The Fruity Aldi Ice Cream That's A Total Miss In Our Book

Ice cream flavors with fruit inclusions are the perfect blend of refreshing and sweet. Disappointingly, there is one fruity ice cream from Aldi that's a total miss in our book. While it had so much potential with its playful marketing and its typically tasty cherry-chocolate pairing, our taste tester ultimately ranked Aldi's Sundae Shoppe Thank You Cherry Much! second-to-last in a ranking of Aldi ice creams. We also included the product on our list of frozen foods you should skip on an Aldi shopping trip due to its overly intense, artificial-tasting cherry notes.

While Tasting Table's taste tester Julia Duda led with the fact that she did like cherries in her ranking, she also wrote that she found the taste of Thank You Cherry Much! "to be a bit overwhelming, and not in a good way." In a dessert where cherry is the star ingredient, the cherry flavor needs to be on point (especially if you're looking for a fresh cherry taste). Unfortunately, the cherry flavor in Thank You Cherry Much! comes off as both slightly medicinal and strong, and even the chocolate chunks are ultimately not enough to redeem the ice cream.

On a r/aldi Reddit post about the Aldi ice cream flavor's availability, one Aldi customer expressed disappointment in the ice cream's chocolatey pieces (that are actually, according to the packaging, "chocolate flavored chunks"), calling them "fake" and "off putting." 

Cherry can be a divisive taste, especially when it comes to flavors and essences used in cherry yogurt and ice cream. In the case of Aldi's Thank You Cherry Much!, real cherries are used in the frozen treat — but it also contains corn syrup, dark cherry juice concentrate, and natural flavorings, indicating fruit similar to maraschino cherries. When used in high concentrations, this sort of intense fruity inclusion could contribute to those medicinal cherry notes we tasted.

While Thank You Cherry Much! was a miss for us, as Duda noted in her review, fans of strong cherry taste or maraschino cherries may like the Aldi ice cream. In another Reddit post on r/aldi, one person started a conversation about the product, writing, "Thank You Cherry Much ice cream is a pretty perfect clone of Cherry Garcia," and others agreed that it was a tasty copycat of this popular variety of Ben & Jerry's ice cream. 

We say, to each their own. But if you're looking for a finer balance of fresh cherry, real dark chocolate chunks, and dairy in every bite — and are averse to any medicinal flavor hints — it's wise to try another ice cream brand's rendition (just avoid Breyer's take on the fruity ice cream). Or for more subtle cherry hints (and to scale down the fruity flavor intensity), mix chopped fresh or maraschino cherries and chocolate chips into your favorite vanilla ice cream.