Fans Melt Down After Supply Of Blue Bell's Christmas Ice Cream Dries Up

[TexasTowelie]

Blue Bell is in hot water again.

The Brenham-based creamery is getting a cold shoulder from fans looking for its newest, Yuletide-themed flavor. After a objectively early launch a week before Halloween, it seems Blue Bell’s Christmas Cookies Ice Cream won’t be home for the holidays for many rabid fans.

The company announced the flavor in a Facebook post on Oct. 23, touting the combination of sugar cookie, chocolate chip and snickerdoodle flavors paired with red sprinkles and a green icing swirl.

Then, like a flash, the supply dried up. Customers could no longer find it in stores, and while it was originally offered online, the flavor doesn’t seem to be available anymore.

So, naturally, people had a lot of problems with that and took to the internet for an especially lengthy airing of grievances. While a sprinkling of the 8,000-plus commenters on Facebook and Instagram clamored for revivals of flavors of Christmas past – like Gingerbread House and Hot Chocolate – many of them lamented the scarcity of the Christmas Cookies flavor in grocery aisles nationwide.

Read more: http://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/2017/11/28/253175/fans-melt-down-after-supply-of-blue-bells-christmas-ice-cream-dries-up/

[Glorfindel]

1. Yuck. What an awful thing to do to perfectly good ice cream.

I love Blue Bell ice cream, but I only buy "The Great Divide" - half Dutch chocolate and half French vanilla. Yum! But I almost never buy ice cream, anyway. It's an easy thing to avoid.

[tanyev]

2. Dang, there really is a War on Christmas.

[Cirque du So-What]

3. Listeria again?

I can imagine they will be somewhat reticent in admitting it, if that's the case.

[TexasTowelie]

5. No, and did you read the article prior to making that assumption?

After the main outbreak that forced Blue Bell to close all of its creameries, Blue Bell found listeria again when they tested their product prior to distribution. They immediately admitted the problem, pulled product from the freezers, conducted an investigation and determined that the reason that the product failed testing was that the company that supplied the nuts for their ice cream provided contaminated nuts. The supplier company ended up closing. If Blue Bell had not discovered the contamination, then the nut company could still be furnishing tainted product to other companies in use in other food.

I'm not saying that Blue Bell didn't make mistakes in the past, but their quality control procedures have improved significantly. As easy as it is to blast someone when they are down, they have done a commendable job returning to market. They limited the number of flavors and they also limited the distribution of their products geographically to a small portion of Texas before four additional expansions were taken and new flavors were introduced.

I used to live in Brenham so I know the impact that the Listeria outbreak had on the community. I have friends that still work for Blue Bell and other friends that were laid off. There were other creameries that also sold Listeria tainted ice cream, but Blue Bell was the company that received the negative publicity. However, I don't have any worries about product safety and suspect that it is one of the safer products to consume based upon other product recalls that have occurred since the outbreak.

[voteearlyvoteoften]

4. Peppermint ice cream

That's my holiday fave. 🍦

[TxDemChem]

6. Dont know that I would eat this flavor

But I miss their banana split. I’ve made it 7 months into my second pregnancy without it and am quite depressed about it

[TexasTowelie]

7. You have my heartfelt sympathies, TDC.

Not having a favorite comfort food while craving it during pregnancy would put me in a mental health crisis. It's a shame that they can't make a special order of a couple dozen pints for the special occasion.

Congratulations on the pregnancy and I hope all goes well for you and the baby.

[TxDemChem]

8. Thanks TT

It’s probably a good thing I can’t get my hands on it. I’ve kept my weight in check this time around lol.

[LeftInTX]

9. They had Blue Bell banana split at an ice cream shop yesterday

I was stuck downtown and starving.
So I figured ice cream was my cheapest option. (River Walk food options are not cheap)
I ordered banana pudding.

[TxDemChem]

10. Whoa!

Color me jealous. Banana pudding sounds good right about now lol.

[LeftInTX]

11. They have Banana Split at my local HEB

I checked just for you!

[TxDemChem]

12. Hubby asked if I want to make a trip just for the ice cream

I am so tempted...