An award-winning product launched at the IDFA Ice Cream and Cultured Innovation Conference last year has taken the next step, a successful consumer launch. Inspire Brands’ Baskin-Robbins Trolli Sour Blast ice cream, awarded a third-place finish at the 2025 IDFA event, has had tremendous success. 

“We were initially ideating around a retro candy campaign and brainstormed all different types of concepts around popular candies in the ‘90s/2000s,” said Shawn-Marie Allan, associate research and development manager at Canton, Mass.-based Inspire Brands. “We landed on Trolli being nostalgic, but still popular and relevant among Gen Z and Millennials. Additionally, we were the first brand to bring a Trolli ice cream to market. Ferrara is also a wonderful partner and was eager to work with us on the campaign.”

Like many ice cream products, Trolli Sour Blast took several iterations to perfect. “This one was a fun challenge to match the product in the ice cream since we couldn’t use the actual Trolli candy pieces in the scoop.” Allan noted. “We went through many revisions with the bases and flavors to exactly match the flavor of the Trolli, same with the color, and on the variegate to really nail the flavor and texture of the candy. In total, it was 13 rounds of samples.”

Once the flavor was perfected, Inspire Brands still needed to take the plunge and bring the ice cream to market. According to Katie Dayer, Inspire Brands’ category manager, the company has consistently seen success with candy co-branded flavors, and are “always looking for delicious new ways to bring consumer’s favorite treats to life through our ice cream. With the continued trend of nostalgia, specifically for the early 2000s, and the growing popularity for sour candy among Gen Z consumers, partnering with Trolli (the No. 1 gummy worm in sugar candy) was a no-brainer.”

Baskin-Robbins has never shied away from bold flavors and consumer feedback has been quite positive. “First reactions to hearing about the flavor was anywhere between, ‘I don’t know about a sour ice cream flavor, to ‘OMG, I need to try this ASAP,’” Dayer revealed. “At our shops, we encourage all our guests to try a pink spoon sample with the hope that even if our guests walk away with their classic order that they’ve had for 20 years, we know that they’ll be thinking about that new flavor long after trying it and may even discover a new favorite they’ll be asking about on their next visit.”

The IDFA Ice Cream and Cultured Innovation Conference returns from April 14 to April 15 in Florida at the Ritz-Carlton Naples, Tiburón. For more information about the show, visit www.idfa.org/events/ice-cream-cultured-innovation-confercence.