6 Frozen Desserts To Buy At Sam's Club And 3 To Skip

If you've been eyeing various frozen desserts at Sam's Club without knowing what to get, our list of the ones to buy and skip might help you broaden your horizons. After all, buying 30-something of a single dessert at a time can be a big commitment if you don't know whether you're going to like it or not. While you can find lots of hidden gems in the frozen food section when you're shopping at Sam's Club, there are some worth skipping as well. As we slip into frozen dessert season, though, you'll be wanting to know which is which.

The frozen food dessert section at Sam's Club has plenty of tempting items. I chose nine total frozen dessert items to sample, ranging from ice cream, ice pops, and sorbet to cheesecake and macarons. The tasting experience wasn't quite like what I expected, with some items I was sure would go to go to the top of my list ending up at the bottom, and some items I was feeling iffy about ending up being pretty great. I was also surprised at how many were healthier options, with fewer calories, less fat, and lower sugar than expected, as well as lots of natural ingredients. While, in the end, I tried to judge these based on taste and texture, it helps to know which ones are also at least semi-healthy and which ones might have questionable ingredients. Hopefully, armed with this list, you can now make a more informed choice about which frozen desserts at Sam's Club you want to buy and which ones you're probably better off skipping.

Frollies watermelon and pineapple fruity ice pops are a more fruit-forward frozen dessert at Sam's Club, that's not overly sweet or calorie-laden. They have no artificial colors or flavors, have no fat, and are low in sugar. If you're used to sweeter frozen desserts, it might take a couple of bites to adjust, but I ultimately liked them after a few bites.

Both the pineapple and watermelon flavors reminded me of real fruit juice. They were both slightly creamy, but they don't have a dairy flavor. The highlight of both flavors, for me, was the green portion of each pop, which tastes of sour apple. Overall, though I enjoyed them, I do have to admit that, because they are low in sugar, they taste a little like there's a flavor layer missing. I also didn't care for the chocolate "seeds" on the watermelon, which tasted a little nutty to me, but I can pop those off.

I like that, while the ingredient list includes sugar and corn syrup, the majority of the flavor and color comes from natural sources like fruit and vegetable juice. However, the chocolatey pieces include palm oil, which is fraught with controversy. These treats come in at just 60 calories each, with no fat and only 11 grams of sugar. Plus, at just $10.47 for a 24-pack, each ice pop is only $0.44, which is a good deal.

I wanted to include the Member's Mark vanilla ice cream pail on the list because it's easy to overlook, with all the fancier frozen desserts in the freezer case at Sam's Club. While there's also a cookies and cream flavor, I'm firmly a vanilla ice cream girl, so that was the one I grabbed. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised at how nice this ice cream tastes and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it. Certainly don't let the fact that it comes in a bucket dissuade you from thinking it's good.

Member's Mark vanilla ice cream is extremely creamy and delicious. The vanilla flavor is nice and it tastes almost like homemade. I think that perhaps the buttermilk in it is what helps it taste so rich and creamy. It also has the perfect level of sweetness and a great mouthfeel. It does seem to melt quickly, but that makes it easy to scoop.

While the flavor is excellent, I'm not thrilled with the ingredient list since I personally prefer my ice cream without corn syrup or carrageenan. This ice cream is 170 calories per serving, with 9 grams of fat, and 19 grams of sugar. Something that it does have going for it is that it's only $7.98 for five quarts, which means that it's only $0.27 per ⅔-cup serving. It works out much cheaper than Costco's vanilla ice cream, and most definitely cheaper than going to an ice cream parlor.

Member's Mark miniature cheesecake was the most expensive frozen Sam's dessert on my list, and it was also the biggest disappointment. I've had them many times before, but I think they've changed for the worse, which some other reviewers mention on the Sam's Club website. So, if you're like me and used to think of them as one of the best Sam's Club desserts, you might change your mind.

Overall, these tasted a lot like the cardboard box they came in, which made the whole experience disappointing. The best of these cardboard-flavor-infused cheesecakes is the strawberry swirl. It's a plain cheesecake swirled with strawberry, with a graham cracker crust, and that strawberry flavor is the only nice part. The second best is the New York-style one with a graham cracker crust. It's creamy and a little tart but still tastes mainly like the box. Finally, there's the caramel chocolate flavor with a chocolate cookie crust, which was the worst of all, because it tasted like vitamin-infused chocolate syrup.

