Costco’s viral 5-pound cheesecake is back

Costco’s viral pumpkin cheesecake has made its grand return to the bakery section. The nearly 5-pound dessert, which only appears in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, was featured in a video with over 675,000 views by popular TikTok account CostcoHotFinds. 

The enormous seasonal dessert yields about 16 slices, according to the video. It features a graham cracker crust, pumpkin cheesecake filling and a spiced sour cream topping. Another TikTok video with over 460,000 views calls the spiced sour cream “amazing,” and the cheesecake filling “rich” and “delicious.”

It’s not only social media that’s gushing about this fall dessert — media outlets including AllRecipes and Delish have also joined the fray. AllRecipes referred to the pumpkin cheesecake as the dessert customers “think about all year”; Delish called it “enormous, affordable, and absolutely decadent.”

It is unclear when the pumpkin cheesecake first debuted at Costco, although a 2019 Cosmopolitan article rejoiced in the dessert’s return that year after being temporarily replaced in 2018 by the Harvest Spice cheesecake. 

While the San Francisco Costco is currently out of the pumpkin cheesecake, the South San Francisco and San Leandro locations confirmed they had it on Thursday. The pumpkin cheesecake is only available until Nov. 22, the day before Thanksgiving (Costco stores are closed on Thanksgiving). At the San Leandro location, it costs $18.99.

SFGATE reached out to Costco corporate for comment on the pumpkin cheesecake’s popularity but did not hear back in time for publication.