What Brand Is Behind Aldi's Belmont Ice Cream?
If you're looking to save some money, or you just don't care about brand-name products, Aldi may be an ideal place for you to shop. The grocery store chain sells plenty of foods with its own custom packaging. Although the products carry the Aldi branding, plenty of them are rumored to have been manufactured by other, sometimes well-known brands and fans of the store often speculate about which companies produced the goods.
Aldi's ice cream brand carries the name Belmont, but it's actually produced by House of Flavors. The Michigan-based company serves its own ice cream out of its Ludington location, where customers can order sundaes, shakes, and scoops of a wide range of different flavors. The ice cream shop's website states that it produces 25 million gallons of ice cream each year in its plant, and that ice cream is shipped all over the United States — some of it just may be carrying the Belmont name in Aldi stores.
Aldi shoppers seem to love Belmont ice cream
The production partnership was confirmed thanks to a 2014 recall, when Belmont's chocolate chip cookie dough flavor was recalled due to an unlabeled nut contamination. The notice confirmed that the ice cream was produced in Ludington, Michigan by House of Flavors.
Belmont brand sells ice cream flavors like strawberry, moose tracks, butter pecan, cookies and cream, vanilla, sea salt caramel, peaches and cream, mint chocolate chip, and chocolate. The brand also cycles in some seasonal releases, like peanut butter s'mores, egg nog, and peppermint bark, according to a comment on a Reddit post.
Reddit reviewers praised the Belmont-branded ice cream in that same post. The post's author noted that, despite its low price, the flavor didn't lack any quality. One commenter said of the peanut butter s'more's variety, "It's the greatest ice cream I've ever had. I won't quit until I have it again."
Alongside Belmont's more standard ice cream flavors, the brand also offers a few specialty flavors sold in pints, which plenty of people have compared to Ben and Jerry's. In an online critique that garnered a "9/10" rating on Instagram, the reviewer noted that, "the flavors are incredible and you really can't beat the price."
You can enjoy similar flavors for a lower cost
Belmont ice cream has been compared to Ben and Jerry's in terms of quality and flavor. Aldi carries a few different flavors that have been called "dupes" for the ice cream brand's iconic flavors.
Reddit users compared Thank You Cherry Much to Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia flavor in one post. One commenter shared that Belmont's Brookie Dough is nearly identical to Ben and Jerry's Half Baked. On Instagram, one user shared a post highlighting some of the flavor dupes, and included Belmont's Make Fudge Not War as a substitute for Ben and Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie.
Aldi Reviewer wrote that Belmont's My Peanut Butter Half was "practically indistinguishable" from Ben and Jerry's Peanut Butter Cup, and that the Belmont Swirlin' Strawberry was comparable to Ben and Jerry's Strawberry Cheesecake.
These similar flavors are likely what led people to initially theorize that the ice creams were made by the same companies. However, it seems that the similarities are merely a coincidence, and Ben and Jerry's has no involvement in Belmont ice cream's production.