Walmart may be your go-to for everything from affordable electronics to clothing and home decor, but you definitely shouldn’t sleep on its grocery options. As you navigate Walmart’s seemingly endless aisles, you’ll come across loads of snackable bites and freshly baked goods. To get the most bang for your buck, it’s not a bad idea to shop the retailer’s in-house brand, Great Value. In addition to things like a Chick-fil-A inspired dipping sauce, the Great Value brand offers a multitude of name-brand dupes for some of our favorite grocery staples, including those in the frozen dessert aisle.
While we’ve generally been impressed with the company’s sweet treats, alas, Walmart can’t win them all. In our ranking of the 10 best frozen desserts at Walmart, the Great Value Freedom Pops came in last. Reminiscent of those beloved red, white, and blue Bomb Pops, Walmart’s version certainly brings the nostalgia. Unfortunately, the taste doesn’t quite live up to the original’s. While the pops were sweet (perhaps a bit too much so), we found that the flavors of cherry, lime, and blue raspberry just didn’t pack as much of a punch as we would have liked. The sugary sweetness simply made them indistinguishable from each other. Add to that their watery texture, and these Freedom Pops were definitely our least favorite of the bunch.
Some Walmart shoppers are split on Freedom Pops
To be fair, we were comparing these Great Value Freedom Pops to things like chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches and chocolate-dipped vanilla ice cream cones. When held up against such deliciously decadent offerings, a light, watery-by-nature ice pop doesn’t stand too much of a chance. But if we were offered one of the patriotic pops at a summer barbecue? We can’t say we’d turn it down. As for other Walmart shoppers, well, their opinions seem to be split on the matter.
Some taste-testers, like TikTok’s @bootlegfoodreview, actually prefer Great Value’s ices to the original Bomb Pops. As the TikToker explained in his video comparing the two, he actually found that the cherry and lime flavors of the Walmart brand pop offered a more potent kick than the OG (the blue raspberry portion, however, was a let down). And while some commenters agreed that the Freedom Pops win out not only in flavor, but also in price, a number of others claimed that it just couldn’t live up to the texture of the original. As one user wrote on the post, “Bomb Pop is way better. The Walmart ones are more icy, not the same texture at [all.]”
If you’re a fan of these three-flavored popsicles, you may not mind the differences (especially if it saves you some dough). Still, if we had to choose a dessert from Walmart’s frozen food section, we’d opt for something a little heartier, creamier, and, of course, more chocolaty — but that’s just us.
