Ice cream, the delicious food that we all scream for. Hi, I’m Elise and I’m a vegetarian and have been for a few years. I’ve wanted to be vegan for awhile now, but one of my hesitations was giving up one of my favorite foods. Recently more brands have been putting out more vegan products for the increasing demand. I tried three of these ice creams and figured out which one was the best.

The first vegan alternative I tired was an Avocado based ice cream, it’s going to be gross right? That was my original thought at least. I went in thinking this is going to be absolutely disgusting, but i was surprisingly wrong. The brand I tried was Cado and I got the flavor Deep Dark Chocolate. This ice cream was actually very good and it tasted the most similar to ice cream. The texture was creamy and smooth and the ice cream in the pint didn’t fall apart when you put your spoon into it. I think that this is a reasonable equivalent, it’s tasty and is very similar to the real thing. My only hesitation towards this ice cream and it being a perfect alternative is due to the very overpowering chocolate flavor. I am a chocolate lover myself, but there was a lot of chocolate going on and I wonder if it was to cover up the taste of avocado.

I don’t know about you, but I love Ben and Jerry’s. I was very excited to see that they had their own line of vegan ice creams and I tried their Chocolate Fudge Brownie flavor. This is an almond milk based ice cream, so if you’re allergic to nuts this isn’t the ice cream for you. I thought that the taste of this was interesting to say the least. It didn’t have the similar taste to ice cream like Cado did and it had more sugar. I thought that it basically just tasted like chocolate almond milk and personally, i’m not a huge fan of almond milk. The texture was more rough and less smooth and refined like the Cado ice cream was. When I put my spoon into the pint of ice cream it immediately fell apart and didn’t stay together. I wouldn’t recommend this ice cream and I love Ben and Jerry’s. Unless you’re a ride or die almond fan this isn’t going to be an enjoyable experience and also it’s really bad for you nutritionally compared to the other ice creams.

So Delicious Vanilla Bean Sandwiches were exactly what their name implied. These little ice cream sandwiches were coconut milk based and only has 100 calories per sandwich. I think that these were by far my favorite ice cream treat. Not only did they taste like ice cream sandwiches, with only a slight hint of vanilla. The texture also felt exactly like regular ice cream sandwiches, compared to the pints of ice cream weren’t exactly 100% identical. I really enjoyed these sandwiches and they only had seven grams of sugar, so they are pretty good for you too. If you’re someone who isn’t a big fan of coconut, no need to worry if you pick up these ice cream sandwiches. The coconut taste is masked by the vanilla and chocolate goodness of this ice cream sandwich. Overall I think this was the best alternative to an ice cream dessert and they really replicated the typical ice cream sandwich, as a healthy vegan alternative.   

These are three vegan alternatives you can substitute into your diet for ice cream. Vegan ice cream although may not taste identical to real ice cream, does have its advantages. Pursuing a vegan diet and eating a more plant based diet, can help you live a healthier life and also help the environment. Who doesn’t want to save the world and eat ice cream at the same time? My favorites were the So Delicious Sandwiches  by far, then followed by the Cado ice cream, and finally in last place Ben and Jerry’s. All of these you can find at Hyvee and I encourage you to give them a try, next time you’re in the mood for ice cream.