Aldi might have taken the pickle lovers’ trend too far with a recent candle (thankfully, it was an Aldi Find, though we suspect it didn’t sell out as quickly as its recent giftable teacup flower pots did in some locations). But one product line you’ll never hear us complain about is its ice cream. In addition to Sundae Shoppe and Specially Selected, Aldi sells ice cream under the brand name Belmont. But one of the ways Aldi keeps its prices so low is by partnering with manufacturers who produce its “generic” store brands. So you might be wondering who actually produces the Belmont brand of chilled treats. It’s a Michigan-based company called House of Flavors.
We know this, unfortunately, because of a 2014 recall on Belmont’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream (some containers contained undeclared nuts). Recalls for store brand products always reveal the actual manufacturer behind the item. For example, a recent Aldi recall on store brand Casa Mamita churro bites showed the actual maker was Camerican International, and in this case, the recall listed House of Flavors as the source of the ice cream.
House of Flavors is kind of a big deal in Michigan
While you might not have heard of House of Flavors in any of the 49 states where it’s not located, if you live in Michigan, you very likely have. Based in the city of Ludington, which sits right on Lake Michigan’s eastern shore, House of Flavors has been making ice cream for nearly 90 years under the Neal family. What started out as a dairy business — producing milk, buttermilk, and other dairy products — gradually shifted focus in the 1950s entirely to ice cream. From one million gallons of ice cream produced per month in 2002, House of Flavors now makes 28 million gallons per year, under about 70 different private-label brands, in over 3,000 different flavors, including those for Aldi’s Belmont brand.
What began as a family-owned business was eventually sold to its current majority owner, Protein Holdings Inc., in 1999, but its associated restaurants, the House of Flavors Restaurants, are still under Neal family management (and they are entirely separate businesses). Along with traditional American fare, like roasted turkey and meatloaf, the restaurants serve up over 25 different flavors of — what else? — ice cream, in a variety of configurations. This includes what’s called Pig’s Dinners, where four or seven different scoops of ice cream are placed in pig’s troughs and topped with fruit and chocolate (of course, you could recreate this in your own home, using a long bowl or tray, with all Aldi ingredients, including Belmont ice cream).
