Actually, Vegan Ice Cream Is Just as Good as the Dairy Kind

Why does approval of this seemingly benign genre of dessert evoke such a passionately negative response?

May 13 2019, 12:00am

If you want someone to stare and curse at you like you just kicked a dog, but you (hopefully) don’t want to kick a dog, there’s an easier way to become a recipient of that level of vitriol: Tell them you think non-dairy ice cream is good. My own sister recently called me a “little b***h” when I excitedly told her about a particularly good vegan ice cream. My girlfriend uttered similar words when I mentioned getting a scoop of the stuff from another place. Why does approval of this seemingly benign genre of dessert evoke such a passionate response?

According to a report from the New York Times last August, consumption of “alternative milks” is rising, to the chagrin of dairy farmers and to the pleasure of people who like to say “nut milk.” Yet despite the growth of this trend, I continue to experience a palpable aversion to my (nut)milquetoast opinion that non-dairy ice cream is fine. There are so many different types; you can find ones that suck, and ones that exceed expectations, just like regular ice cream. Still, many people say, “vegan ice cream wtf.”

To be clear: I’m not vegan. I’m not approaching this from an ethical perspective, though the consideration of where and how our food is made is increasingly unavoidable. I’m not coming from a professional perspective, either; shockingly, I’m not a doctor.

My zest for non-dairy ice cream comes from one place: my GI tract. Whenever I eat ice cream, or any large amount of dairy product, I feel like garbage. It’s a sledgehammer to the rest of my day’s bodily activities; to go to the gym, play soccer, ride a bike, or otherwise experience physical turbulence is no longer an option. And in my mind, no ice cream makes the tradeoff worth it.

I have a theory. Most people don’t have a tremendous gastrointestinal experience after their tasty frozen treat, but I think almost everyone is lactose-intolerant to some degree. It’s just that we all have different standards for what’s normal to go on inside our bodies: We accept that haunted rumblings and standing by a bathroom is sometimes a necessary accompaniment to a tasty dessert. I’m no different; I will still order “insane” heat-level wings because they cause a euphoria-level pain, though the next morning is often decidedly dysphoric. Yet dairy devotees get mad at me, who didn’t do anything wrong, because they’re losing a partner in fart solidarity. (Again, I’m not a doctor.)

I spoke to gastroenterologist and physician nutrition specialist Dr. Carolyn Newberry at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center about this debacle. As she explains, gastrointestinal distress is the most common symptom for lactose sensitivity.

“Basically what happens is the lactose sugar can’t be broken down. So rather than being absorbed in the small bowel, which is where most of your nutrients are absorbed, it travels down to the colon, where it’s processed by bacteria there, and they produce a lot of extra gas. And they can also change your bowel habits. So people tend to get diarrhea, you know, gaseous distension, bloating sensations—they can feel nauseated,” Dr. Newberry explained.

And if my gripes about ice cream sound like a “me” problem, numbers-wise, it’s unlikely.

“We think probably more than half the population has difficulty with processing lactose,” Dr. Newberry said.

She emphasizes an important difference between lactose sensitivity and “a true allergy.” People who are lactose-sensitive might experience GI distress. But those who are truly allergic will have some type of histamine release, she explained; symptoms might include rashes, facial flushing, even difficulty breathing.

For those lucky enough to remember ice cream as a staple of their childhood diet, this does not insulate you from future —or current— sensitivity. Lactase, the body’s enzyme responsible for breaking down lactose, can decrease over time, for several reasons.

“There’s a lot of things that can alter our lactase levels, everything from things that cause inflammation in the small bowel where where the lactase is made, to it waning over time in certain populations. So it can actually develop that you can’t eat products that have lactose anymore, because you can’t break down the sugars so then it causes GI distress.”

For those who are lactose-sensitive but can’t imagine a world without dairy-based ice cream, take solace in that there’s no inherent danger to continue eating the stuff. Though, by my understanding, they are contributing a fractionally larger amount to global warming.

“If somebody doesn’t feel well, when they eat dairy, they can continue to eat dairy. They just may not feel well,” Dr. Newberry told me.

When I asked her if she’s had non-dairy ice cream, Dr. Newberry said yes, she’d definitely had cashew-based ice cream, and perhaps also almond-milk-based ice cream, though she could not recall specifically.

“It was very good,” she said. “Certainly, if you have lactose intolerance, there’s a lot of options, fortunately.”

I understand the aversion to vegan/vegetarian replacements in favor of traditional dairy and meat options. Their first iterations were clumsily developed and not likely to trick anyone. But the imitation technologies are improving at a pace with which a real cow could never hope to keep up. See a recent Burger King commercial: A man who claims to eat two Whoppers a week for the last two decades could not tell he was eating a meat-free Whopper made with an Impossible patty.

