Blue Bell Creameries boasts a wide, and sometimes peculiar, variety of frozen treats. Oatmeal cream pie-flavored ice cream? Tin Roof? Moo-llennium Crunch? As niche as some flavors may be, there are a few Aggies that have tried them all.
Four undergraduates spent their time in Aggieland documenting their journey trying all 67 flavors of Blue Bell ice cream — even turning their antics into a viral sensation. The activity began during their sophomore year as a riff on college students’ tendency to decorate their houses using empty alcoholic beverages.
The group had 32 empty half gallons adorning their walls when industrial distribution senior Cohen Thompson decided to share the experience with TikTok. The concept was simple; rank all of the flavors they had tried up to that point.
Thompson and his roommates broke up the flavors into six categories; “F-tier” consisted of the flavors which they were not able to finish; “D-tier” the ones they finished, but would never buy again; “C-tier” the “definition of mid;” “B-tier” were good, but only bought once; “A-tier” were bought twice and finally, “S-tier,” the “borderline addictions.”
“In my mind I was like ‘Oh, we found something that’s working really well,’” Thompson said. “I posted it and by that night it was already at 200,000 views.”
The TikTok video now sits at just over 750,000 views and nearly 100,000 likes. Seeing the success, Thompson quickly followed up with another video featuring a trip to HEB in search of Blue Bell’s newest flavor: Chocolate Peanut Butter Overload.
“Going to HEB and getting a thing of ice cream can be a normal task that most people would see as boring — but if you hype it up as an awesome adventure, you can make it fun for yourself,” Thompson said.
The four Aggies would return to HEB several times to locate additional flavors. Filming ice cream videos soon became a bonding experience for the roommates.
“It gives us something to do, we’ll be able to remember and watch back but it’s also like we’re accomplishing something, so it adds that sense of accomplishment to just hanging out,” communication senior and Thompson’s roommate Wilson White said.
Soon after their original video, Thompson caught wind of a rare flavor, Cinnamon, only consistently sold at the Taste of Texas, an upscale steakhouse in Houston. After contacting the owner, the boys were invited to try it for free.
Upon arriving in new suits, the roommates were greeted by their waiter, given the ice cream and a $75 gift certificate. The waiter even fished out an empty cinnamon carton from the trash to add to their collection. The experience went viral, amassing over six million views on TikTok between a series of three videos.
“They treated us so nicely,” Thompson said. “We basically ate for free, they showed us a tour of the whole place … those are the first videos that really blew up. We have a great relationship with them now.”
Since then, Thompson’s videos have incrementally expanded beyond Blue Bell content. For instance, the boys filmed their experience trying pizza in New York City. In another series, Thompson took his brother to ride in a racecar.
However, while the locations and activities may change, they still feature Thompson and his roommates enjoying each other’s company.
“Simple fun was our goal,” Thompson’s roommate and finance senior Nick Wright-Eulitt said. “As a kid you found the smallest, minute thing so fun — like a yard with a sprinkler running through it. Now in college, people think, ‘Oh, I have to do some grandiose thing to have fun. I have to drink until I’m blacking out to have fun.’ But really, you can have so much fun doing the smallest thing. It’s just about who you’re doing it with and how you’re doing it.”
With graduation approaching, the roommates plan to go their separate ways to pursue their respective careers. Thompson is making the bold choice to set aside other job opportunities to pursue content creation.
“I did an internship with Amazon over the summer,” Thompson said. “I could’ve gone full-time and worked for them, but I had to make a decision back in October about that. I decided that I would regret not taking a chance at making videos full time for a while.”
Or, in other words:
“More great ice cream content [is] coming soon,” Thompson said.