No one can pass up an ice cream cone, right? I know I can’t.
Today, I’m diving into the world of Trader Joe’s Hold the Cone Mini Ice Cream Cones. Find out what flavors are available, how much they cost, and how they taste.
Hold The Cone Flavors
At my local TJ’s, I found four different types of Hold the Cone Mini Ice Cream Cones:
- Vanilla
- Chocolate
- Chocolate Chip
- Vegan Chocolate (Hold the Dairy Mini Cones)
TJ’s has also been known to carry pumpkin ginger and peppermint flavored Hold the Cone mini cones, but these flavors are seasonal and tend to only show up in the fall and winter around the holidays.
Lastly, one of the most popular flavors of Hold the Cone is coffee bean. Sadly, these cones are also seasonal and typically only become available for a short time at the beginning of the summer. Keep your eye out in May 2023 for these fan-favorite mini cones.
As far as I can tell from the current information available online, none of the TJ’s Hold the Cone flavors have been discontinued in recent years. If you’re having trouble finding them in stock at your local store, ask an employee when you can expect to see your favorite flavors return.
It’s currently unclear who produces Trader Joe’s Hold the Cone ice cream on behalf of the grocer.
Pricing
Each box of regular Hold the Cone Mini Cones (regardless of flavor) costs $3.79 and comes with eight individually wrapped cones.
For a box of 12 Hold the Dairy Mini Cones, you’ll pay just 20 cents more at $3.99.
Keep in mind that Hold the Dairy Mini Cones are about 25% smaller than regular Hold the Cone Mini Cones, which is why there are more in a box.
Ingredients & Nutrition
The ingredients and calorie information vary slightly between the various flavors of Hold the Cone. But the basic recipe stays fairly consistent.
As an example, let’s look at the chocolate-flavored Hold the Cone Mini Cones.
These cones contain the following ingredients…
Ice cream (milk, cream, cane sugar, condensed skim milk, whey, egg yolks, guar gum, carob bean gum, carrageenan, natural flavors, sugar), chocolate mini cone (wheat flour, sugar, cocoa processed with alkali, soybean oil, soy lecithin, natural flavors, salt), confectionary coating (cane sugar, coconut oil, cocoa mass, cocoa processed with alkali, calcium carbonate, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, natural vanilla flavor), semisweet chocolate chips (cane sugar, cocoa mass, cocoa butter, soy lecithin), and coconut oil.
As you can see, these ice cream cones contain dairy, wheat, soy, and eggs, making them pretty high in potential allergen content. Avoid these cones if you have a gluten sensitivity or intolerance or if you’re vegan or allergic to eggs or soy.
As far as nutrition goes, it’s about what you’d expect from an ice cream cone.
In three Hold the Cone Chocolate Mini Cones, you’ll be consuming 280 calories from 13 grams of fat, 25 mg of cholesterol, 100 mg of sodium, 35 grams of carbohydrates, 22 grams of sugar, 4 grams of protein, as well as some calcium, iron, and potassium.
These cones certainly shouldn’t be considered a healthy food. On top of being high in empty calories and sugar, they’re also highly processed and contain a lot of oils, flavorings, and stabilizers. They’re definitely delicious, but they’re nowhere near a healthy snack.
Now let’s look at the Hold the Dairy Mini Cones…
These cones contain coconut milk (coconut extract, water), water, glucose-fructose syrup, sugar, cocoa processed with alkali, semisweet chocolate (unsweetened chocolate, sugar, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, natural flavor), 2% or less of pea protein isolate, mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids, carob bean gum, and guar gum, unbleached wheat flour, sugar, coconut oil, soy lecithin, salt, caramelized sugar syrup,
coconut oil, sugar, cocoa processed with alkali, cocoa, sunflower lecithin, and natural flavor.
While these cones are entirely vegan, they are not gluten free and they also contain soy.
Six Hold the Dairy Mini Cones contain 370 calories from 17 grams of fat, 55 mg of sodium, 48 grams of carbs, 29 grams of sugar, 5 grams of protein, as well as some calcium, potassium, and a notable amount of Vitamin D (40% of your DV).
Keep in mind that this is the nutritional content in six whole cones (or half the box). If you just eat one, then you’ll only be consuming about 5 grams of sugar, 3 grams of fat, and 8 grams of carbs, which is very low impact.
The Taste Test
Even though I’m not vegan, I actually prefer vegan ice cream over regular ice cream much of the time. Especially when a vegan ice cream is coconut based, I find that the texture is often just as creamy and satisfying as regular ice cream.
So, I decided to try Trader Joe’s Chocolate Hold the Dairy Mini Cones…
The first thing to know about the TJ’s Hold the Dairy Mini Cones is that they are small. As you can see on the box pictured above, it says “actual size” next to the photo of the cone.
Of course, it’s hard to tell from the picture, but each cone is only about four or five inches tall. So, when they say mini, they mean it. (The regular Hold the Cone Mini Cones are a bit bigger.)
Personally, I don’t mind the small size since it makes portion control easier (and as someone with a major sugar addiction, I need that).
I found these vegan mini cones to be absolutely delicious and just as satisfying as regular dairy ice cream. The chocolate ice cream itself is creamy and rich, and it’s topped with some hard pieces of chocolate on top that make for a satisfying texture. The cone is also tasty and maintains a nice crispness.
I would definitely buy these cones again (in fact, I’ve bought them multiple times already)!
