The Seasonal Play

Cold Stone Creamery is rolling out its annual Boo Batter™ Halloween lineup at roughly 1,500 locations globally through October 31, 2026 — a limited-time ice cream program built around pitch-black Cake Batter Ice Cream that has become a recurring seasonal driver for the Kahala Brands™ franchise system.

The push is relevant beyond the standalone ice cream channel: with convenience retailers increasingly building out dispensed beverage and frozen dessert programs to compete on impulse indulgence, seasonal activations like this one signal what consumers are conditioned to expect from any operator carrying frozen treats in October.

The LTO Lineup

Three promotional SKUs anchor the program. The Treat or Treat™ Creation™ pairs Boo Batter™ with KIT KAT®, Halloween OREO® Cookies, and M&M'S® mixed on the brand's signature frozen granite stone. The Witches' Boo shake blends the same base with Halloween OREO® Cookies, whipped topping, and Spooky Sprinkles. Rounding out the set is the Boo Batter™ Ice Cream Taco — the base wrapped in an orange waffle taco shell, coated in chocolate and Spooky Sprinkles.

The taco format is notable from a foodservice-program standpoint: handheld frozen dessert formats have gained traction across both QSR and convenience channels as operators look to drive attached purchases at the point of checkout. For c-store retailers watching category adjacencies, the ice cream taco is a format several frozen novelty suppliers have pushed into the forecourt cooler door in recent years.

Operator Context

"Boo Batter™ has become a fun tradition that our guests look forward to each year," said Courtney Maxedon, VP of Marketing and Digital Strategy at Kahala Brands™. The comment points to what operators across channels consistently find valuable in LTO strategy: a repeating seasonal item builds anticipation without requiring the margin risk of a full menu addition.

Kahala Brands operates a portfolio of nearly 30 fast-casual and QSR concepts across approximately 3,000 locations in 35 countries, giving it meaningful scale to read seasonal performance data across formats. For the Cold Stone system specifically, the Halloween window represents one of the highest-traffic indulgence occasions of the year — alongside Valentine's Day and summer — making Boo Batter™ a low-risk, high-visibility traffic driver.

For c-store foodservice operators benchmarking their own seasonal dessert or dispensed beverage programs, the Cold Stone model illustrates a repeatable playbook: anchor a limited-time flavor to a recognizable brand occasion, incorporate branded candy inclusions to deepen impulse appeal, and layer in multiple format options (cup, shake, handheld) to maximize ticket size across different shopper missions.

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.