It’s a wondrous and barely anxiety-inducing expertise to behold 19 completely different ice cream pints open earlier than you—all completely thawed and able to be sampled. This was the scenario I discovered myself in when I visited the Ben & Jerry’s headquarters throughout a uncommon, sunny summer time day in Burlington, VT. Together with different members of the media, I scooped and savored every taste to my raging dopamine delight.
Since that sugar-induced day, I’ve continued to get pleasure from a scoop of Ben & Jerry’s Non-Dairy on occasion with a view to hone my humble but very sturdy opinion of every taste. Most individuals won’t ever be confronted with 19 completely different taste choices (the model solely carries one or two non-dairy varieties in its scoop outlets and retailers by no means carry the total line), however however, it helps to know what’s good, and what’s actually good. As a result of let’s be sincere, there are not any unhealthy flavors right here. From simply positive to eat-the-whole-pint, listed here are all of the Ben & Jerry’s Non-Dairy flavors ranked from positive to finest.
Chunks, swirls, and inventing cookie dough ice cream
Ben & Jerry’s is an iconic ice cream model for extra than simply its decades-long endurance. This model does issues in a different way, and due to that, it has many firsts to its identify. It launched its first scoop store in Burlington, VT in 1978 with eight dairy-based flavors—Oreo Mint, French Vanilla, Wild Blueberry, Mocha Walnut, Chocolate Fudge, Honey Espresso, and Honey Orange.
Ben & Jerry’s
Not one of the authentic flavors have survived at present, however they stood out amongst different pints on the time for his or her daring style and sizable mix-ins. The chunks and swirls the model has change into recognized for had been a results of Ben’s impaired skill to odor and style. When Ben may truly style it, they knew the flavour was pronounced sufficient.
Ben & Jerry’s was additionally the primary model to commercially produce cookie dough ice cream. Following a buyer suggestion, the group devoted time to recipe improvement and launched cookie dough ice cream pints in 1991. The thought of baked items and ice cream have clearly labored out for the model—you’ll see under {that a} vital variety of flavors contain cookies, brownies, dough, or some mixture of all three.
19 Non-dairy Ben & Jerry’s ice cream flavors, ranked
Ben & Jerry’s
19 Cherry Garcia
I’ve by no means really understood the craze surrounding this cult taste. I’ve sampled each the dairy model (pre-vegan) and the non-dairy model, and whereas I used to be happy to notice that they style the identical, the flavour itself by no means actually excited my palate. If this chocolate-cherry mixture makes you do backflips, this pint could also be increased in your listing.
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Ben & Jerry’s
18 Americone Dream
Sorry, Stephen Colbert, however this didn’t fairly hit the mark. Followers had been imploring Ben & Jerry’s for a dairy-free possibility for years, and the model lastly churned it out. The flavour works in principle: a vanilla base swirled with a vegan caramel ribbon and dotted with chocolate-covered waffle cone items. Maybe my pattern was a dud, however the waffle cone items had been soggy and I discovered myself avoiding the chunks, quite than looking for them out.
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Ben & Jerry’s
17 Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
I welcome the controversy over this rating, as I do know this basic taste is a favourite amongst hundreds of thousands. There’s a purpose why the corporate launched its vegan cookie dough chunks, in any case. Though this ice cream is tasty, the product is simply shy of hitting that childhood nostalgia observe for me. Sure, Ben & Jerry’s does declare to be the primary to mass-produce Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, however others have run with the concept and made it higher.
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Ben & Jerry’s
16 Lights! Caramel! Motion!
Developed in collaboration with movie director Ava DuVernay, this taste made its grocery retailer debut in early 2023. Made to DuVernay’s specs (plus some inventive liberties taken by Taste Gurus), this pint consists of salted caramel swirls, graham cracker swirls, and chunks of chocolate chip cookie dough suspended in a vanilla ice cream base. Regardless of all these chunks and swirls, the flavors don’t seize you. It’s candy, and there’s loads of texture, however the depth of taste is missing. After a number of spoonfuls, I used to be content material to let my companion end the pint.
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Ben & Jerry’s
15Chocolate Fudge Brownie
As one of many first non-dairy Ben & Jerry’s flavors launched in 2016, this pint made my coronary heart pitter-patter with delight seven years in the past. Nonetheless, that was earlier than I noticed what these Taste Gurus (sure, that’s what they’re known as) can actually do. The Chocolate Fudge Brownie is a number of … chocolate. Sure, it’s redundant, however after I pop open a pint, I anticipate a bit extra variation in taste.
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Ben & Jerry’s
14 Oatmeal Dream Pie
As my palate has matured to its 30-year-old self, I’ve found that I immensely get pleasure from a balanced cinnamon-flavored ice cream. I used to be excited after I heard the information of this new taste, however then I noticed cinnamon is lacking from the ingredient deck. The result’s a bit missing—the marshmallow swirls and oatmeal cookie items want a bit extra taste dimension. That being mentioned, I’m curious to see how this taste would prove in a milkshake with a beneficiant sprint of cinnamon added.
