The New Lineup

Cold Stone Creamery is leaning into fall comfort with two limited-time Creations available now through November 17, 2026, at all locations nationwide. The seasonal push pairs a returning fan favorite with a brand-new build, a dual-track LTO strategy that gives operators a proven traffic driver alongside a fresh reason for guests to visit.

The returning option is the Going Bananas for JELL-O® Pudding Creation, built on JELL-O® Banana Cream Pudding Ice Cream and layered with NILLA® Wafers, banana, and whipped topping. The new addition, Crumb and Get It, centers on HONEY MAID® Graham Cracker Ice Cream mixed with cookie dough, HONEY MAID® Graham Crackers, and cookie butter—a nostalgic, s'mores-adjacent profile timed to cooler weather cravings.

Both promotional flavors—JELL-O® Banana Cream Pudding Ice Cream and HONEY MAID® Graham Cracker Ice Cream—are available as standalone scoops in addition to the signature Creation builds, giving franchise operators added flexibility to merchandise the LTO across multiple dayparts and formats.

Operator & Brand Context

The fall window is a critical sales period for ice cream franchises, which traditionally see volume concentrate in warmer months. Limited-time offerings built around seasonal flavor cues—warm spice, graham cracker, pudding—are a well-established tactic for sustaining traffic into Q4. For Cold Stone's franchise community, branded ingredient tie-ins with recognizable names like JELL-O® and HONEY MAID® also carry built-in consumer familiarity that can reduce the marketing lift at the store level.

"There's something special about this time of year and we wanted to bring something that was both familiar and fun," said Courtney Maxedon, VP of Marketing and Digital Strategy at Kahala Brands™, Cold Stone Creamery's parent company. The Scottsdale-based franchisor operates Cold Stone across nearly 1,500 locations in approximately 30 countries, sitting within a Kahala portfolio of close to 30 quick-service and fast-casual brands spanning roughly 3,000 locations in 35 countries.

For operators tracking how leading QSR and fast-casual chains are deploying LTO strategies this fall, Cold Stone's approach reflects broader restaurant industry trends around seasonal menu programming. The brand's use of co-branded, licensed ingredients also fits a pattern seen across the foodservice and dessert category, where name recognition from the grocery aisle is increasingly being leveraged to add credibility and consumer confidence to limited-time builds.

What Franchisees Should Watch

With a hard end date of November 17, 2026, the window gives Cold Stone franchisees roughly ten weeks to drive attachment and repeat visits on both Creations. The simultaneous return of a proven item alongside a new introduction limits the risk of menu fatigue while still generating novelty—a balance that beverage and dessert operators have increasingly adopted as LTO best practices mature across the segment.

Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.