There are 63 mini cheesecakes in each package. Although it costs $18.27, that only comes to $0.29 per mini cheese cake. According to the package, a 6-piece serving is 450 to 460 calories, which comes to less than 80 calories per piece. Each 6-piece serving has 27-36 grams sugar and 27-30 grams fat. For the most part, the ingredient list looks good, although the carrageenan in the strawberry swirl may give you pause.

Sublime Dessert macarons in assorted flavors is a firm candidate for my "buy" list. They're a great choice for keeping in your freezer as mini dessert treats or to share at get-togethers. While you may not like every flavor equally, someone else will probably like the ones you don't.

These have a pleasant lightly chewy texture and interesting flavors. My favorite is mango, which tastes like extremely ripe mangos. My next favorite is salted caramel, with rich brown sugar and caramel notes. Next on my list is chocolate fudge, which tastes like the best chocolate cake. The pink lemonade reminds me of lemon-flavored Starburst candies, with a tangy kick. I was a little less thrilled with the vanilla bean one, though. While it has a strong vanilla bean flavor, the flavor of the egg whites comes through, and it seems sweeter than the others. The cherry one wasn't my favorite either, as it reminded me of cherry-flavored medicine. However, overall, they're nice.

The package includes 36 macrons with six of each flavor. Since the whole packet is only $14.87, they come in at $0.41 per macaron. They're only 60 calories each, with 1.5-2 grams of fat and 6-7 grams of sugar.. The ingredient list is pretty much what you'd expect from store-bought macrons, with a bonus of the flavorings and colorings coming from fruits and vegetables. Unfortunately, though, this dessert contains carrageenan, and the caramel maracons contain palm oil.

The biggest surprise love for me from among the frozen desserts at Sam's Club were the island Way handcrafted assorted fruit sorbets. The fun thing is that they all come in real fruit shells. The flavor is also surprisingly good, without being overly tart. They're the type of fancy dessert you'll want for wowing guests.

While I liked all four flavors, I still have my favorites. The one that knocked my socks off was the pineapple coconut one in a coconut shell. It was very creamy and tasted like fresh coconut with a hint of pineapple. My second favorite was the red berry & ruby grapefruit in a grapefruit shell. It tasted like real grapefruit without being bitter. The red berry flavor is slight, but it provides a delightful aftertaste. Closely behind third place is the mango orange, which is heavier on orange than mango. Finally, is the intriguing tangy lemon, which tastes like mint and lemon, isn't too tart, and has a nice citrus zest flavor. Unfortunately, the flavors aren't evenly distributed since this is only a 10-pack of sorbets.

The total price is $13.27, which comes out to $1.33 each. With different sizes and ingredients, they range from 70-140 calories, 0.5-3.5 grams of fat, and 13-23 grams of sugar per serving. While the ingredient list does contain sugar and stabilizers, it's largely fruit juices, cream, and milk. Although, the pineapple coconut does contain carrageenan.

I really expected to like the FatBoy premium vanilla ice cream sandwiches, but I didn't like them at all. They weren't even as big as I assumed from the picture — since I didn't like them anyway, though, I guess the size was just fine. I promise that there are lots of better ice cream sandwiches out there than these, but they're just not at Sam's Club.

When I first bit into one of these, it had a garbagey flavor. I tried the sandwich cookie and ice cream separately to try to figure out why it tasted that way, but the separate components didn't offer any clues. The outer cookie tasted like it was made from graham crackers, and didn't taste like chocolate cookies at all, while the ice cream was very buttery tasting with a bit of a chemical flavor. The flavor combination just didn't work together in my opinion. I also didn't like how messy it was, with the cookie melting all over my fingers.

Each box comes with 18 ice cream sandwiches. Since they're regularly $11.28, they end up being around $0.63 each, which is cheaper than if you buy them in smaller quantities at places like Walmart. They're also another indulgent dessert choice since they're 210 calories per sandwich, with 8 grams of fat and 19 grams of sugars. Aside from the stabilizers, most of the ingredients here are familiar ones, although I'm not thrilled to see palm oil and carrageenan on the list.

