What is the best chocolate ice cream?
Whether it comes from a truck, a fast food restaurant or a real ice cream parlor, soft serve ice cream is a popular refreshment, especially during the summer heat.
And if you find yourself browsing a busy big box store this season, then a fresh cup of creamy, sweet, fluffy serve probably seems like a deserved reward.
Perhaps that’s why America’s two largest warehouse clubs, Costco and Sam’s Club, offer this frozen dessert in their respective food courts. Like the proverbial light at the end of a crowded, fluorescent-lit tunnel, concessions are often conveniently located just beyond the checkout area.
Costco recently gave its shoppers an exciting new reason to make a pit stop after checkout, offering chocolate soft serve ice cream for the first time since 2018. The newly reinstated flavor replaced the company’s popular strawberry ice cream. food court, drawing both cheers and boos from the retailer’s very vocal online comments.
Regardless of your flavor loyalty, the return of chocolate now provides another point of comparison between Costco and its main rival, Sam’s Club, which has always continued to serve its own soft chocolate frozen yogurt.
I recently sampled frozen and chocolate flavors from both retailers, each located in the same New Jersey city, to see which wholesale club is the true champion of sweet chocolate. Here’s how the two varieties compare.
Sam’s club
Nutrition:
Chocolate frozen yogurt (per container)
Calories: 350
Fat: 5 g (Saturated fat: 3.5 g)
Sodium: 210mg
Crabs: 68 g (Fiber: 1 g, Sugar: 54 g)
Protein: 10g
Sam’s Club offers a range of snacks in its cafe, including three yogurt cup options: vanilla, chocolate and swirl. You can also choose from two different varieties of ice cream sundaes. A 10-ounce cup of chocolate fro-yo costs just $1 plus tax at Sam’s in Edison, New Jersey.
The look: Immaculate out of the machine with a perfectly curled top, like it was made in a legit ice cream shop. The yogurt was a light brown shade. The surface appeared shiny and smooth.
Taste: Bittersweet from the first bite. The strong flavor immediately reminded me of Hershey’s chocolate syrup, although the potency mellowed as I continued to eat. The texture was smooth and creamy and I found it overall quite soothing on a hot afternoon. You’d be hard-pressed to find a tastier version for just a dollar almost anywhere else, at least in this part of the country. Even McDonald’s charges more for its softservices.
Costco
Nutrition:
Chocolate ice cream (per serving)
Calories: 570
Fat: 28 g (Saturated fat: 18 g)
Sodium: 260mg
Crabs: 67 g (Fiber: 0 g, Sugar: 59 g)
Protein: 10g
Like Sam’s Club, Costco now also offers soft serve ice cream in vanilla and chocolate flavors. Whichever you choose, it will cost you almost twice as much as the competition. A 10-ounce cup costs $1.99. You can also add chocolate or strawberry sauce to either flavor and call it a sundae for $2.49.
The look: Less artfully presented than the immaculate version of Sam, but not obnoxious. The ice cream was more of a mocha color and seemed slightly more melty than its rival.
Taste: Despite having more sugar in a single serving, Costco’s soft serve somehow tasted less sweet than Sam’s fro-yo and more cocoa. The rich flavor immediately reminded me of old school Jell-O Chocolate Cook & Serve Pudding, which I loved as a kid. The texture was also more airy and light, making it difficult not to consume the entire cup within a few minutes.
The verdict
It all comes back to that age-old adage: “You get what you pay for.” Sam’s Club’s fro-yo is an incredible deal for the price but definitely tastes like a cheap dessert, while Costco’s version costs more but rightly presents itself as a higher quality treat.
If you have extra money to spend – and you don’t mind extra fat and calories –I bet you’ll also find Costco’s chocolate soft serve twice as nice.
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Chris Shott
Chris Shott is the associate restaurant and grocery editor for Eat This, Not That! Learn more about Chris
