One of America’s most popular big-box stores has lobbed another heaping helping of sugary bliss in its members' direction, just in time for backyard barbecue season.
On May 14, popular TikToker Laura Lamb (@costcohotfinds) shared a video that highlighted Costco’s latest buzzy dessert. In her video, she shares a quick review of a new addition to Costco’s well-appointed selection of gargantuan desserts: a nearly four pound lemon meringue cheesecake.
“This morning for the first time ever the Costco bakery brought out a lemon meringue cheesecake and my husband’s reaction was, ‘This may be the best one yet,’ and I agree,” Lamb says in the TikTok.
“It’s sweet, savory and tart,” she continues while showing herself cutting a slice and taking a bite. “The bakery killed it with a meringue. It was perfect. This is nearly four pounds and it was $19.99.”
So, are we all going to have a lemon meringue cheesecake-coated summer? Well, we're not sure, as Costco declined to comment.
“People are still saying they haven’t been able to find it yet, so it’s one of those things that’s showing up in regions slowly,” Lamb tells TODAY.com. “That cheesecake is actually brand new, never been at Costco before, so they must really be pulling out the stops now.”
I was able to grab — lug, really — my own big honkin’ cheesecake from my local Costco on the East Coast, and my go-to outlet had a few of them left, but not many. The layered, lemony, fluffy, meringue-topped cheesecake I scored comes in at 62 ounces, which is 3.88 pounds of pure sugary fun.
“It’s like that classic cheesecake, almost like that New York-style with a lemon curd in between that and the meringue. It is just so good,” Lamb says. “It actually reminds me of meringue that my mom always made growing up; she would make lemon pies and things like that.”
With a diameter of 9.5 inches, the dessert boasts an ingredient list that starts with cream cheese as its biggest ingredient, followed by lemon filling and meringue. These are all layered on a graham cracker base, much like another recent buzzy dessert: the 4.5-pound, $19.99 Peanut Butter Chocolate Pie.
Early reviews on social media, as with all of Costco’s colossal desserts, have been positive.
“Costco lemon cheesecake is the bomb, my guys,” tweeted one cheesecake lover.
“They are seriously killing it!!!!!” another person commented, this time on Instagram.
“I’m not even in the US and I wanna fly out there to get just one of these,” commented another Instagrammer.
“I don’t know if I, solo person, need 4lbs of cheesecake but.....maybe?” pondered one TikTok user.
“I swear Costco is out to make my wallet slimmer and my (waist) thicker,” commented yet another Instagram user.
I must admit that, initially, I was in the “this is entirely too much dessert for humankind” camp because it is … just … very big. Intimidatingly so.
But then I took a bite of it.
I don’t give positive reviews of things lightly. But this cheesecake, y’all — it’s honestly one of the best slices of cheesecake I have had in recent memory. It might be large, in charge and from the store, but, like Lamb said, it has a homemade quality to it that makes slices of it not only enjoyable to look at, but scrumptious to eat, too.
The texture of the thick cheesecake layer melds so well with the airy, slightly caramelized meringue, thesmooth lemon curd and crumbly graham cracker crust to form a kind of Avengers Assemble of tasty and pleasing textures. While rich, it’s not cloyingly sweet, which is very nice, indeed.
“I think everyone should try it before it’s gone,” Lamb adds. “Because, just like all Costco things, especially bakery items, it’ll be very limited until they come up with the next thing.”
As soon as I’m done here, I’m going to cut myself another slice, because, with Costco, there’s always plenty to go 'round.
