Last year, Halo Top became the best-selling ice cream in America – a fact that wasn’t lost on frozen treat giant Ben & Jerry’s.
Los Angeles brand Halo Top is famous for its low-calorie, low-sugar ice cream that boasts 25 different flavors, with each pint coming in at less than 400 calories.
Now, Ben & Jerry’s have waded into the more health-focused sector with its line of light ice cream, Moo-phoria, which will be hitting stores later this month.
Get in the ring: Ben & Jerry’s are launching a new line of low-calorie ice creams
Big hitter: The line comes after Los Angeles brand Halo Top has found huge success across the country for its low-calorie, low-sugar pints
Sweeten the deal: The new line is much less caloric that the original versions, which often exceed 1,000 calories a pint
So far the line comes in three flavors: Chocolate Milk and Cookies, P.B. Dough, and Caramel Cookie Fix.
But while the new line certainly is far less caloric than regular pints of the ice cream, which often contain in excess of 1,000 calories, they aren’t exactly guiltless.
The Chocolate Milk and Cookies ice cream is listed on the container as having 140 calories for half a cup – adding up to 560 calories for the full pint.
A full pint of the Caramel Cookie Fix adds up to 600 calories a pint, while the P.B. Dough is the highest of the new line at 640.
However the company recommends that sweet treat fans enjoy the ice cream in half-cup servings, which contain between 140 and 160 calories, depending on the flavor.
To a point: However, the ice cream isn’t quite guilt free, with the new flavors ranging from 560-640 per pint in comparison to Halo Top’s under-400-calorie types
Putting it across: The brand also opts to display the calories on the containers by the half-cup serving so as not to encourage eating the whole pint at once
Additionally, while Halo Top emphasizes the low-calorie count of the full pint on the front of the container, the new Ben & Jerry’s light pints list the calorie count for a half-cup serving.
The reasoning behind this, explained Dena Wimette, senior innovation manager at Ben & Jerry’s, is that the brand does not want to encourage customers to eat the whole pint in one sitting.
This idea is a far cry from the ethos of Halo Top, with each lid of the ice cream covering a gold foil that reads: ‘Stop when you hit the bottom’ or ‘Save the bowl.’
‘We’ve heard some of our fans say they can’t trust themselves with a pint of Ben & Jerry’s in their freezer and we wanted to make something that has all the delicious chunks and swirls they love with a little less guilt,’ Wimette said.
Tip top: Halo Top has rocketed to fame over the past year, and has even released vegan versions of its popular flavors
Real scoop: The company promises that the Moo-phoria line will contain ‘the same amount of chunks and swirls as our regular ice creams’
‘It is a popular trend to have a variety of [nutritional] options for ice cream eaters, our fans are asking or it, and we’re happy to oblige.’
She also promised that the Moo-phoria flavors boast ‘the same amount of chunks and swirls as our regular ice creams.’
If the new line proves to be a hit, the brand has plans to expand it to include more flavors.
As Halo Top rose to top-selling prominence, Ben & Jerry’s was beaten to this particular trend by fellow Unilever-owned brand Breyers, who released their own line of 330-calories-or-less pints last year.