Review: Pop-Tarts' New Ice Cream Sandwiches Are A Must-Try For Any '90s Kid

If you grew up in the '90s and 2000s, you were likely very familiar with Pop-Tarts throughout your childhood (it was the top popular food trend of the time), but the pastries have been around much longer than that. The brand has offered an array of colors and flavors since its inception in 1963, from favorites like Frosted Wild Berry and S'mores to discontinued treats like French Toast and Blueberry Muffin. And now, something new has hit the grocery store, specifically the freezer aisles.

Pop-Tarts has introduced a line of ice cream sandwiches and pints, perfect for the upcoming warmer months. Currently, there are three ice cream sandwich flavors: Frosted Strawberry, Frosted Brown Sugar Cinnamon, and Frosted Chocolate Fudge. I wanted to try them the second I saw the announcement, and the very next day, I bought all three. I've had all of these flavors in their normal, non-frozen pastry form and was curious to see how they held up paired with ice cream. 

The ice cream sandwiches are just that. Each of the frozen desserts is comprised of two mini Pop-Tarts with a layer of ice cream in between. The pastries are noticeably smaller than their toaster-friendly versions, making them more bite-sized and appropriate for an ice cream sandwich. They're actually quite adorable. 

The ice cream is flavored to match its Pop-Tart counterpart. Frosted Strawberry comes with strawberry ice cream with a strawberry swirl, Frosted Brown Sugar Cinnamon has a brown sugar cinnamon ice cream, and Frosted Chocolate Fudge has chocolate ice cream with a fudgy swirl throughout. Although you could make your own Pop-Tart ice cream sandwiches, these mini versions are not only novel but also easy to eat.

These sweets are only available for purchase at Walmart. I'm located in the San Diego area, and each box costs $7.59 a pop (pun intended). A box comes with four ice cream sandwiches, making it just under $2 for each sandwich. I would recommend checking your local Walmart to confirm that it's in stock. You can do this on the app or online by first adding your zip code. Then type "Pop-Tart ice cream sandwich" in the search bar to see what comes up, but keep in mind that the search results may not always be accurate or up to date.

The chilly sandwiches come in a blue box that looks very similar to the standard Pop-Tart packaging, as do the sandwiches' foil wrappers. Now, let's dive into the flavors and how they taste.

Frosted Strawberry is the perfect refreshing flavor for summertime. It has that classic strawberry flavor, with the strawberry ice cream creating a light fruitiness. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the overall taste is comparable to a fresh, uncooked Pop-Tart. It feels nostalgic but new at the same time. But that also means that it doesn't have the added crisp texture and almost nutty flavor of the toasted crust. Keep this in mind, because if you prefer toasted Pop-Tarts, you may not be a fan of the flavor and texture this offers.

The strawberry ice cream offers a burst of strawberry flavor that pairs nicely with the Pop-Tarts without overpowering their flavors (which is an issue with one of the other flavors). Texture-wise, the little sprinkles offer a slight crunch, and the frosting is crisp and sweet, while the pastry itself shatters as you bite into it. The Pop-Tarts have a small amount of filling in the center — surely not as much as it shows on the packaging. Because it's frozen, you're not getting that gooey effect that you would with a freshly heated Pop-Tart, but that's to be expected.

I wish there was more strawberry filling within the pastry, but overall, this was the best-executed of the three flavors. The ice cream balances the pastry, and the two work harmoniously — you can taste both in every bite, rather than one or the other, and it delivers a fun play on a classic flavor. One Frosted Strawberry sandwich has 230 calories, 9 grams of fat, 37 grams of carbohydrates, and 19 total grams of sugar.

I love cinnamon, so I had high hopes for this treat. Upon first bite, Frosted Brown Sugar Cinnamon has an autumnal vibe, of course, because of the warming spice. I liked the crunchy frozen frosting and the slightly gooey cinnamon Pop-Tart filling, which was more plentiful than in the strawberry sandwich. The pastries really deliver here.

And the cinnamon ice cream? It was ... there. I ate a couple more bites, hoping for a more cinnamon-forward profile (and even scooped some out to eat by itself), but the ice cream ultimately tasted lackluster. It's more like vanilla brown sugar ice cream with a tinge of the spice rather than being a spiced ice cream — which is actually the case when you look at the ingredients. Most of the cinnamon flavor comes from the pastries themselves.

On one hand, it makes sense that the mini Pop-Tarts are the focal point. But the ice cream fades away into the background against the two cinnamon-y toaster pastries, even though they are small and thin. I was hoping for a bit more balance; the rich cinnamon notes could have helped provide more depth to counteract the overall sweetness. One Frosted Brown Sugar Cinnamon ice cream sandwich has 230 calories, 10 grams of fat, 37 grams of carbohydrates, and 19 total grams of sugar.

Frosted Chocolate Fudge received the coveted No. 2 spot in Tasting Table's Pop-Tarts taste test, and it's one of my favorites, too. I have a distinct memory of heating one in the toaster, and the gooey fudgy inside dripped onto my leg and gave me a small glob-shaped burn scar. True story. So I tasted this with memories of yesteryear and simpler times, but the sandwich was anything but simple.

The Pop-Tart pastry crusts have a chocolate base, but they're not very rich, even with their cocoa powder. The interior filling has a bit more dimension, thanks to the addition of dark chocolate, with that gooey interior that I recalled. But the pastry, icing and all, fell to the wayside because of the luscious, rich chocolate ice cream flavor. This sandwich has the most noticeable, flavorful ice cream out of the bunch. Similar to Frosted Strawberry, I could see a little chocolate fudge swirl on the inside, offering a delightful fudginess to the decadent chocolate ice cream. 

Hey, I love chocolate — dark chocolate especially — but the majority of the chocolate flavor here comes from the ice cream. I initially quite liked this Pop-Tart ice cream sandwich, but after a couple of bites, I realized I was mainly tasting the ice cream. If I could get a pint of that ice cream by itself, this would be my top pick, but the pastry was drab by comparison. One Frosted Chocolate Fudge ice cream sandwich has 230 calories, 10 grams of fat, 36 grams of carbohydrates, and 19 total grams of sugar.

Overall, all three Pop-Tarts ice cream sandwiches delivered on the nostalgic flavor of an untoasted pastry. Perhaps it was the longing of my youth that clouded my judgment in the first bites, but after a couple of additional mouthfuls of each, I was able to really home in on the flavors of the pastries and then the ice creams themselves.

To start, the ice cream offers a rich base to cut the sweetness brought on by each pastry's frosting and sugary insides. But they weren't all balanced and well-executed. In the case of Frosted Chocolate Fudge, the ice cream overwhelmed the Pop-Tart itself (but it was still delicious), and Frosted Brown Sugar Cinnamon had the opposite problem. The ice cream was so mild, it was basically vanilla. Frosted Strawberry delivers the most equal experience, offering the pastry's classic berry flavor with a refreshing strawberry ice cream.

I understand the need for matchy-matchy ice cream and Pop-Tart flavors for the initial concept launch. However, if the brand chooses to extend the line, it may want to consider trying out different flavor combinations — a great tip for making the best ice cream sandwiches. For example, it could be the fruity classic Frosted Blueberry with lemon ice cream.

If you're a fan of any of the above Pop-Tarts flavors, I'm sure you will enjoy their ice cream sandwich forms. It will likely bring you a bit of joy, and that's worth it, no matter the cost. I have a feeling, should this line continue, that it could be a future source of childhood nostalgia for the younger generation. Are these gourmet and high-end? No — but they're pretty cool (literally).