The LTO

Jeremiah's Italian Ice is leaning into holiday nostalgia with the launch of its Holiday Flavorites Collection, a five-item limited-time offering available November 1 through December 31 at participating locations nationwide. The centerpiece is the brand's first-ever Hot Chocolate Ice, a new base flavor that anchors four of the five SKUs in the seasonal lineup.

The full collection stacks that new base with familiar holiday flavor cues. The Frozen Hot Chocolate Flavorite layers Hot Chocolate Ice with Vanilla Soft Ice Cream and Mini Marshmallows. The Peppermint Bark Flavorite swaps marshmallows for Crushed Peppermint Candies. The Candy Cane Hot Chocolate Flavorite combines both toppings for a fuller build. Rounding out the savory-sweet tier are the Peppermint Bark Jelati® Cake — a sliceable, shareable format designed for group occasions — and a Peppermint Oreo® Ice Cream Sandwich featuring peppermint-flavored ice cream between Oreo cookies.

Why It Matters

For a fast-growing frozen-dessert franchise, holiday LTOs serve a dual purpose: they extend traffic into a calendar window that typically skews warm-weather and they give franchisees a promotional hook for the November–December slowdown. Jeremiah's, which began franchising in 2019 and now counts 175-plus locations open or in development across 11 states — concentrated in Florida, Texas, Georgia and the Carolinas — is squarely in a growth phase where systemwide brand moments carry outsized weight for unit-level awareness.

The frozen-dessert segment has become increasingly competitive as QSR and fast-casual operators layer in seasonal dessert LTOs to defend check averages. Chains including Dairy Queen and Carvel have long used holiday-themed frozen formats to drive incremental visits; independents and emerging franchises like Jeremiah's are now following suit with tighter culinary storytelling. The brand's inclusion in Technomic's Top 500 U.S. Chain Restaurants list and its No. 211 ranking on Entrepreneur's 2026 Franchise 500® signal it has crossed into the tier where systemwide promotional execution becomes a franchisee recruiting and retention tool as much as a consumer play.

Operator Context

"The holidays are all about creating memorable experiences with family and friends, and food has always been a big part of that," said Michael Keller, CEO of Jeremiah's Italian Ice. "Our Holiday Flavorites give guests a fun, festive way to celebrate the season while enjoying the bold flavors and frozen treats that make Jeremiah's unique."

From an operator standpoint, the Jelati® Cake format is worth watching: shareable, sliceable dessert formats tend to lift average check and can drive catering or group-occasion revenue during a period when unit traffic is naturally softer. Franchisees in Sun Belt markets — where Jeremiah's is most concentrated — face less of a cold-weather traffic drag than northern operators, making the holiday window a legitimate sales opportunity rather than a purely defensive move. The collection runs while supplies last, a standard scarcity frame that supports franchisee flexibility on inventory management. For operators and investors tracking the brand's franchise development trajectory, the seasonal LTO cadence is becoming a visible part of how Jeremiah's builds system cohesion as it scales.

For context on broader frozen-dessert and snack-segment LTO trends, the holiday window has become a key battleground for limited-service operators competing on menu differentiation rather than price.

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.