Trader Joe's Lemon Ice Cream Is Back For The Warm Weather

The weather is warming up, and we're already looking for ways to cool down. Lucky for us, Trader Joe's has brought back a tasty summer favorite: their When Life Gives You Lemons Make Ice Cream ice cream. If you like lemons, you're going to want a mouthful as big as the name. In its second year of seasonal production, this ice cream hit freezers back in March. If you haven't seen it yet, we suggest going back and perusing the freezers.

Trader Joe's bills their lemon ice cream as just that — ice cream. It's not sherbert, sorbet, or frozen lemon curd. It's a "base of sweet, velvety ice cream that's been flavored with lemon juice and lemon zest." Throwing it back to their discontinued Lemon and Triple Ginger flavors, which included gingersnap cookies, this ice cream also contains cookies but trades the punchy snaps for much more subtle butter shortbread bits. Refreshing and tart, this $3.49 per pint treat is worth picking up a few times throughout the summer to stock your freezer with. 

The ice cream was announced in the Trader Joe's subReddit about two months ago. Little did, AfterLack, the user who posted it, know this wasn't a new item. But as it always does, the internet quickly corrected them. In other words, 47 comments later, you get a pretty good understanding of just how loved this flavor is with excited remarks like Evlokadottr's, "...it's a tiny moment of happiness each time I eat a spoon of it." A fellow Reddit user who goes by goodnews_mermaid shared the same excitement, "YAAAAASSS! The BEST TJ's ice cream is back!" And they weren't the only ones, several Redditors deemed it the best ice cream ever.

In fact, of all 47 comments on the thread, only one person wasn't impressed. The user noted that rather than having a true zesty lemon flavor, they picked up more of an "artificial/chemical" taste. In a thread from its original release in 2022, two out of the 86 comments were less than enthused. Both commenters liked it at first, but found it too sour in larger servings. As for the other 82 comments, they were all raving about it. Is there anything on Reddit that has this kind of approval rating? This ice cream is truly a hit.

If the internet is to be listened to (which, you know, it has its moments), this ice cream is to be devoured straight out of the carton, all at once, even if you didn't mean to. But if you're on your third pint this week and ready to switch it up, we humbly present some options that really lean into summer's bounty with berries.

If you're looking for a topping to make a sundae with this TJ's ice cream, there's no better combination than lemons and berries. This mixed berry jam, in particular, brings a bit of sweetness and just enough tartness to stand up to the lemony zing. However, if you're feeding a crowd, make the ice cream a sidekick to a blackberry pie or a blueberry crostata. And if you want to get a little brave and balance the sweet and sour with something a little different, try making these pickled strawberries as a topping, with or without the heat from the serrano pepper. The mint and black pepper will pair particularly well with the ice cream. Or you could do what Redditor Liverspotting does and mix spoonfuls into your morning yogurt.