Ice cream developer Kay reveals the science and insights behind the popularity of Asda's new range for summer 2026

Asda's new ice cream range for summer 2026 is proving a hit on social media. Here Asda's ice cream product developer Kay Davies, who has more than 30 years' experience in the food industry, describes the mix of customer insight, market watching and food science that's behind the new range.

Kay says: "It's about a year of planning, getting all the data, benchmarking, looking at all your competitors and the market generally. We go on big trawls where we visit ice cream parlours and shops to see whether there's anything exciting or new themes and flavours that might be relevant for our customers.

"It's also about putting yourself into a customer's mindset and thinking about what they want. So you're having a night in and want to dig into some ice cream while watching a movie or something on TV then the Loaded range fits that bill, while the Exceptional range is something a bit special for after dinner or when you just want a really nice ice cream.

"You can learn a lot from social media too. As a team we're always sharing reviews, looking at the sentiment on them and thinking about whether we agree with what they're saying.

"My algorithms mean my social media feeds are all food! When I see something on ice cream I stop to look at it, so get a flood of similar things. There are quite a few artisanal ice cream accounts I follow – like Chin Chin ice cream in London and Mast Frozen Yogurt in Manchester.

"We work alongside the Asda Innovation team that looks further out, and they will come to us with what we call 'golden threads' – themes, flavours and trends that could span different areas. That's normally done before we even start thinking about exactly what our next ice cream products will be.

"Sometimes we'll pick out a theme rather than a flavour – so a lot of the thinking behind this summer's products was around nostalgia and delivering classic flavours. We did things like the Strawberry Trifle Cheesecake, Raspberry Eton Mess dessert, Exceptional by Asda Cornish Clotted Cream and Strawberry Ice Cream and Exceptional by Asda Sicilian Lemon Meringue Ice Cream.

"We like to keep an eye on what else is happening in the market and when we see something exciting or interesting we'll get the products in to try. Hopefully our products are enjoyed by others in the market too.

"We benchmark against what everyone else is doing. It's about making sure the product is good quality and good value. We want to offer our customer great quality at an amazing price and make sure we have something to suit every budget.'

In a recent interview on ITV's This Morning Kay described having "the coolest job in the world" and revealed how many ice creams she tastes as part of it.

"When we’ve got lots of panels going on we could be eating up to about 150 ice creams a week. So that’s 30 or 40 different ice creams a day. And starting at eight o’clock in the morning. Sometimes I’m actually having ice cream for breakfast."

"It sounds obvious, but an ice cream needs to taste as you expect it to," said Kay. "If it's a vanilla ice cream you want the flavour of vanilla to come through. A good ice cream should be balanced, not just a load of sugar.

"A good ice cream needs a mix of sweetness, tartness and creaminess. It needs to coat your mouth and the flavour should linger afterwards."

"I always say you should let your ice cream sit for a good five minutes to get a little soft because you get the best flavour when it's not rock hard.

"All ice creams are different, so a more premium ice cream will have less air in – they put air in ice cream to make it more scoopable – so a softer scoop ice cream will melt quicker than a premium one. If it's still really frozen you don't get the flavours as well – it's why Mr Whippy tastes so good, because it's never fully frozen.

"One tip is to make sure you don't push the ice cream onto the roof of your mouth because that's where you get brain freeze."

Kay said: "You see interesting flavours and the sense of fun in upmarket ice cream parlours and a lot of loaded ice creams where you are getting chunks of something – like half a cherry Bakewell – mixed in with your ice cream or something like frozen custard.

"Things are moving from just the traditional flavours. Although there will always be a place for vanilla, strawberry or chocolate ice cream, ice creams are moving into puddings territory.

"Loaded ice creams are a great example of that. A loaded ice cream is one that has other elements in it – like chunks of biscuits, brownie, cookie dough or pieces of fruit. When you're digging into your ice cream you want there to be a lot going on."

Asda's Loaded range includes a Loaded Caramelised Biscuit Ice Cream that people are raving about on TikTok, Instagram and other social media. Customers like Sherene Cyrus and Trea the Foodie have been posting on TikTok about how much they love the topping in particular.

Kay says: "We knew our customers would love the flavour of the ice cream and the combination of the sauce and biscuit. The key was creating that experience of cracking through that topping to dig into your ice cream. It's about taking all of the organoleptic elements and creating a sense of excitement when you are eating it.

"It's like getting the crispy bits of cheese on top of a pasta bake. I think whoever serves up the portions should let someone else choose the first portion. Or maybe you should cut the whole tub into portions so everyone gets the same amount and mix!"

Focusing on feedback and insights from customers isn't just about ideas for new products – it's about improving existing ones too.

Two examples of that are the Loaded Choc Brownie and Cookie Dough ice creams, which have been improved for 2026.

Kay said: "We look at online reviews all time and if a product deoesn't do that well we try to understand why and see how we can improve it. So with the Loaded Cookie Dough Ice Cream the reviews last year were that there wasn't enough cookie dough mix in it and when we looked at it they were right. So this year we've packed it with loads more cookie dough.

"With the Loaded Choc Fudge Brownie Ice Cream the feedback was that customers liked it, so we didn't want to change it too much, that was a case of making sure that the brownie was extra chewy."

The UK saw record May temperatures this year, and Kay says Asda is well equipped to cope with a surge in demand when temperatures shoot up.

She said: "We have a supply team that look at managing supply and demand. We have a summer wall where they build up a lot of stock in depot so that when the weather heats up they are not scrambling around calling suppliers saying they need more stock, so we're set up to cope with heatwaves."