We Tried Häagen-Dazs' New Butter Cookie Cone, And The Ice Cream Is The True Star
Warmer weather is so close we can almost taste it. The ice cream masterminds over at Häagen-Dazs must be on the same page since they're planning to roll out the brand's newest single-serve ice cream treat as the temperatures begin to rise. The Butter Cookie Cone is an impressive-looking upgrade to your favorite ice cream truck or freezer aisle cones and features a brand-new style of cone that you won't find anywhere else. Instead of a wafer or waffle cone, this cone is made out of a buttery and slightly salty cookie and is finished with cookie bits, sauce, and other toppings for a more luxurious ice cream cone experience.
Häagen-Dazs sent us a preview of the Butter Cookie Cones in two of the four featured flavors for our tasters to try. We sampled both the vanilla and chocolate versions of the Butter Cookie Cones and are here to let you know exactly what we think of the new treat. We also took a look at the different flavor combinations, ingredients, nutrition, and price. Here's everything you need to know about the brand-new Butter Cookie ice cream cones from Häagen-Dazs.
What do the Häagen-Dazs Butter Cookie Cones include?
The four flavors of ice cream chosen for the launch of the Butter Cookie Cones are Häagen-Dazs' most popular flavors, including Madagascar vanilla, strawberry, milk chocolate, and coffee. The ice cream itself is straightforward Häagen-Dazs ice cream that you'll appreciate if you enjoy these flavors in pint format. Each cone comes with three toppings: cookie pieces, a sauce, and either chocolate curls or roasted almonds.
The sauces vary depending on the flavor, and you'll find a little pocket of sauce on the inside of the ice cream scoop as well. Vanilla is topped with caramel sauce and regular chocolate curls, chocolate is topped with a chocolate fudge sauce and milk chocolate curl, strawberry is topped with tangy raspberry sauce and white chocolate curls, and coffee is topped with espresso fudge sauce and roasted almonds. The sauces stay in place atop the ice cream cones while frozen but quickly turn gooey once it begins to come to room temperature.
Finally, there's the butter cookie cone itself. The cones are made of butter cookie dough, not to be confused with sugar cookie dough which is a little sweeter. It's also thicker than a classic wafer or waffle cone. The inside of the cone is lined with a chocolate shell that adds a chocolatey crunch and is a nice perk to prevent ice cream from dripping out of the bottom and the cookie cone from getting soggy.
What's the price and availability of the Butter Cookie Cones?
Häagen-Dazs announced the release of the Butter Cookie ice cream cones at the beginning of February this year. However, the full release isn't expected until sometime in April 2023 — just in time for the warmer months ahead. Even though Häagen-Dazs is a major brand with extensive reach, it will likely take a little while for the cones to make it to store shelves everywhere. If they're something you're interested in trying, the easiest thing to do is to ask your local grocery store to start carrying them.
Häagen-Dazs' suggested retail price for a box of Butter Cookie Cones is $8.99 before taxes, although the final call on the price will be up to the individual retailers selling the cones. That's about $2.25 per cone, which isn't excessive for a premium ice cream cone. In comparison, pints of Häagen-Dazs ice cream (which are actually only 14 ounces) cost an average of $6.50, depending on where you purchase them. The whole package of Butter Cookie Cones weighs 14.8 ounces and includes toppings, sauces, and individually-wrapped cones, making the additional cost justifiable.
A look at the nutrition information and ingredients
It should be no surprise to anyone who loves premium ice cream that these are not low-calorie treats. A single cone will run anywhere from 270 to 300 calories, depending on the flavor you choose, with strawberry being the lowest and chocolate being the highest. Unlike grabbing a pint of ice cream, it's not really realistic to cut one of these ice cream cone portions in half, so we'd suggest enjoying it and adjusting your nutritional needs as needed.
There's an average of 16 grams of fat per cone, as well as 60 mg of cholesterol, 100 mg of sodium, 30 grams of carbohydrates, and 4 grams of protein. All of Häagen-Dazs' ice creams are made with real cream and sugar, and there's actual butter in these cones. Nearly every ingredient listed for each cone flavor is recognizable, which makes it easier to figure out if it's something you want to indulge in. With that said, several allergens are listed for all of these cones, including milk, wheat, eggs, and soy. Additionally, the packaging says the cones are produced on equipment that also processes almonds and coconut, which appear as ingredients in several cones.
What else does Häagen-Dazs offer?
You're undoubtedly familiar with Häagen-Dazs ice cream by the pint, which is sold nearly everywhere, from grocery stores to gas stations. But currently, the Butter Cookie Cones are the only individually-packaged ice cream cones that Häagen-Dazs offers. Until now, if you wanted a single-serving treat from Häagen-Dazs, you'd have to pick up a 3.6-ounce cup of ice cream or an ice cream bar, which are still great options, in our opinion. Mini ice cream bars are also available for those who just want a little bit of luxury.
The ice creams and sorbets offered in pints offer the widest range of flavors, including the newer City Sweets collection with more adventurous flavors, like Black & White Cookie, Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel, and Dulce de Leche Churro. There are currently ten flavors of ice cream bars available, which all seem to offer an elevated alternative to the ice cream truck classics we know and love. But if you're looking for Häagen-Dazs ice cream in a classic waffle cone, you'll still have to go to a scoop shop to find it.
Our Verdict: Leave the cone, take the ice cream
If you're a fan of Häagen-Dazs' ice creams already, you will surely enjoy the ice cream in these cones. It's just as creamy and rich as what you'll find in a pint of Häagen-Dazs. The additional sauce, cookie pieces, and chocolate curls are exceptional toppings that we really couldn't get enough of. The caramel sauce core inside the vanilla cookie butter cone is downright euphoric.
If you've had a freezer-aisle Friendly's Sundae Cone or Nestle Drumstick cone, which clocks in at around 4.5 ounces per cone each, you'll notice the smaller size and weight of the Häagen-Dazs Butter Cookie Cone, which is about 3.7 ounces per cone. Rest assured; it's plenty. We're normally all for more ice cream, but we found that we were completely satisfied with a smaller cone, given how luscious the ice cream and toppings are.
But the featured element of these treats is the butter cookie cone, which we were somewhat less enthusiastic about. The hard chocolate lining provides a nice little crunch further up in the cone but fills up the bottom of the cone, disrupting the ice cream-to-cone ratio. The cookie cone itself is also a little on the thick side for our tastes, especially given the smaller size of the whole cone, and it isn't quite as sweet as we expected. But ultimately, we'd still pick up a box of butter cookie cones for the fantastic ice cream and toppings.