Behind the Scenes: Publix Limited-Time Ice Cream

This guest post which originally appeared on the official Publix blog, the Publix checkout was written by Publix associate by Caroline A. Caroline started with Publix as a cashier in 2015 and has developed a passion for writing and social media. She loves being a part of Publix’s culture and enjoys bringing new ideas to The Publix Checkout by writing about topics customers might not know about the company. Pub Subs and Publix Sweet Tea are her favorites, and you’ll always find her with an iced coffee in hand. Outside of work, Caroline enjoys traveling, watching college football and playing with her fur child.

Have you ever wanted to see how your favorite limited-edition ice cream flavors are created? We’re talking about those infamous flavors you look forward to each season. We’re here to give you the scoop on how the flavors you love are created and how our teams decide which ones make the cut to return to our shelves.

How are new flavors created?

Our ice cream teams spend time creating flavor profiles based on seasonal requests and monitoring flavors that are trending. Customer feedback is important to us, and some of your favorite flavors were inspired by ideas we received through customer feedback.

Each flavor is created in a few variations, then our ice cream experts score their favorites during a tasting panel and decide which ones will move forward in the creation process.

When the ice cream flavors are created, our teams brainstorm potential names. Some of our most popular flavors have names that are fun and creative, so this is an exciting step in the process. After the flavor is given its name, our creative teams work on the beautiful illustrations you see on our ice cream cartons.

What are the most popular flavors?

You can probably guess which flavors are most popular! Our holiday flavors that return at the end of each year are highly anticipated and some of the most requested. These flavors include Santa’s White Christmas, Peppermint Stick, Pumpkin Pie and Eggnog. Other popular flavors you see throughout the year include Hula Hula Macadamia, Southern Banana Pudding, Mackinac Island Fudge and Buckeyes & Fudge.

Our teams decide which flavors return to shelves each year based on flavor profiles and customer requests! Our goal is to offer new and exciting varieties for our customers to try while returning classic flavors that hit it out of the park.

What happens to retired flavors?

Over the years, some flavors are retired to give new delicious flavors a chance to shine. Recently, customers voted on retired flavors to return to the shelves. The results are in, and we’re sharing which ones you can look forward to seeing next year! Which one will you try first?

Tin Roof Sundae – Vanilla ice cream with a chocolate-fudge swirl and chocolate-coated peanuts
Bananas Foster – Spiced cinnamon and banana-flavored ice cream with a savory brown sugar and rum swirl
Triple Chocolate Graham Slam – Chocolate ice cream with a fudgy brownie swirl and chocolate-coated graham cracker pieces