Trader Joe’s Hold the Dairy! More Ice Cream, Please!
Trader Joe’s does it again… another product that’s so intriguing to try. Their non-dairy hold the cones are here and they call them Hold the Dairy!
What’s their Hold the Dairy?
Header photo shows TJ’s Hold the Dairy packaging. It’s a non-dairy version of their Hold the Cone, essentially a mini ice cream cone. Just their non-dairy and vegan version that’s made with coconut milk, similar to their cold brew coffee non-dairy ice cream.
Hold the Dairy Packaging
Their packaging with this product annoys me. The regular hold the cone packaging does use some plastic inside, but it was neat and easily assessable. Hold the Dairy packaging comes individually, so more foil and paper packaging. There’s no chocolate shell over the top ice cream part, which explains the need to wrap over that portion. Above photo shows it unwrapped (I completely failed and the ice cream part initially fell as I ripped the packaging). Below photo shows them each wrapped, all in the box in its entropic yet semi-neat state.
So Much Effort
Alright, that was a bit exaggerated, but they really are more time consuming to unwrap to consume. The kids were also annoyed with this that they immediately said that they liked the regular hold the cones because they aren’t packaged this way.
Taste and Texture
Pretty good for a coconut based milk ice cream. I had a hard time tasting the chocolate from the ice cream itself, but the more fudgy parts were more chocolate-flavored. Fudge is a no-no for me in ice cream (I just can’t stand fudge sauce stuff!!) so I didn’t like some of this one because part of it reminded me of that. The texture was great though. I didn’t miss the chocolate shell on top because if I’m having ice cream, I usually enjoy the ice cream part the most and not any of the toppings and other things with it. The kids and I ate all ours so we didn’t dislike it.
Nutrition Facts and Such
There are 12 mini cones in a package, and one serving is 6 cones. The packaging was ehhhh for me to want to wrap 6 of these to enjoy in one sitting. One 6-cones serving is 370 Calories with 17g fat, 48g carbs, and 5g protein. Each individual cone according to the above will be 61.67 Calories with 2.83g fat, 8g carbs, and 0.83g protein. Technically one Hold the Dairy contains fewer Calories (around 20 fewer) than a regular Hold the Cone.
Biggest Similarity, Other Than it Being a Mini Cone
They kept the chocolate bottom cone filling! Such a special thing to have in these mini cones. Yay!!! Not too fudge-y, thankfully.
Worth It?
Around $4 for 12 mini cones is not bad at all and these aren’t much more than regular hold the cones that come with 8 mini cones. 1.5x more mini cones for under a dollar more sounds pretty worth it! The taste itself isn’t bad for non-dairy or coconut milk base, and I would taste this in other flavors if/when they make them in the future. The packaging itself isn’t great, but I think it just bothers me a bit more than average.
