Popular Ice Cream Maker Häagen-Dazs has quietly revealed four vegan ice cream flavors into markets in California and listed them on their website. The flavors in question are Peanut Butter Chocolate Fudge, Coconut Caramel, Chocolate Salted Fudge Truffle, Coconut Caramel, and Mocha Chocolate Cookie.
Vegan flavors
Häagen-Dazs joining in is just another of a whole line of non-dairy ice creams being released in the past year by numerous big companies.
In February, Breyers, another well-known ice cream brand, released two flavors of non-dairy almond milk ice cream. In mid-2016, Ben & Jerry's released four flavors of dairy-free ice cream, while then releasing three new flavors later in February. Before these companies, the only other way to get vegan or dairy-free frozen desserts was to go to a health food store or a store like Whole Foods, hoping they held vegan brands like So Delicious in stock.
Due to the fall of dairy sales, and the rise of milk alternatives, the offer of dairy-free frozen dessert alternatives is destined to continue growing.
This is especially true as we see vegan furor surrounding the creation and sale of these products.
Helpful for those with dietary restrictions
Of course, vegans benefit from the rise of these non-dairy desserts, but others benefit as well. The US is home to tens of millions of people who suffer from Lactose Intolerance and cannot consume dairy products without suffering from extreme digestive issues. Many people with lactose intolerance still consume some dairy products, mainly due to a lack of availability of non-dairy alternatives.
Not only that, but these kinds of non-dairy ice creams may be able to be more readily consumed by people who are on a renal diet, who are not able to consume dairy products in large quantities, if at all.
Great tasting!
Earlier vegan ice creams did not really get the "cream" part well, so most of them were a bit icy. This may be due to the lack of fat present in older versions of almond milk based ice creams. The newer brands have been using more creamier, and more fattening ingredients to make it smoother. This includes, at least in the case of Häagen-Dazs, Coconut Cream, and Peanut Butter, to prevent it from getting icy, instead of a creamy texture otherwise desired in ice cream.
Hopefully, as time goes on, more brands will be creating non-dairy alternatives. Until then, at least we have a large variety to choose from.