Island Way Sorbet is a handcrafted fruit sorbet frozen inside a real coconut half, lemon, orange, grapefruit or pineapple rind, and where you find it depends mostly on which membership card is in your wallet. A Costco member shopping between late spring and summer will usually meet the 12-count assortment in the freezer aisle. A Sam’s Club or BJ’s member gets a 10-count box built for that chain. Without a membership, the 10-pack turns up at Target, Kroger banners and Wegmans. By October, many club freezers have cleared out the season’s allocation, so the brand’s own shop and regional grocers become the realistic options.
This page contains affiliate links. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
What Island Way Sorbet Is, and What Sits in the Cup
The product is a single-serve frozen dessert: the fruit is hand-picked, washed, size-graded and hand-carved, then the hollow peel is filled and frozen. The rind is the container, which is why the brand markets its packaging as biodegradable. Costco’s listing labels the 12-pack a product of South Africa, and the company runs a separate South African site alongside its US one.
Sorbet, classically, is fruit, sugar and water with no dairy. This brand bends that rule. Its FAQ states that most of its cups contain “a touch of cream,” made with rBST-free milk and cream, and the club boxes are sold as “sorbet with a touch of cream.” The one flavor the company names as dairy-free is Tropical Mango. Older guides describe a full milk-free line sitting next to the cream line, and that split no longer matches the current lineup.
Two certifications matter to shoppers. Every product is certified gluten-free by the Gluten-Free Certification Organization (GFCO), and every product is certified kosher by the Orthodox Union, the largest US kosher agency, with the cups carrying the OU-D mark. It is a portion-controlled treat that feels lighter than a scooped pint, though not a diet product. If calories are the goal, a lower-calorie frozen pint is the more direct swap.
Which Pack to Buy: Club Boxes, Grocery Cartons and the Brand Shop
Pick by where you shop first, because each chain gets its own assortment and you cannot mix and match flavors inside a box.
| Pack | Where | Inside | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12-count assortment | Costco warehouses | Four flavors, three each (48 fl oz) | Parties, lowest cost per serving |
| Chain-exclusive 10-count | Sam’s Club, BJ’s | Mixed flavors picked for that club | Members of those clubs |
| Variety, Tropical or Lemonade 10-pack | Target, Kroger banners, Wegmans, regional grocers | Mixed flavors | Smaller freezers, no membership |
| Bulk single-flavor case | Brand’s online shop | One flavor, shipped on dry ice | Events when nothing local has stock |
What the club assortment holds. Costco’s product details describe handcrafted sorbet with a touch of cream in real fruit shells: Heavenly Coconut, Red Berry and Ruby Red Grapefruit, Passionate Mango, and Zesty Pomegranate, three cups of each. The grocery 10-packs rotate their mix, so read the side panel for the flavor count.
Ingredients and stabilizers. The coconut cup lists water, cream, sugar, nonfat dry milk, coconut cream powder, and a stabilizer blend of mono and diglycerides of plant origin, guar gum and carrageenan. The fruit flavors add juice or juice concentrate, and some formulas use locust bean gum. The manufacturer promotes non-GMO ingredients with no artificial flavors, colors or preservatives.
Shell condition. Real rinds crack. Tilt the carton and look through the film before you commit, since a split cup leaks as it softens and refreezes into a sticky block.
Where Island Way Sorbet Is Sold in Stores
The warehouse clubs carry most of the volume, and grocery chains fill in with smaller cartons. The brand’s store locator is a page of retailer logos (Target, Costco Wholesale, Sam’s Club, Wegmans and Kroger) with no ZIP search, so it tells you which chains to try, not which store has a pallet today. The FAQ adds that the cups are sold online and through restaurants and resorts as well as stores.
Costco: The Seasonal 12-Count
The 12-count pack is the flagship and the best value per serving. Distribution is seasonal and not every warehouse gets an allocation: boxes arrive in late spring, and by early fall plenty of locations have sold through, at which point the online listing reads unavailable for the selected warehouse. Item numbers rotate between runs, so ask the frozen department for the current one. The guide to what to buy at Costco covers more of that aisle. In Canada, the chain’s Canadian warehouses have stocked a cream version (also labeled a product of South Africa) as a warehouse-only item.
