Blue Bell Has Mardi Gras Ice Cream With Legit Kings Cake Pastry Pieces In It

While everyone else is rolling out their Valentine's Day treats, one ice cream brand is looking forward to another big event. Blue Bell has Mardi Gras ice cream, as pointed out by the food Instagram account Three Snackateers. And, like the celebration, this ice cream has a lot going on.

The festive ice cream is called Mardi Gras King Cake, and as explained on the Blue Bell website, it has cinnamon cake-flavored ice cream with pastry pieces, purple candy sprinkles, and a green cream cheese swirl, making it resemble a king cake.

The ice cream is limited edition and, as noted by Three Snackateers, is a combination of two previous flavors: Mardi Gras, which came out in 2004, and King Cake, which was released in 2006.

This isn't the first year Mardi Gras King Cake is being released, but it is the first year it's being available anywhere Blue Bell ice creams are sold. According to what Blue Bell's corporate sales manager, Carl Breed, said in a press release, "We have been making Mardi Gras King Cake since 2012, but the flavor has mostly been sold in areas known for the celebration such as Louisiana and Alabama. Last year a grocery store in Louisiana posted about the flavor’s arrival on its Facebook page and we started receiving requests from all over the country. After that, we decided to share this festive flavor with everyone in our distribution area."

Breed added that Blue Bell still gets requests for the Mardi Gras and King Cake ice creams from fans, but that this one has "the best of both worlds."

Blue Bell isn't available everywhere, so if you want to get your hands on this ice cream, sadly, you may not be able to. (The Three Snackateers weren't able to get it, either.) Blue Bell is mostly sold in the southern and southwestern United States. A store locator can be found here.

Blue Bell also has two other new or limited edition ice creams available at the moment. Tin Roof — which is a real type of ice cream or sundae outside of Blue Bell, if you didn't know — has "vanilla ice cream with a rich chocolate fudge swirl and roasted peanuts dipped in dark chocolate." French Vanilla is also listed in Blue Bell's "What's New" section. It's described as "a rich, creamy vanilla ice cream that has the special taste of egg custard."

Mardi Gras ice cream flavors aren't super common, but Blue Bell isn't the only brand to have done one. In the past, Baskin-Robbins has sold a purple and green flavor called Rock ‘n Pop Swirl for Mardi Gras. There are also some recipes available online for anyone who wants to make their own king cake ice cream. Louisiana Travel has one, as does the food blog Cooking with Janica, the writer of which notes that she was inspired by Blue Bell.

Mardi Gras is on March 5 this year, so there is still plenty of time to stock up on treats. But if you want the Blue Bell ice cream, there's no problem with starting the celebration early.