H-E-B Pumpkin Ice Cream is Legit

It’s the most loved/hated time of the year when pumpkin spice seemingly takes over North America even when some of us are still sweltering and praying for a cold front. It’s everywhere and not just at Starbuck’s. We saw our first glimpses in late August: shelves or orange-colored, pumpkin-spiced everything lining our grocer’s shelves.

Need spiced dish detergent? No problem. Have a hankering for pumpkin hummus? Easy. You love bagels, but how will you survive without autumn harvest cream cheese? They got you.

This is as fascinating as it is pretty annoying. Do we really need everything in our pantry and home in general to smell like someone is cooking a pie every day, all day? Probably not. Yes, so many are obsessed. HBO’s This Week Tonight pokes fun at this obsession almost ever year.
But we are here to tell you that this is NOT all bad. So much of this is leading to “eating season” when we devour food as if we were going to be dead by January. From Halloween candy to Thanksgiving turkey to god forsaken candy canes at Christmas. Definitely the wrong time to start a diet, but a great time to get in on the great foods that are typically reserved for this time of year.

And, yes, pumpkin spice can be among those delicacies including this offering from H-E-B: Creamy Creations Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream.

We will fully admit that we obsess over pumpkin pie each fall, often making a second pie that we hide from guests solely for ourselves. So, it’s no shock we would be all over this dessert, especially since the first time we ever had anything like this, it was at Galveston’s famous La King’s (it was crazy good).

In fact, when purchasing the H-E-B version, we were nervous simply because our experience with pumpkin pie frozen desserts had been so previously positive. Well, be not afraid, ghouls and boys. It’s not quite La King’s (what is?), but it is damn close.

It’s orange — of course it is — and loaded with those warm cinnamon, clove and ginger spices we love (and sometimes love to hate). Personally, we feel like the Creamy Creations 1905 Vanilla is the best store-bought vanilla ice cream around, so adding a bunch of pie spices to that? Yes, please.

But, perhaps the best part are the bits of pie crust mixed in. This was one of the highlights of that La King’s version we had years ago and we didn’t imagine H-E-B would follow suit, but they did. So, every bite or two, you get some bits of the flaky crust, the thing that some people claim is better than the filling (they are wrong, but still).

It’s not actual pumpkin pie, but it really does satisfy that craving a few weeks before the day of the year that made that pie famous. We have only had one half gallon in the house so far because we fear for our waist lines this far ahead of Thanksgiving, but it will make its return to our freezer soon enough because it’s that damn good.