Review: Costco's New Caramel Brownie Sundae Is A Solid, Safe Sweet Treat

Look, we didn't need more reasons to visit Costco, even if there are a ton of fun new items hitting the shelves every month. I recently went to simply price out some cakes, spent 15 minutes trying samples at 9 a.m., and came away with three items that must have jumped from those multi-story shelves into my cart. Even in the morning, the siren song of the $1.50 hot dog was hard to resist, but I stood strong. However, the latest addition to the Costco food court might be enough to pull me in, regardless of the hour.

Costco's latest offering is the Caramel Brownie Sundae, which features soft serve topped with salted caramel sauce and brownie bites. If it sounds simple, that's because it is — but when one of your three ingredients is a brownie, complexity is not required. I stopped by Costco, and, in addition to picking up some oversized essentials, I tried out the Caramel Brownie Sundae. Read on to find out if you need to add it to your next food court order or if it's worth doubling down on the hot dogs instead.

The Caramel Brownie Sundae has popped up at Costcos across the U.S., but so far, it's hit-or-miss in terms of whether a given location will have it. Like most Costco food court menu items, there's no timeline on how long this one will stick around, so it's definitely worth picking up on your next shopping trip if you spot it. 

The Caramel Brownie Sundae costs $2.99, 50 cents more than both the strawberry and chocolate options, while a plain ice cream cup is $1.99. You can also choose your ice cream flavor for the sundae: vanilla, chocolate, or a swirl of both. With so many large-portion dessert options at Costco, it's nice that the food court sticks to more normal sizes. 

I went with the chocolate-vanilla swirl so I could get the best of all worlds in the ice cream department. As always, Costco's soft serve is creamy, with good vanilla and chocolate notes that don't overpower the sundae, leaving plenty of room for the caramel syrup. I love caramel syrup on a sundae, and while Costco's is good, it's not great. Think solid, but not overly exciting. Maybe a slightly more salted note or a thicker consistency would help, but the syrup isn't the star here; the brownie is.

My sundae was nearly overflowing with brownie chunks. Each one was soft and chewy, with a ton of the fudgy flavor any good brownie should have. Also mixed throughout the sundae are brownie crumbles, which you could be forgiven for mistaking for Oreo crumbles, but make no mistake — it's more brownie.

If I have one complaint, it's the distribution of toppings. The top and bottom of my cup were teaming with brownies and caramel, but the middle was mostly just soft serve with a bit of brownie crumble and caramel here and there. Some mixing is required to ensure you find a brownie chunk and some caramel in each bite.

Costco rarely misses, and the streak of wins continues with the Caramel Brownie Sundae. The brownie chunks are great, the caramel is good (if not necessarily amazing), and the soft serve is the perfect base for the toppings. For $3, you're going to have a hard time finding a better combination of taste and value anywhere else, and that includes places that specialize in ice cream.

I photographed my sundae in the Costco food court before taking it back to my car for a taste test. My evaluation was based on taste, texture, and overall cohesiveness. Costco was not aware of this review when preparing the sundae.