Today, there are so, so many different types of vegan ice cream, ranging from the obnoxiously healthy (which proudly contain “just fruit, water, and a touch of cane sugar”) to decidedly decadent options, like Van Leeuwen’s artisanal blending of cashews, coconuts, and cocoa butter to create a product that would dupe anyone besides a lactose-sensing robot.

Somewhere between “frozen fruit in a generic Popsicle shape” and overpriced boutique offerings are over-the-counter options like Ben and Jerry’s Non-Dairy Pints, made with almond milk. I’ve tried the “PB & cookies” flavor, and in occasional portions of my preferred serving size (roughly two heaping tablespoons directly from the pint), it lasted for nearly two weeks. It’s perfectly fine, although the almond flavor is apparent. At the very least, it will allow the company to avoid getting embroiled in another controversy like the one in 2013, wherein Grimes, taking a brief rumspringa from her vegan lifestyle, was harangued by vegan Tumblr for enjoying a pint of limited batch Scotchy Scotch Scotch, a promotional flavor for Anchorman 2.

There’s no shortage of fancy ice creameries offering convincingly non-vegan vegan ice creams. It was a scoop of exceptionally good vegan cookie dough ice cream from Salt & Straw that encouraged me to message my ice cream enthusiast sister. She first responded “no comment,” but immediately followed up with “what flavor, and do you hate yourself?”

In Bad Taste (News Article – (2017)

Free Ice Cream Samples Are the Scourge of Our Nation, and Someone Must Stop It

In bad taste. Laurie Notaro

I have thought about running for public office with a platform of only one issue:

outlawing tastes.

I hate tasters.

I’m not afraid to say it. Tasting has gotten completely out of hand, particularly at

ice cream joints. It isn’t simply a hindrance anymore, it’s become a plague. A

pandemic of dirty little spoons still slick with the DNA of gluttons in their wells.

It’s an offer that’s become a habit turned into demand, and someone needs to

stop it.

NO MORE TASTES.

Perhaps you are one of those who enjoys asking for a sample of Brown Butter

Sage ice cream simply to say you’ve experienced the delight, only to move on to

Hazelnut Pine Sol Sorbet to brag that you’ve been there, then scale the peak of

Blueberry Sawdust Swirl because no one else has the balls. Enough is enough.

You suck.

Here’s the problem: It’s become so acceptable to ask for tastes that it is sucking

up valuable time out of the lives of the people who aren’t selfish. If you really

have nothing better to do with your time than spend it eating ice cream that you

don’t want, congratulations, you need more friends. I’ve timed tastes. They range

from a minute to two minutes on the average, varying in length depending on

the self-absorption rate of the Taster. They have to scan the case because they

were too busy doing nothing while they were waiting on line instead of doing

prep work. Then they make a decision, the server gets the sample, and

undoubtedly, UNDOUBTEDLY, the Taster pauses for three to 10 seconds after

ingesting the taste to ponder as to what comment they will make about the

sample, as if it’s more necessary than a “thank you.”

Then they need to talk about the sample to the server for what could be an

indeterminate amount of time. I actually once had a chin hair gestate in a follicle,

break the surface, and grow long enough to catch the light while a jerk debated

the flavor profile of two grams of Pear and Bleu Cheese ice cream as if he was

talking about end-of-life measures.

In other words, the server spends around three hours and thirty

minutes servicing INDECISION during every eight-hour shift. That

is bullshit.

I’ve done my research. Yesterday, I went to the ice cream shop that has the

highest repeat offender Taster rate in town and asked questions. Apparently, men

ask for the fewest samples, and when they do, they know what they want.

Women, on the other hand, will typically ask for more than one sample before

they make up their mind and often don’t know which sample they want first. The

server I spoke to, an affable, happy young woman, said she gave out

approximately 100 samples in a day. IN A DAY. Many people ask for upward of

four tastes. In other words, the server spends around three hours and 30

minutes servicing INDECISION during every eight-hour shift.

That is bullshit. That’s also a cumulative chunk of time people behind the Tasters

are waiting in line when they shouldn’t be. These are people on their lunch

hours, who have scoliosis, have itchy mosquito bites and have just enough time

to grab a scoop of sugar-free sweet cream ice cream and shove it into their purse

before their movie starts. But instead, a woman with enough children to start her

own preschool gets to the door before you do, and then encourages them all to

ask for tastes as she preps them to grow into the big piggies they will

undoubtedly become.

And someone has to see her movie without a scoop of sugar-free sweet cream

ice cream because seven preschoolers don’t know what strawberry tastes like.

Why are we tolerating this? Why are we letting little children prevent us from

sneaking ice cream into a movie? Is there any other place we’d allow this? Do I

request a slice from a pizza place before I order a pie? Do I ask my doctor for a

sample of Klonopin before I make an appointment? Sure, you can get free tastes

at a winery, but that’s only to sauce you up so you spend far more money than

you had planned; there’s a return on that investment.

