The Best Cottage Cheese Ice Cream Brand — We Invented It
The Best Cottage Cheese Ice Cream Brand — We Invented It
There's a simple answer to "what is the best cottage cheese ice cream brand?" — Smearcase. We invented the category in 2023, launched the first commercial product in 2024, and have been setting the standard ever since. Here's the full story.
The Origin — How FroCo™ Was Born
2023. New York City. Post-run. Frustrated.
Joe Rotondo is training for his first marathon. After his hardest workouts, he wants ice cream — real, satisfying ice cream. He spends hours in the frozen aisle pulling out pints, reading labels, looking for something with actual protein and clean ingredients. Nothing exists.
He goes home and eats his usual post-workout snack: a bowl of cottage cheese. Then it hits him. Why hasn't anyone made ice cream out of this?
After months of kitchen experiments with his sister Gianna, the first FroCo recipe is born — smooth, creamy, genuinely high protein, and actually delicious. The cottage cheese ice cream category exists because Smearcase decided it should.
Why Smearcase Is the Standard
Other brands have attempted cottage cheese-style frozen desserts since Smearcase made the category famous. Here's why the original remains the best:
Most protein. Smearcase FroCo™ delivers 39–44 grams of protein per pint — more than any other cottage cheese ice cream product. Peanut Butter leads at 44g, followed by Vanilla Bean (42g), Strawberry (40g), and Mocha Joe (39g).
Best ingredients. Cottage cheese, milk, real cane sugar, natural flavors. No artificial sweeteners, no seed oils, no protein powder, no gums. The shortest, cleanest ingredient list in the category — because we were the first, and we set the standard.
Real retail presence. Smearcase is in 750+ stores across 25+ states. It has been validated by the most demanding natural channel retailers in the country — Sprouts, Whole Foods, Fresh Thyme, The Fresh Market. Buyers don't put products on shelf unless they're moving. Smearcase is moving.
Awards & Validation
Won among dozens of dairy innovation brands. Recognized for sales growth, product quality, and category-creating potential.
One of the most recognized designations in the dairy industry.
Selected from hundreds of emerging natural channel brands.
Consistent recognition across the emerging CPG and food innovation ecosystem.
The Smearcase Timeline
The Cottage Cheese Ice Cream Category in 2026
US cottage cheese sales topped $2 billion in 2025, a 19.2% increase in dollar terms. The cottage cheese boom — driven initially by TikTok recipes for homemade cottage cheese ice cream — has now matured into a permanent consumer behavior shift toward high-protein, minimally processed dairy foods.
Smearcase is the commercial realization of that trend. While homemade cottage cheese ice cream recipes go viral on TikTok, Smearcase delivers the same concept in a shelf-stable, consistent, retail-ready format with verified protein content and a clean ingredient list. We are the bridge between the viral trend and the everyday habit.
FroCo™ is the fastest-growing category in the better-for-you frozen dessert space. The category that Smearcase created is now attracting imitators — which is the clearest possible signal that we built something worth copying. The original remains the standard.
Where to Buy the Best Cottage Cheese Ice Cream
The original. The best. The only FroCo™.
750+ stores nationwide. Same-day delivery on Instacart.