How do you make New Zealand’s favourite cookies even more delicious? That’s the thought that sparked a passion project driving Cookie Time’s successful launch into a new treat category – ice cream sandwiches.
Now there’s a new flavour on the block, featuring Appleby Farms creamy vanilla ice cream sandwiched between two Cookie Time Chocolate Brownie cookies. The Chocolate Brownie Cookie Sandwich is a fresh take on a classic flavour combination, available nationwide in service stations, dairies and selected supermarkets.
The man behind the passion is Guy Pope-Mayell, Co-Founder and Managing Director.
Ice cream sandwiches had already been a crowd favourite at Cookie Time’s Cookie Bars in New Zealand Japan for more than 10 years. Then, on a trip to Melbourne in 2020, Guy sampled artisan cookie sandwiches and recognised the time was right to bring cookie sandwiches to a wider audience. Recognising the opportunity to combine two universal, top-selling food forms (cookies and ice cream), this passion project was born.
“The opportunity to break into a new treat category and launch a product as iconic in its own way as our Original Chocolate Chunk Cookie, really fired my imagination. However, whilst most frozen products are branded by the ice cream name, this one has been proudly led by Cookie Time ” he says.
New Cookie Time Chocolate Brownie ice cream sandwiches.
“Ice cream sandwiches are a quintessential Kiwi dessert. We dabbled in them in the 1980s, selling our first iterations in Riccarton Mall in Christchurch. We then introduced them into our Cookie Bars, where they have been a best-seller for more than a decade.
“I always wanted to take them to a wider audience, so in 2020 we got serious about finding the best partners to make this happen,” Pope-Mayell says.
The result was the 2023 launch of the first two cookie sandwiches – The Original™ Chocolate Chunk Cookie Sandwich, and the plant-based Double Chocolate Chunk Cookie Sandwich, made in partnership with boutique ice creamery Appleby Farms, and distributed by Streets.
The cookie sandwich launch was timed to coincide with Cookie Time’s 40th birthday, with Guy and Cookie Time Creative Lead Suzanne Pope-Mayell setting out an a two-week nationwide roadtrip to deliver secret stash boxes of the cookie sandwiches to the company’s 51 franchisees. Driving a specially branded Cookie Time freezer ute, they also took samples to media and connected with Cookie Time fans from Auckland to Invercargill.
The launch of the first two cookie sandwich flavours was a phenomenal success, with both flavours becoming best-sellers in the weeks after launch. The new Chocolate Brownie is another sure-to-please flavour. Must be ice cream Cookie Time!
Images: Supplied.
This is a sponsored article produced in partnership with Cookie Time.
