Sam's Club Jingle Cookie Crunch Sundae: Sweet Treat, But Short On Holiday Cheer

When you hear there's a new holiday treat called a Jingle Cookie Crunch Sundae waiting at the Sam's Club snack bar, you don't waste time wondering what it could be all about. You just hop in your sleigh and dash through the snow — or suburban traffic — and you give that delicious-sounding creation a try. Or at least that's what I did when I found out the warehouse had released a special dessert that captures the spirit of Christmas and winter and all the joyful sweetness that comes along with it. I hit my Sam's location with the highest hopes of discovering a new taste sensation to light up my festive season.

I could have been wildly off base, and the mix of ingredients suggested in the name could have been a disaster in the making. It didn't seem likely, but there's always a chance that the gift you open isn't the gift you were expecting. There's only one way to find out: tear open the wrapping and dig in. And in case you need a beginner's guide to shopping at Sam's Club, tip No. 1 is to start at the food court to see how the newest sundae offering tastes. So that's exactly what I did.

The photo of the Jingle Cookie Crunch Sundae on the Sam's Club snack bar menu looks like some sort of mukbang food dare. It's a cup filled with vanilla frozen yogurt, dark chocolate cookie crumbles layered throughout, topped with Member's Mark mini-candy cookies from the bakery sticking out of the top. It feels as if someone tossed together a bunch of leftovers and came up with a mishmash of unrivaled sugar content. Depending on who makes it for you, it's also pretty enough to rate an Instagram feature.

For anyone wondering what the cookies consist of, it's a standard chocolate chip cookie recipe with generic M&M's scattered throughout. If you give them a taste and end up being swept off your taste buds, you can pick up the cookies themselves in the bakery section, provided your Sam's Club has them in stock. As for the crunch crumbles, they appear to be ground-up Oreos, though since the company uses its own signature label for the larger cookie pieces, these are likely to be a Member's Mark substitute, too.

Some of the best-loved restaurants around introduce holiday-friendly, limited-edition items with a bit of a price bump included. The Sam's Club team seems to know that diehards will pay a little bit more for something unique, especially if it won't be around forever. It's a diabolical marketing move that undoubtedly works with its target audience, leading to an uptick in incidental sales thanks to word-of-mouth and internet buzz.

But Sam's Club holds no devious ambitions and doesn't intend to make extra cash by putting its holiday sundae on a pricey pedestal. This seriously sumptuous swirl will cost you only $1.58, the same as the other fro-yo desserts on the menu. This is one of those instances where Sam's Club product prices are better than Costco's.

At the other warehouse retailer, you can pay upwards of $3 for a premium dessert treat like this. Sam's Club lets you keep some of the jingle in your pocket instead of dumping it all on a Jingle Cookie Crunch Sundae.

The Jingle Cookie Crunch Sundae is the latest in the Sam's Club frozen yogurt parfait collection. It's like the 4 Berry Sundae from the standard menu, but with a festive twist for the holidays. And since Sam's Club is known to offer some of the best fast food soft serve selections around, anyone who has already enjoyed a parfait from the café has an inkling of what this new addition offers.

In years past, the creative café has offered brownie sundaes with slabs of chocolate heaven tucked into a caramel-drizzled soft serve tower, as well as peaches and cream sundaes that look more like a crumble-topped cobbler than a cup of ice cream. There's even been a Be Mine sundae for Valentine's Day that worked Chantilly cream cake into the cup. So the fact that there's a new holiday-ready sundae on the scene shouldn't be too much of a surprise to shoppers in the know.

While nutritional facts for the Jingle Cookie Crunch Sundae don't appear to be available at the time of publishing, it's not difficult to estimate what you could be getting in this purchase. A cup of Sam's Club vanilla frozen yogurt comes with 330 calories, 5 grams of fat (3 of which are saturated), and 40 milligrams of cholesterol. It also has 53 grams of sugar, which includes 33 grams of added sugars — that's a sturdy 66% of the daily recommended allotment.

One of the cookies included in the sundae appears to add 120 calories, 6 grams of fat (2.5 of which is saturated), and 10 grams of added sugars. The cookie crumbles are a mystery, but they certainly accent all of that with calories, fat, and sugar contributions of their own. All told, this isn't the worst dessert you can indulge in, but it does present compromises to your daily eating goals.

In case the name Jingle Cookie Crunch didn't clue you in on the timeframe of this special sweet treat, the sundae is a specialty item available throughout the month of December only. It showed up on the first day and will disappear on New Year's Eve. That gives you several weeks to aim your one-horse sleigh toward your local Sam's Club to get in on the goodness.

To the unaware, this time frame might mean braving the crush of holiday shoppers heading into Sam's Club to get gifts for their loved ones and fixings for their tables. You're in luck if you happen to be near a locale and don't mind ice cream for breakfast or brunch. Café hours are 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. daily, though there may be slight variations. If you're intrigued enough to see what this concoction is all about, you can glide over to the counter for a mid-morning taste before the power shoppers really get rolling.

While the flavors in the cup are all on point for a sundae, there's nothing particularly dazzling about the arrangement. The frozen yogurt provides a sweet, snowy playground for the chocolatey cookie crumbles to play around in. The mini-candy cookies are a little bit underwhelming, but they're sturdy instead of being soft, so they hold up well under otherwise soggy conditions. And the middle layer of cookie crumbs gives you something to look forward to once you've devoured the sprinkling found on top.

The biggest drawback here is that nothing in the cup cries out holiday enjoyment. There are no wild flavor surprises or unique toppings you wouldn't expect to find on ice cream. It all just feels like the same year-round elements combined in a different remix. A stroke of minty goodness from crushed-up peppermint candies would do wonders for making this feel like a real Christmas gift of a dessert. Even using gingerbread cookies instead of the faux-M&M's and chocolate chip cookies would be an improvement. Every bite feels like something you can enjoy at any time of year, instead of lighting up your palate like a dedicated holiday display — which is pretty disappointing for lovers of authentic wintry treats.

The description of this sundae mentions nothing about any real holiday elements; it doesn't advertise wild syrups or colorful sprinkles, so the idea that it's a wintertime goodie available through the Christmas season seems like a cheat. Did the food makers at Sam's Club HQ come up short and throw together elements that stores were already likely to have on hand, then give it a jazzy holiday-adjacent name at the last minute? It kind of feels like it. At the very least, they could have tossed in a crushed-up candy cane on top to add a little panache that matched the moment.

While you're not going to be disappointed by the flavors you find or the price you pay, you may walk away from the café wondering how it captured the seasonal spirit. Maybe if you push your imagination really hard, you can picture this mash-up as a cup of milk and cookies made with Santa in mind. Even if you just dip in for a cool treat to reward yourself for a shopping job well-done, you'll be getting a tasty cup for a delicious price. Just don't expect the Jingle Cookie Crunch Sundae to jingle your holiday bells or light up your Christmas tree.