The Best Vegan Ice Cream, From Vanilla To Mint Chip, Based On Testing
As an ice cream enthusiast, recipe tester and cookbook author, I did not take lightly my mission to find the best vegan ice cream on the market. I sampled 30-plus pints from 11 popular brands that make the frozen dessert using a variety of bases, from oat milk to cashew milk. For those who like classic, straightforward flavors, you can’t go wrong with McConnell’s Dairy-Free Vanilla Bean or Cado’s Chocolate Mud Pie. If you’re a fan of mix-ins, the Van Leeuwen Peanut Butter Brownie Honeycomb and Ben & Jerry’s Netflix & Chilll’d impressed me, as well.
Three of the best vegan ice cream pints come from 365 by Whole Foods Market, Van Leeuwen and Jeni’s.
Here are all of the winners from my testing process:
Vegan ice cream has come a long way since it first appeared on grocery store shelves in the 1980s and ’90s. Back then, soy milk and protein were the de facto base (and “icy” the de facto texture). These days, you can easily find pints with all kinds of delicious, flavor-packed bases: cashew milk, coconut milk, almond milk, oat milk and even avocado puree. “More companies are popping up with simple, real and fresh ingredients to match the full and creamy consistency of dairy ice cream,” says Gabrielle Yacoob, vice president of development for the Museum of Ice Cream. Whether you prefer your ice cream simple or bursting with mix-ins, you’re bound to enjoy one of the best vegan ice creams on this list.
Great vanilla ice cream is tough to get right—and that’s even more true with vegan vanilla ice cream. With no chocolate, flavorings or mix-ins to hide behind, it’s up to the manufacturer to nail the flavor profile perfectly. Luckily, McConnell’s delivers—and then some. The fact that the brand does it with a surprisingly short and simple ingredient list is just a bonus. Here, the creamy oat milk base gets added richness from cocoa butter, and a sultry vanilla flavor is complemented by visible specks of vanilla, thanks to a mix of real vanilla beans and pure vanilla extract. The base is neither too oat-y nor too icy, and it’s delicious served all on its own. But a dollop of hot fudge and a spoonful of sprinkles wouldn’t hurt.
A scoop of McConnell’s Dairy-Free Vanilla Bean.
I wasn’t sure what to think when I first sampled this avocado-based ice cream, and I found myself wondering, skeptically, how the texture might compare to other vegan and traditional ice creams on the market. But the Cado Chocolate Mud Pie flavor surprised me in the very best way. To my delight, the avocado puree base is creamy and smooth with no detectable avocado flavor. Instead, this ice cream offers a welcome hit of chocolate—or three hits, I should say, as there’s a triple dose here: The cocoa powder in the ice cream base is combined with bittersweet chocolate swirls and gluten-free chocolate cookie mix-ins. Suffice it to say, just one scoop would be enough to satisfy even the most intense chocolate craving.
A scoop of Cado’s Chocolate Mud Pie.
There’s no other way to put it: Gelato Boy has simply cracked the code on vegan strawberry ice cream. The brand’s version of the classic—which is technically a gelato—is satisfying, just sweet enough and made with an impressively short ingredient list. Despite the more basic makeup of the pint, though, the ice cream’s overall impact is anything but simple. This ruby-toned option is bright, fresh and bursting with real strawberries (which are blended directly into the base). I’ll admit that I’m not generally a fan of coconut milk–based ice creams; the tropical coconut flavor too often overpowers everything else in the mix. But here, the subtle coconut essence felt like it added to, rather than detracted from, the overall profile.
A scoop of Gelato Boy’s Strawberry Gelato.
Over the past 16 years, Van Leeuwen has grown from a roving, New York City–based ice cream truck to a nationally beloved brand with nearly 50 shops across the country. More recently, Van Leeuwen pints have become available in select grocery stores—and after trying the vegan Peanut Butter Brownie Honeycomb, I can attest that it’s worth the trip to the supermarket. Made with cashew milk, this option earned my designation for the best vegan peanut butter ice cream. It’s luscious and decadent, and the flavor is spot-on—rather than overpowering you with too many competing flavors, it’s surprisingly creamy and subtle. For sweetness and chocolatey heft, there’s just the right amount of fudgy brownie chunks alongside swirls of vegan “honey.” Had I not read the ingredients on the package or been actively testing vegan ice creams, I never would have guessed that this was, in fact, free of dairy, eggs and honey.
A scoop of Van Leeuwen’s Vegan Peanut Butter Brownie Honeycomb.
I live in a household of mint chip ice cream fanatics, so I wasn’t sure I’d be able to sell them on a vegan version of the classic treat. The Salt & Straw Freckled Mint Chocolate Chip proved me wrong and won all of them over instantly. And no wonder: Its coconut cream base is silky smooth, and I can assure any skeptics that only a tiny hint of lingering coconut flavor remains. In its place, each bite is infused with clean, refreshing peppermint oil and heaps of melt-in-your-mouth, organic dark chocolate flecks. Finally, it’s nice to know that the ice cream’s delicate green color comes from natural vegetable dyes rather than anything synthetic.
A scoop of Salt & Straw’s Freckled Mint Chocolate Chip.
Everything about a lemon bar appeals to me, from its crumbly shortbread base to its thick layer of wobbly, sweet-tart citrus. So, fellow lemon bar aficionados, believe me when I say: Jeni’s Lemon Bar ice cream, which is somehow free of both dairy and eggs, tastes exactly like the real thing. There’s a lemon curd swirl that’s mouth-puckeringly lemony, and it gets its sunset color from turmeric rather than egg yolks. The delicate and creamy base, meanwhile, is flavored with Madagascar bourbon vanilla extract, and there are shortbread bits throughout that taste incredibly buttery, too (of course, there’s no butter in the recipe).
A scoop of Jeni’s Dairy-Free Lemon Bar.
Anyone who’s ever walked their cart past Whole Foods’ bakery case has probably seen, sampled or ogled their in-house Berry Chantilly Cake. It’s a tender, golden vanilla cake layered with whipped cream and fresh berries, and it’s tantalizingly delicious. In fact, it’s so beloved by customers that the brand decided to turn it into a vegan ice cream flavor. The result: a s