Here’s Why Costco’s Ice Cream Is So Good—And Which Brand Is Behind It

There are certain Costco products that just hit different, like its humongous food-court chocolate chip cookies or highly lauded Kirkland Signature ice cream. Because, yes, somehow Costco managed to make store-bought vanilla ice cream from the freezer section so overwhelmingly good that there are entire Reddit threads devoted to it.

While I can often find the good in anything at the warehouse club, given Costco’s commitment to keeping prices super low, the attention to quality often seems unmatched. And that’s definitely the case with the Kirkland Signature ice cream. Seriously, what kind of sorcery is involved in churning out this deliciousness? Well, apparently it all starts with a very specific creamery. Read on to find out which one—and what kind of magic makes this ice cream so darn good.

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Who’s behind Costco’s ice cream?

Humboldt Creamery is the company responsible for the Kirkland Signature Super Premium Vanilla Ice Cream. It’s based in California’s Humboldt County, which sits along the state’s far north coast (more than 200 miles north of San Francisco), and the creamery attributes much of the tastiness of its dairy products to the area’s climate and vibrant green pastures.

Because the temperatures in Humboldt County are so consistent, the creamery’s cows are as happy as can be grazing and roaming outdoors year-round. This also makes the resulting dairy products feel much more ethical than, say, those cows that aren’t breathing in that fresh ocean air every day with plenty of space to move. It’s similar to why Costco butter tastes so good, though that is made in New Zealand.

As far as Kirkland Signature ice cream goes, Costco offers only the Super Premium Vanilla. However, if you live in California, you can find Humboldt Creamery ice cream in both vanilla and chocolate at grocery stores throughout the state. Humboldt also sells its own brand of milk, sour cream and cottage cheese across the Golden State.

Why is Costco’s ice cream so good?

There’s more to a good ice cream than just its ingredients. But those are, of course, really the stars of the proverbial show.

Quality ingredients

“Costco ice cream maintains the highest standards of quality, as do all Costco products, as required by their stringent procurement program,” says Vivian Villa, a product developer with plant-based butter company UnButter who has also consulted on products for Costco. “Maintaining a relationship with Humboldt Dairy ensures the milk supply is consistent in quality and free from hormones commonly used in the dairy industry.”

Bryan Quoc Le, a food scientist, echoes Villa’s sentiments, adding some insight into what these top-notch ingredients do aside from offer superior taste. “High-quality milk has a higher concentration of milk protein, while milk and cream tend to have standardized levels of fat,” Le says. “There is an upper limit to how much fat from cream can remain stable in ice cream; otherwise, the fat will separate, and ice can form in much larger sizes. More milk protein helps ensure the higher cream content of the ice cream is kept dissolved in the ice cream pre-mix.”

The ratio of fats

Higher-quality milk and cream also contain a better ratio of certain fats, which provides a better mouthfeel—aka the creamy texture of Kirkland Signature Super Premium Vanilla. This fat ratio also enhances the ice cream’s flavor profile naturally.

“Fat helps create the creaminess experience by coating the mouth and tongue, as well as dissolving and spreading flavors,” Le says. “It also coats the ice crystals in ice cream to minimize their grittiness. Protein acts as what is known as an emulsifier, which helps prevent fat from separating from the water phase of the ice cream.”

Just the right amount of sugar

You want your ice cream to be sweet … but not too sweet. However, sugar actually plays more of a role in the ice cream–making process than just adding that touch of saccharine.

“Sugar decreases the temperature at which ice crystals form, which helps to produce smaller ice crystals,” Le says. In turn, this helps the texture of the ice cream remain creamy, not gritty.

Is this the ice cream that’s also available in the food court?

Not necessarily. Costco’s food-court ice cream is soft serve, whereas the Humboldt brand is the scoopable stuff in the freezer aisle. Costco Business Centers sell Darigold Vanilla 4.5% Soft Serve Mix in six-count half gallons, so it could stand to reason that this is the brand that they also use in their food courts for the soft serve, though we couldn’t confirm that. The food court‘s soft serve also features chocolate as an option (and at one time they sold strawberry).

On Reddit, Costco members seem intrigued by the soft serve offering, though many are befuddled by the way in which they load the machines. “I watched the soft serve machines get filled up, and they used many multiple packs of half gallon cardboard cartons of cream,” says one Redditor. “It seemed odd that they didn’t use bigger sizes.”

However, Villa says there’s a reason for the differences in the two types of ice cream, meaning the food court’s soft serve and the Kirkland Signature Super Premium Vanilla. “Traditional ice cream has a higher fat content, resulting in a denser, more decadent mouthfeel,” Villa says. “Soft serve is lighter in fat content and aerated to create a lighter, fluffier product that’s easier to scoop and lick out of a cone.”

What fancy brands is Costco’s ice cream on par with?

It depends on who you ask. One Redditor thinks Costco’s ice cream is similar in texture to Cold Stone Creamery (which they meant as an extremely high compliment), while another compares it to Tillamook. And yet a different Costco member thinks it’s comparable to Van Leeuwen because of its dense, rich flavor.

Translation: It tastes just like the fancy stuff … though we think even better because you’re getting a Costco deal in the process.

What does Costco’s ice cream cost?

Costco’s ice cream costs $17.35 for a package of two half gallons, which a good number of Redditors seem to find pretty pricey. But let’s take a closer look: That breaks down to roughly 14 cents an ounce. Many other stores sell their private-label ice cream in 48-ounce tubs, as opposed to half gallons, so it’s a little hard to compare prices. For example, Kroger’s store brand ice cream is 48 ounces for $3.99, that’s 8 cents an ounce. But did we mention that it doesn’t taste like that ultra-creamy Kirkland ice cream?

Tillamook, one of the brands that people say tastes like Kirkland Signature Super Premium ice cream, is regularly priced at $7.49 for a 48-ounce carton. This comes out to 16 cents an ounce, but you also aren’t committing to as much ice cream in one shopping trip.

But all this seems like literal pennies when you compare it with a 16-ounce container of Ben & Jerry’s, which costs $5.99, breaking down to 37 cents an ounce. So, it’s all relative.

Meanwhile, over in the Costco food court, a cup of soft serve will run you $2.49 for roughly 10 ounces of the stuff. Per ounce, that’s 25 cents.

RELATED:

• The Newest Costco Dessert Is a Must for Your Next Barbecue
• Brand-New Costco Foods You’ll Definitely Want to Add to Your Shopping List This Summer
• Costco Just Extended Its Store Hours—But There’s a Catch

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Sources:

• Vivian Villa, chef, owner of Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet Inc. and product developer at UnButter; interviewed, July 2025
• Bryan Quoc Le, PhD, food scientist, author of 150 Food Science Questions Answered and founder of Mendocino Food Consulting; interviewed, July 2025
• Humboldt Creamery: “Our Story”
• Humboldt Creamery: “Products”
• Reddit: “Does Costco sell the ice cream they have in the food court?”
• Reddit: “Kirkland Ice Cream – Is it really THAT good?”
• Reddit: “Turns out you guys were right about the Kirkland Super Premium Vanilla Ice Cream”

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