We very recently reviewed the heart-stoppingly incredible Trader Joe’s Banana Pudding Flavored Ice Cream. While that dessert comes highly recommended by your trusted Freezer Meal Frenzy review team, there is a caveat: It’s not vegan-friendly.
We don’t want to leave our vegan readers left out in the lurch, so we decided to taste something that’s not made with animal products. Thankfully, Trader Joe’s also sells the Hold the Dairy! line of frozen treats, which are designed to deliver the joy of ice cream to folks who don’t eat dairy.
This is actually a spinoff of the Hold the Cone! line, which we’ve tried in the past. In fact, Trader Joe’s even makes a non-dessert version of this, the Hold the Corn! Appetizers. But today, we’re digging into the vegan-friendly dessert offshoot of the Hold the Cone! line, with the Trader Joe’s Hold the Dairy! Chocolate Mini Coconut Non-Dairy Frozen Dessert Cones. What a mouthful!
While that name is pretty hefty, these dairy-free cones are actually quite small, as you can see in the image above. You can also see that each cone comes individually wrapped in foil. As far as we can tell, the intention is that you would open this from the top and unwrap it as you eat it — sort of like how you’d eat a burrito. That said, we did fully unwrap one so we could get a photograph of it.
That looks pretty tasty, right? And it is!
At the top, you’ve got a batch of chocolate ice cream substitute. It’s rich and chocolately, and especially so because of the chocolate chips it comes loaded with. Now, Trader Joe’s is practicing some slight-of-hand here, as those chocolate chips work to hide the fact that the ice cream substitute has a weird aftertaste. When you first bite in, the chocolate chips are going to overwhelm the flavor, but if you let the non-dairy ice cream linger for a bit, you’ll start to notice some fake, bitter undertones.
The cones don’t sit well in the freezer either. They get kind of soft and chewy, as opposed to the crunchy cones you’d expect from something like this. And we only had this box in our freezer for a few days after we purchased it, so this isn’t a result of not having eaten these right away.
But even though we noticed some flaws, we still enjoyed these immensely. They aren’t our absolute favorite frozen treat from TJ’s (we look forward to returning to the Banana Pudding Flavored Ice Cream in the not-too-distant future), but they’ll definitely do in a pinch.
There are 12 cones in a carton, but TJ’s considers half the box to be a serving. That’s right, you are given permission to eat six of these puppies in a sitting! If you do, you’re looking at 370 calories, which isn’t super bad considering that’s a half dozen dessert cones.
The Trader Joe’s Hold the Dairy! Chocolate Mini Coconut Non-Dairy Frozen Dessert Cones make for an excellent frozen treat for vegan eaters. They’re not perfect, however, as there is an aftertaste and the cones don’t hold up well in the freezer. That said, these are still delightful to eat despite their flaws. If you’re looking for a dairy-free frozen treat, you could certainly do much worse.
To learn more about the nutrition content or ingredients in these frozen dessert cones, check out our package scan below.
