I had to go to three stores before I could find a half gallon.

I was picking the ice cream up because, last year, we conducted a taste test of nine king cake ice creams, selecting our favorite from one national brand, Blue Bell, and eight locally made cool, creamy treats.

In that taste test, the judges favored Just Delights, an event and catering business that sells retail online at justdelightsnola.com, and calls its version Queen’s Cake. The runners-up were from Quintin’s Natural Ice Cream and Sorbets, with the sugar baby inside the pint, and the much-loved 100-plus-year-old institution Angelo Brocato’s Italian Ice Cream.

Here is where you can find them all.

Angelo Brocato's
214 N. Carrollton Ave., 504.486.0078

This creamy gelato should be available by Kings’ Day or shortly thereafter. It has a cinnamon flavor, with bits of Caluda’s king cake in it and it is sprinkled with purple, green and gold dragée for Carnival color. Brocato also sells whole Caluda’s King Cakes. This was a favorite among our judges in a blind taste test in 2018 (pictured above).

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