When I was a kid, if I asked for a taste of rainbow sherbet at

Thrifty, a retiree with arthritis with a scooper in his gnarled hand

would have said, “Do you know what rainbow sherbet tastes like,

little girl? It tastes like RAINBOW SHERBET.

I know one thing: When I was a kid, if I asked for a taste of rainbow sherbet at

Thrifty, a retiree with arthritis with a scooper in his gnarled hand would have

said, “Do you know what rainbow sherbet tastes like, little girl? It tastes like

RAINBOW SHERBET. Do you know what vanilla ice cream tastes like? VANILLA.

What do you think it tastes like, clouds and magic? And you want it for FREE?

You disgust me. Now go and get your mother because I want to yell at her, too.”

But instead, in today’s world, we get tastes. For free. We teach our children to ask

for free treats like they were Dickensian characters, and we waste everyone else’s

time. But let it be known, guy expounding on the notes of Blueberry Sawdust

Swirl, that I know your face. I have memorized all of the faces. And the day you

get in behind me in line at the ATM, and it will happen, will be the most glorious

day of all.

LAURIE NOTARO | NOVEMBER 14, 2017 | 6:00AM

Vegan Dark Chocolate Sauce

We aims to please, and so when enough folks quipped that our in-store homemade vegan dark chocolate sauce topping was so delicious that we ought to bottle it, we did just that!

Now available in 10.5oz bottles. You can pick up a bottle or two from either of our retail scoop shops, as well as Berkeley Bowl (East and West) and Berkeley and El Cerrito Natural Grocers.

We are hoping to follow this up with the bottling of our vegan caramel sauce. Stay tuned…

We Mean to be Green!

Mr. Dewie’s enjoys offering a superior product to our customers. We do this by sourcing and using the best, healthiest, and whenever possible, local ingredients. In addition to providing ice creams that are creamy and delicious, we are also a green company and take seriously the importance of doing our part for the environment. This means that when you walk into any of our scoop shops, we use only compostable materials to serve our delicious treats! In fact, we only offer compost bins, and not garbage cans, inside of our shops.

From our fiber serving bowls and lids, to our wooden serving spoons, paper napkins and paper straws, Mr. Dewie’s is proud to do our part to keep more waste out of our landfill.

You’ll even notice that we serve ALL of our samples to you on chilled, metal, tasting spoons for continuous re-use!

Made from surplus sugarcane and wheat straw agricultural fiber. Grease and cut resistant. Microwave and freezer safe. Conforms to FDA guidelines for food use. Usable for foods up to 200 degrees F.

Sustainable replacement for plastic, Styrofoam, and paper disposables. Composts in 1-3 months in a commercial composting system (ASTM D-6400 and BPI certified).

The Float

An ice cream float or ice cream soda (United States, United Kingdom, Canada, South Africa and East Asia), coke float (United Kingdom and Southeast Asia), or spider (Australia and New Zealand), is a chilled beverage that consists of ice cream in either a soft drink or in a mixture of flavored syrup and carbonated water. When root beer and ice cream are used together to make the beverage, it is typically referred to as a root beer float.

The ice cream float was invented by Robert McCay Green in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1874 during the Franklin Institute’s semicentennial celebration. The traditional story is that, on a particularly hot day, Mr. Green ran out of ice for the flavored drinks he was selling and used vanilla ice cream from a neighboring vendor, thus inventing a new drink.

His own account, published in Soda Fountain magazine in 1910, states that while operating a soda fountain at the celebration, he wanted to create a new treat to attract customers away from another vendor who had a fancier, bigger soda fountain. After some experimenting, he decided to combine ice cream and soda water. During the celebration, he sold vanilla ice cream with soda water and a choice of 16 different flavored syrups. The new treat was a sensation and soon other soda fountains began selling ice cream floats.

Well, Mr. Dewie’s has recently teamed up with Alameda Point Craft Sodas to create our own Root Beer Float.

We are beginning with our cashew vanilla ice cream as a traditional flavor, however we will likely be introducing other combinations such as a Ginger Float using AP Craft’s Ginger Beer poured over two scoops of our Turmeric Spice cashew ice cream!

The Root Beer float is now being served in our Albany retail location and offered in our custom glass take-home barrel.