If you're a KitKat fan and have been eyeing these in the frozen dessert section at Sam's Club, I think the KitKat cones variety pack is worth a try. While they have the most calories of any of the sweet frozen treats on this list and are really sweet, sometimes you just want a sweet treat that's a little more indulgent and doesn't pretend to be healthy.

The chocolate coating on each cone is like if someone took the chocolate from a KitKat bar, crumbled in the wafers, and dipped the cone in it. My favorite one by far is the chocolate wafer cone, which has chocolate-flavored ice cream inside and mimics the flavor experience of eating a KitKat the most. The wafer with fudge cone is still good, but the vanilla ice cream inside isn't anything special, and there's very little fudge in the middle. For both varieties, the cone is delicious because it has a caramelized flavor. Plus, it has hard chocolate at the bottom of the cone, which is always welcome.

There are 16 cones per box, which means that you get eight of each flavor. These regularly cost $11.18, which makes them about $0.70 each. The ingredient list looks like what you'd expect for a processed ice cream cone, with a variety of natural and unnatural ingredients. They range from 270-280 calories each, with 12-13 grams of fat and 25-27 grams of sugar.

Last, but certainly not least, are Outshine fruit pops, which I recommend without reservation. I've been enjoying these for years, so they're a no-brainer to suggest on this list. These are plant-based fruit pops, which easily rank at the top of store-bought popsicle brands. While the ingredient list does include a small amount of cane sugar, they're largely made with real fruit and fruit juice. Besides having a nice ingredient list, they're delicious, low calorie, low sugar, and have no fat.

What strikes me most about these is how much they taste like what you'd get if you used real fruit juice to make homemade popsicles. The grape one is my favorite, as it tastes like the very best grape juice. The strawberry one is my next favorite, with a light, refreshing, and bright strawberry flavor. Finally, there's tangerine, which tastes exactly like intense, freshly-squeezed tangerine juice with a hint of tangerine oil. To me, they all have the perfect sweetness level without being overly sweet.

At Sam's Club, you can get 36 pops for $9.98, which comes to $0.28 per pop. Buying them in bulk here is a far better deal than at places like Target and Walmart. Each popsicle is only 40 calories, with a serving considered to be three popsicles if you'd like to try all three flavors. Each pop also only has 9 grams of sugar and no fat.

A frozen dessert that seems to have just shown up for the first time at my Sam's Club this week is the My/Mochi premium ice cream variety pack. I was excited to try this one since I enjoy regular mochi and all kinds of frozen mochi desserts. Unfortunately, while the ingredients may be impressive, I was disappointed with these, for both the texture and flavor.

These have a sweet flavored rice flour dough on the outside with a creamy flavored ice cream ball in the middle. Despite having a dusting of rice flour on the outside, they stuck to my fingers. They're also incredibly gummy rather than pleasantly chewy like I was expecting. The mango did taste like mango, but only very slightly. In stark contrast, the strawberry-flavored ones were intensely strawberry flavored, and far sweeter. While they're okay, I don't feel like they're something I'd necessarily recommend, especially because of the gummy texture.

My/Mochi comes in lots of different flavors, but each of these packages contain only two — six strawberry and six mango mochi bites, for a total of 12 desserts. Since it's only $7.86 per box, you're only paying $0.66 per piece. Even better, each bite only comes in at 70 calories, 2-2.5 grams of fat, and 9-10 grams of sugar. While it does contain cane sugar, I like that the ingredient list is largely natural fruit juices and other natural ingredients for added sweetness, flavor, and color. Even the stabilizers are natural ones.

To determine which frozen desserts from Sam's Club I wanted to include, I looked at everything that was available at my local store. Two were ones I'd already tried multiple times and knew I wanted to include on the list: The Outshine pops and the macrons. The other items I picked seemed to be well-representative of the variety of items available as well as being items that piqued my curiosity.

To be able to explain my experience of each item on my list, I purchased each one from my local Sam's Club and tried it. I specifically wanted to try each flavor of each item on my list to give a good idea of whether every flavor was equally as satisfying in flavor and texture. While I mention the ingredients and nutrition in my descriptions, I ultimately decided not to use these as a basis for deciding whether to buy an item or not, but to focus instead on flavor and texture. That said, I feel that the ingredients and nutrition content might still be important for many people personally. Additionally, if the item was available somewhere locally other than Sam's club, I compared the prices to see if it was a better deal at Sam's. It always was a better deal, and usually by a lot.