Sam’s Club and BJ’s Wholesale Club
Both clubs get their own exclusive 10-count variety box, listed by name on the brand’s product page. Sam’s Club has carried a 10-count box for curbside pickup, and BJ’s version suits its eastern footprint. Neither treats this as a year-round staple, so confirm in the app before driving out.
Target, Kroger Banners and Wegmans
Target keeps a brand page for pickup and same-day drop-off; check their category page with your store selected. Kroger stocks a hand-made variety pack under one UPC across its banners, which is why the same box appears at Fred Meyer in the Northwest and Fry’s in Arizona. Wegmans rounds out the grocery names on the locator.
Regional Grocery Chains
Smart & Final stocks the assorted pack across its California, Arizona, and Nevada footprint; browse their product listing for status. Lowes Foods in the Carolinas, Shaws in New England, and Giant and Martin’s in the Mid-Atlantic each list the variety pack in season.
- Check the retailer app before calling. Inventory pages refresh more often than staff can walk the aisle.
- Ask the frozen department, not the front desk. You want to know whether the pallet is on the floor, not whether the item exists in the system.
- Buy the week you find it. Once a location sells through a seasonal shipment, it often will not reorder until spring.
- Bring a cooler for drives over 20 minutes. Rinds that soften and freeze again pick up ice crystals, and the texture never recovers.
Ordering Online Without a Melted Box
Same-day grocery delivery is the most reliable online route, because this product needs an unbroken cold chain and standard parcel shipping does not provide one.
Same-Day Drop-Off Through Instacart
The warehouse listing there carries the 12-count pack across most metro areas when the local club actually has it, and flips to out of stock when it does not. Courier fees stack on the shelf price, and a club membership is still required.
Direct From the Manufacturer
The company sells bulk cases through its official website, and its older brand site still shows single-flavor and mixed party packs on the packs page. Its FAQ names four flavors for online orders (Heavenly Coconut, Pomegranate Lemon, Passionate Mango, and Red Berry and Ruby Grapefruit), and the shop currently lists Heavenly Coconut in 24- and 32-count cases. Each order ships in a cooler with dry ice, so open it outdoors or in a ventilated room and handle the ice with gloves. Treat this as the fallback for events when nothing local carries the brand.
Amazon Marketplace
Third-party listings surface periodically, priced above retail because of the cold-chain requirement. Check the seller rating, then confirm the listing states insulated packaging with cold packs or dry ice. If it does not, skip it.
Grocery Pickup and Delivery
Target, Smart & Final, Kroger banners, Lowes Foods, and Shaws all offer pickup or delivery where they stock it. Before committing to a case, Bite of the Best published a review covering the flavor range.
Flavors, Their Shells, and Which to Pick
The Daily Meal tasted nine flavors in November 2023 and put Zesty Lemon first and Zesty Pomegranate second, with the coconut cup last: the reviewer praised its authentic coconut flavor but called coconut an acquired taste. The long-running r/Costco thread, which calls the cream version quite tasty, leans the other direction. The picks below reflect those published rankings and the current lineup, not a personal taste test.
For coconut fans: Heavenly Coconut. The largest cup in the club box, made from mature coconut flesh and coconut milk and served in a hard husk half. Creamy rather than icy. Check price on Amazon
For tart fruit: Red Berry and Ruby Grapefruit. Raspberry and strawberry blended with grapefruit, frozen in a grapefruit rind. Bright pink, with dialed-back sweetness, though reviewers note the flavors compete. See it on Amazon
Passion fruit pick: Passionate Mango. Mango and passionfruit, served in an orange rind rather than a mango one, which catches first-time buyers off guard. The orange tends to dominate. Check price on Amazon
Highest rated in the box: Zesty Pomegranate. Served in a lemon half, sharper and less sugary than the tropical cups. The color works on a December plate if you stocked up in summer. See it on Amazon
Specialty pick: Pina Colada. Sold as Jammin’ Caribbean Pina Colada in a pineapple half, mostly through grocers rather than the club box. Pineapple juice concentrate and coconut, built to read like the cocktail. Check price on Amazon
The wider single-flavor lineup also includes Zesty Lemon (a tangy lemon cup that topped the Daily Meal list), Mandarin Orange, Sweet Pineapple, Chocolate Coconut and Mango Orange. Newer still are Frozen Fruit Bites, sold as Lemonade Bites (classic, strawberry and watermelon) and chocolate-covered mango, peach and orange pieces. Planning a DIY version for a luau? Whole coconuts carve into similar bowls.
