We’re Nuts About Almond Milk!

Good news, friends: Ben & Jerry’s Non-Dairy has made its debut! After nearly three years of tasting samples and tweaking recipes, we couldn’t be more excited about our new line of non-dairy vegan frozen desserts.

What makes these flavors truly special – aside from their taste, which you’ll have to experience for yourself – is that we’ve crafted them from almond milk, a delightful ingredient that not only meets our vegan standards, but is out-of-this-cone delicious.

Getting It Juuust Right

When our Flavor Gurus first set out to build a euphoric non-dairy frozen dessert that had all the creamy texture, bold flavors, funky chunks and swirls that our fans know and love, their first challenge was obvious: what to make the base from. Dairy was out, but there were so many other options to choose from: coconut milk, cashew milk, soy milk, rice milk, hemp milk, and almond milk were all on the table.

Flavor Guru and ‘Non-Dairy Queen’ Kirsten Schimoler got right to work, testing all the options and narrowing down the list. “When developing desserts, you can feel a lot like Goldilocks. One option may be too thin, the next may be too thick. Some melt too quickly, some too slowly. Some flavors are too strong, some are too bland. Coconut milk tastes too much like, well, coconut, and we wanted a blank canvas to let our fun flavors, chunks and swirls shine through.”

After a whole heck of a lot of mixing and tasting, Kirsten decided that an almond milk base was the way to go. It was smooth and creamy, had just the right flavor, and would hold onto chunks and swirls like none other.

Almonds All Around!

But even once she had decided on almond milk as the base ingredient, perfecting the recipe was no easy task. “It took 50 or more versions of almond milk base mix to get to a point where we felt taste and texture were good enough to start adding chunks and swirls. There were versions that were so thick they looked like pudding and I couldn’t freeze or pump it; there were versions that were so firm it wouldn’t scoop. Trial and error was the name of the game. As they say, you must kiss a few frogs before you find your prince!”

We think we’ve found quite the prince charming. Check out our four new euphoric Ben & Jerry’s Non-Dairy flavors ­– Chunky Monkey, Chocolate Fudge Brownie, Coffee Caramel Fudge or PB and Cookies – in a freezer near you!