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See why.The Best Vegan Chocolate Ice Cream
Today there are more vegan ice creams than ever before. Are any of them as good as traditional dairy ice cream?
By Published Mar. 15, 2021
Top Picks
Häagen-Dazs Non-Dairy Chocolate Salted Fudge Truffle Frozen Dessert
What You Need To Know
My love affair with ice cream began at a young age and continued until I begrudgingly accepted years later that I was sensitive to lactose, the sugar found naturally in milk. I’m not alone—between 30 and 50 million Americans are lactose intolerant and many avoid eating foods containing it, including ice cream. Many others choose to minimize or eliminate their intake of animal products. In short, there are a lot of consumers, including me, looking for delicious vegan ice cream. Supermarket frozen-food aisles are filled with options, but the question remains: Are any vegan ice creams comparable in texture and flavor to dairy ice creams?
We rounded up 10 nationally available vegan ice creams, priced from about $0.27 to about $0.75 per ounce. (There’s some debate about whether they can be called ice cream because they don’t contain dairy, but we’ll refer to them as vegan ice creams for simplicity.) We focused on chocolate because it was the most common flavor among available brands. Three of the products in our lineup contained additional ingredients such as brownie or cake pieces or fudge truffles. The products in our lineup also contained a range of ingredients, from almond milk to coconut cream to pureed avocado, apple, and banana.
The Role of Sweeteners and Fat in Ice Cream’s Texture
As we tasted the ice creams, we quickly realized how drastically their textures differed. Some were so icy and hard that scooping them was “like driving a wedge into cement.” Other ice creams’ textures were silky and smooth, very close to that of a traditional dairy ice cream.
We know from years of researching the production of ice cream that sweeteners and fat play important roles in creating its creamy texture. Both prevent large ice crystals from forming, so without enough of either, ice cream can become icy and hard. The ice creams in our lineup incorporated a variety of sweeteners, from sugar or powdered sugar to agave syrup and corn syrup, with most products containing at least two types. Each of those sweeteners has a unique effect on the texture of the end product. The amount of sugar per 100-gram serving of the ice creams ranged from 9 to 26 grams of sugar. The two ice creams with 11 grams or less of sugar per serving were “hard” and “icy.”
Fat content also varied. In dairy ice cream, fat comes from milk or cream. In the vegan ice creams in our lineup, fat came from nondairy milk or cream, pureed avocado, chocolate, and/or added oil. The products we tasted contained 0 to 16 grams of fat per serving, with the silkiest, creamiest ones containing at least 11 grams of fat. The textures of the ice creams that contained 4 grams of fat or...
Everything We Tested
Highly Recommended
This coconut cream–based ice cream won over tasters with a “lush” and “very smooth, creamy texture” that was similar to what we would expect in a traditional dairy-based ice cream. It had “big chocolate flavor” that wasn’t too sweet and pronounced coconut flavor, too. Most tasters embraced the coconut cream base, saying, “If you like coconut, this is your winner.” In short, we loved this chocolaty, coconutty, creamy ice cream, and we would “actually buy this. It's not a compromise.”
Available for purchase at: www.jenis.com/dairy-free
This ice cream had the most straightforward “rich” and “intense” chocolate flavor in our lineup. It was the only ice cream in our lineup to use Belgian chocolate in its base. There were no assertively flavored ingredients to compete with the chocolate, so it really shined through. Plus, the ice cream’s texture was “creamy and smooth.” One taster summed it up: “You get a full-flavored ice cream that tastes closer to real ice cream than a lot of dairy-free ice creams.”
Find at a store near you: https://www.haagendazs.us/products
Recommended
Made with relatively few ingredients, this "silky" and "creamy" ice cream had the second most fat per serving in our lineup. The coconut milk base provided “coconut-forward flavor” that most tasters described as “well-balanced with the chocolate.” Although this product didn’t score quite as high as our two favorites, it had some ardent fans. One taster even noted, “This is perfect.”
Find at a store near you: www.coconutbliss.com/pages/find-a-store
The only sample in our lineup made from oat milk, this ice cream was “smooth,” “fluffy,” and “airy” and “melted nicely” while we ate it. While some tasters found this sample “bland” and slightly undersweetened, most found its subtle chocolate flavor “pleasant.” Oats, the base ingredient for this ice cream, contributed a "nutty" flavor that paired well with the chocolate.
Find at a store near you: www.us.oatly.com/pages/oatfinder
Recommended with reservations
Tasters liked this ice cream’s “appealing milk chocolate flavor” and thought it was “perfectly sweet.” Unfortunately, the “texture really took away from the tasting experience.” It was “very icy,” and “it sort of shattered” when we scooped it.
Find at a store near you: www.ripplefoods.com/store-locator
Tasters liked the “smooth” and “creamy” texture of this ice cream. It’s made with almond milk, which has a high percentage of water. Unfortunately, tasters thought the chocolate flavor tasted “weak” and “watered-down.” A few tasters complained that the aftertaste was “artificial.”
The base of this ice cream is made from avocados, which naturally contain a significant amount of fat, giving this sample the most fat per serving in our lineup. Though its “creamy,” “silky” texture won over many tasters, its avocado-chocolate flavor was off-putting to most.
Find at a store near you: www.cadoicecream.com/where-to-buy
Not Recommended
The coconut milk base produced a "creamy and lovely" texture that "scooped like a winner" and was pleasant to eat, but the strong coconut flavor tasted "slightly artificial." Tasters described the flavor as similar to "sunblock" and detected "off-putting flavors" in the aftertaste.
This water- and fava bean protein–based product was “watery-tasting,” similar to a “subdued Fudgsicle.” One taster said, “I wish it had a stronger, more bitter chocolate flavor for more depth.” This product had an “icy” texture and “broke off in chunks” when we scooped it.
Tasters were surprised by this sample’s fruity flavors—most notably, a strong banana flavor from the fruit puree used to make this ice cream. One taster said, “I noticed the banana and fruity flavoring well before chocolate.” This ice cream was “hard” and “icy” even after we let it sit out on the counter for a few minutes before scooping. This is likely due to its low amount of fat. One taster complained that “it was nearly impossible to scoop from the container.”
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The mission of America’s Test Kitchen Reviews is to find the best equipment and ingredients for the home cook through rigorous, hands-on testing.
Carolyn Grillo
Carolyn is a senior editor for ATK Reviews. She's a French-trained professional baker.
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