SF Chronicle

Turmeric Spice at Mr. Dewie’s Cashew Creamery

No other vegan ice creams in the Bay Area can match Mr. Dewie’s ground-cashew scoops for dense, buttery realness. A certain seediness comes through in the lighter flavors, but in the marigold-hued Turmeric Spice ice cream, the cashew flavor is subsumed in a beautifully modulated blend of turmeric, cardamom, ginger cinnamon and anise. — Jonathan Kauffman

https://www.sfchronicle.com/restaurants/amp/Ultimate-Guide-The-16-best-ice-cream-shops-in-13091850.php

Best of the Bay 2018

Best Vegan Ice Cream

Mr. Dewie’s Cashew Creamery

There is no shortage of vegan treats in the East Bay, but when it comes to ice “cream,” Mr. Dewie’s Cashew Creamery stands above the rest in terms of texture and flavor. At this old-fashioned-style ice cream parlor at the foot of Solano Avenue in Albany, you won’t find exotic concoctions but rather crowd-pleasing, mouth-watering flavors such as Banana Nut, Roasted Cashew, and Coconut Chocolate, plus seasonal specials. The cashew base has a deliciously creamy and never icy texture, so it’s thick enough to chew but not so rich and sickly sweet as to induce you into a coma afterward. Almost all the flavors are vegan, and, as a bonus, all are free of gluten, soy, dairy, additives, and preservatives as well. (There are also gluten-free and vegan bon bons and ice cream sandwiches.) Founded by Berkeley brothers Ari and Andrew Cohen, Mr. Dewie’s began selling ice cream to grocery stores and then transitioned into a storefront in Albany in 2016. Last year, it expanded into the Emeryville Public Market, and it’s also available at Paulista Brazilian Kitchen & Taproom in Oakland. Even non-vegans can get excited.

The Cashew Tree

The cashew tree (Anacardium occidentale) is a tropical evergreen tree that produces the cashew seed and the cashew apple. It can grow as high as 14 m (46 ft), but the dwarf cashew, growing up to 6 m (20 ft), has proved more profitable, with earlier maturity and higher yields.

The species is originally native to northeastern Brazil. Portuguese colonists in Brazil began exporting cashew nuts as early as the 1550s. Major production of cashews occurs in Vietnam, Nigeria, India, and Ivory Coast.

The cashew nut, often simply called a cashew, is widely consumed. It is eaten on its own, used in recipes, or processed into cashew cheese or cashew butter. The shell of the cashew seed yields derivatives that can be used in many applications including lubricants, waterproofing, paints, and arms production, starting in World War II. The cashew apple is a light reddish to yellow fruit, whose pulp can be processed into a sweet, astringent fruit drink or distilled into liquor.

Cashews make for an amazing snack that could help reduce your risk of cancer, heart disease, obesity, and diabetes. Research also points to the benefits of cashews on your skin and hair, and even your nerves, due to their powerful micronutrient content. Learn about cashews’ nutritional benefits, and how to select the most healthful nuts.

A single cashew contains about 21 percent protein, 46 percent fat, and 25 percent carbohydrates. A one-quarter cup serving contains about 200 calories, 5 grams of protein, 9 grams of carbs, and 16 grams of fat. Cashews possess a healthy balance of fat types — 62 percent of the cashew’s fats are monounsaturated fat (MUFAs), while 18 percent are polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs). While many nuts possess high levels of polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs), which promote inflammation, cashews have relatively low amounts of PUFAs, which limits the imbalance of omega-6’s to omega-3’s you’re exposed to. Due to these MUFAs and PUFAs, cashew consumption leads to lower risk for a variety of diseases – including cancer, obesity, and heart disease.

What are cashews’ nutritional benefits?

Protects against cancer: Cashews are brimming with proanthocyanidins, a type of flavanol that starves tumors and prevents cancer cells from dividing.
Cuts heart disease risk: The oleic acid found in cashews promotes sound cardiovascular health by reducing triglyceride levels, which is associated with heart disease risk.
Improves bone and joint health: Cashews’ magnesium and copper content work in concert to strengthen bone mass. Most of the magnesium in your body is stored in the bones, so if you’re deficient, your bones will suffer. Copper helps keep bones and joints flexible by synthesizing collagen and elastin.
Relaxes nerves: Magnesium in cashews prevents calcium from over-activating nerve cells, therefore relaxing them. This action keeps your blood vessels and muscles relaxed as well. (You may notice that if your magnesium levels are low, you often get muscle cramps.)
Keeps skin and hair healthy: The copper in cashews helps to manufacture various enzymes involved in hemoglobin and collagen formation. Collagen is the main structural protein found in hair and skin that gives it elasticity – so you can think of copper as one of the precursors to your luscious locks.
Aids in weight loss and maintenance: Cashews contain less fat than other popular nuts including peanuts, pecans, almonds, and walnuts. Yet what makes them a winning “weight loss nut” is that they are nutrient- and energy-dense, and high in fiber, which makes them more filling — a boon for managing weight.
Prevents diabetes: Most recently, a study found that cashews reduced systolic blood pressure and increased HDL cholesterol concentrations in people with diabetes.