Nutrition, Allergens and Recall Status
One serving is one shell, so every calorie, sugar, fat and protein figure on the panel is per cup, not per box. Retailer listings for the same variety pack show conflicting numbers, and the coconut and citrus cups differ, so the nutritional panel on the carton in your hand is the only figure worth trusting.
- Milk: most cups contain cream and nonfat dry milk; Tropical Mango, the Lemonade Bites and the dark-chocolate bites are the dairy-free items.
- Coconut: listed as an allergen on the coconut cups.
- Peanuts and eggs: the company says peanuts are not processed in its facility and the plant is egg-free.
- Gluten: GFCO-certified gluten-free across the range.
The FDA’s food enforcement database, searchable through openFDA, lists no recall for the brand or its products. New notices can post at any time, so check the FDA recalls page if a box looks off.
Storage and Serving Mistakes to Skip
Letting it ride home warm. This is the failure mode that ruins the product outright. The brand advises storing it at 0 degrees F (minus 18 C) or below and not eating any cup that fully melted and refroze, since it turns icy and grainy.
Serving it rock-hard. Give each cup 2 to 3 minutes at room temperature before you scoop.
Treating the shell as food. The company says to treat it like an orange peel. The coconut husk in particular is hard and inedible.
Expecting it in December. Club distribution concentrates in late spring and summer. Building a holiday party around this dessert without a stocked freezer is a reliable disappointment.
Buying from a marketplace seller with no cold-chain details. If a listing never describes insulated packaging, you are gambling on a perishable. A local carton, or a novelty like Dippin’ Dots from a licensed vendor, is safer.
Serving adults who expect a real dessert means budgeting more than one cup per person, or pairing the box with an ice cream cake or a tub of Blue Bunny ice cream.
Start with whichever club card you hold and check its app before you drive, since the 12-count and the club-exclusive 10-counts give the lowest cost per cup. If the club shows nothing, work through Target, your Kroger banner and the regional grocery pages next. Order Island Way Sorbet direct from the brand only when nothing local has it, because dry ice freight changes the math fast. Find a box out of season and buy it, because the next reliable window is spring.
Island Way Sorbet FAQ
Does Costco still sell it?
Yes, seasonally. The 12-count assortment is a spring and summer buy rather than a permanent item, which is why it shows as unavailable at many warehouses in fall. Not every club gets an allocation, and item numbers change between runs.
Is it healthier than regular ice cream?
It is a smaller, portion-controlled serving than a typical bowl of ice cream, but it is still a sugar-sweetened dessert, with sugar near the top of the ingredient list. Most cups also contain cream and nonfat dry milk. Every figure on the panel is per single cup, not per box.
Do Walmart or Aldi carry it?
Neither appears on the brand’s store locator, and neither lists it as a regularly stocked item. The dependable US options are the warehouse clubs, Target, Kroger banners, Wegmans, Smart & Final, and regional grocers such as Lowes Foods and Shaws. Aldi rotates specialty frozen desserts through its middle aisle, so any appearance there is a one-off.
Are the fruit shells real, and can you eat them?
The shells are real fruit peels and husks, hand-carved and filled, but they are not meant to be eaten. Scoop the filling and rinse the shell if you want to reuse it as a serving bowl.
Is it vegan or dairy-free?
Mostly no. The club boxes and most single flavors contain cream and nonfat dry milk and carry the OU-D kosher dairy mark. The company names Tropical Mango as its milk-free option, and says to check the ingredient statement for vegan status.
How long does it keep in the freezer?
Sealed packs hold quality for months at 0 degrees F or below; the brand gives no fixed shelf life, so go by the date on the carton. Time is not the real risk here, thawing is. Once a cup softens and refreezes, ice crystals form and the texture does not come back.
See our Food shopping category for more expertly written shopping guides.