What Is The Brand Behind Trader Joe's Cookie Butter Ice Cream?

There's some serious detective work to be done when it boils down to figuring out the brands behind Trader Joe's most popular items. Did you know the company doesn't have its own production factory? The latest craze (and, incidentally, Travis Kelce's favorite treat) is Trader Joe's Speculoos Cookie Butter Ice Cream. According to one Reddit user — ironically named dont_listen2me — Pierre's Ice Cream Company is the wizard behind the magic. However, we wouldn't take that claim as complete gospel, as Double Rainbow is another frequently raised suspected ice cream partner. 

Struggling to find a trace of TJ's partnership ties online? There's a good reason for this: Trader Joe's outsourcing is kept strictly hush-hush. SF Gate reported reaching out to the company for comment and receiving radio silence, while other businesses specifically told their senior news editor, Amy Graff, that they couldn't discuss outsourcing agreements with the media. 

Incorporating ice cream is one of the best ways to use cookie butter; we can't believe nobody has yet stepped forward to claim the idea. For now, a definitive answer to the question of who exactly is responsible for TJ's cookie butter ice cream remains a mystery. How about you host your own taste test? Can you spot any revealing similarities between the brands? Rest assured that whichever company is responsible for this much-loved dessert meets high-quality production criteria, and the customer reviews are glowing either way.

Strategically, the two are miles apart. Unlike Trader Joe's, Pierre's Ice Cream Company makes all its own desserts. With 75 flavors, it's safe to say there's a long list to taste test. And that's without factoring in all the private label products — ice creams sold under different brand names — Pierre manufactures. That consistency in recipes and production is a massive reason Pierre's approach varies from Trader Joe's. It's also why experts suggest matching taste profiles of ice creams to figure out the secret outsourcing partnerships; manufacturers leave quite a distinctive impression.

Notably, neither company is amongst the best ice cream brands ranked, but each offers relatively affordable treats and competitive rates. Both are inherently creative: Pierre's Everything But The Kitchen Sink tub has high-praising reviews and TJ's Ube Ice Cream created quite the stir in 2019. While at first glance less well-known, Pierre's Ice Cream Company also appears amongst a few favorite ice cream recommendations on online forums like Reddit. Of course, with all that said, we're definitely partial to a classic Trade Joe's ice cream — its French vanilla scored strongly in our popular vanilla ice cream brands ranked by ingredient quality. You can't have too much ice cream, so why not buy a tub of each? Don't get too bogged down in background research; you never truly know where these products come from.