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13Karamel Sutra Core
The primary non-dairy taste in Ben & Jerry’s Core line, this pint options chocolate and caramel ice cream dotted with fudge chips and crammed with a gooey, caramel core. It’s completely positive, however Ben & Jerry’s chocolate base may use an improve. Maybe it wants extra cacao, maybe it simply will get in the best way of different tasting notes. Both method, you’ll discover a lot of the model’s chocolate flavors don’t rank as excessive for me.
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Ben & Jerry’s
12The Tonight Dough
Impressed by the Jimmy Fallon-endorsed dairy model, this pint is created with a marbling of caramel and chocolate almond milk ice lotions ribboned with chocolate cookie swirls wrapped round gobs of chocolate chip cookie dough and peanut butter cookie dough. Did I lose you with that description? As a result of that’s what occurs to those flavors—they get misplaced. Whereas scrumptious on their very own, every part muddles the remainder. Jimmy, I’m sorry to say, however you possibly can’t have all of it.
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Ben & Jerry’s
11Increase! Chocolatta
One other pint inside the Non-Dairy Core choice, this taste is Ben & Jerry’s first go at a vegan and gluten-free possibility. It’s unbelievable for these with gluten sensitivities, however in full transparency, it tastes gluten-free. It’s the slight graininess of chocolate cookie chunks and inner chocolate cookie core that give it away. Additional, the blending of mocha and caramel ice lotions doesn’t work. It’s not unhealthy—under no circumstances—however that is Ben & Jerry’s, and I maintain them to impossibly excessive requirements.
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Ben & Jerry’s
10 Peanut Butter Half Baked
The identify of this ice cream actually doesn’t replicate the innovation behind it—the complexity of its parts isn’t half-baked in any respect (sorry, unhealthy pun). Peanut butter and chocolate ice lotions are marbled collectively and studded with fudge brownies and peanut butter cookie dough. If the Chocolate Fudge Brownie is just too one-note, this is perhaps only a smidge an excessive amount of.
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Ben & Jerry’s
9Mint Chocolate Probability
Out there in each non-dairy and dairy variations, Probability the Rapper made one factor very clear when he partnered with Ben & Jerry’s: the chunks should be huge. Given this route, the Taste Gurus got here up with a mint-flavored sunflower butter-based ice cream dotted with boulders of vegan brownies. It’s a stable mixture, however I do suppose a number of different manufacturers have achieved mint higher (hey, NadaoMoo! Mint Chip).
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Ben & Jerry’s
8Bananas Foster
This taste grows on you, even when you don’t love bananas. It rounds out the trio of Non-Dairy Core pints, that includes a cinnamon-spiked banana ice cream, almond toffee items, and a luscious salted caramel core. Nobody will choose when you eat the core first. When completely thawed, it’s almost unimaginable to cease consuming.
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Ben & Jerry’s
7P.B. & Cookies
In the event you’re a fan of Oreos dipped in peanut butter, you must do that taste. It had its run in scoop outlets and has since been retired to pint-only. I loved this vanilla ice cream swirled with chunky peanut butter and studded with chocolate sandwich cookies, but when hard-pressed, I barely desire Oreos slathered with peanut butter and dipped in cashew milk.
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Ben & Jerry’s
6Coconut Seven Layer Bar
Whereas Jerry knowledgeable us that he may by no means get via a pint of this taste, I believed it was excellent. Similar to the dessert, there’s loads happening right here, nevertheless it works. Coconut ice cream acts because the glue between the ample fudge chunks, walnuts, and streaks of graham cracker and caramel swirls. It’s a refreshing outlier to the dominant chocolate and cookie-based flavors.
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Ben & Jerry’s
5 Colin Kaepernick’s Change the Whirled
The graham cracker swirls on this taste are the star of the present. Made with caramel-flavored ice cream, it additionally options chocolate cookie swirls and fudge chips. The most effective half? Parts of gross sales are donated to Colin Kaepernick’s Know Your Rights Camp to assist advance the well-being and liberation of Black and Brown communities. Observe: it’s positively on the sweeter facet, even for Ben & Jerry’s.
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Ben & Jerry’s
4Mint Chocolate Cookie
Simply shy of my prime three is that this marvelously minty sunflower butter-based pint. Comparatively easy by Ben & Jerry’s requirements, mint ice cream is dolloped with big chocolate sandwich cookies. Yep, that’s it, and it doesn’t want something extra.
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Ben & Jerry’s
3“Milk” & Cookies
Suppose cookies and cream, however exponentially superior in each conceivable method. Easy vanilla sunflower butter-based ice cream acts because the clean canvas for chocolate chip cookies, chocolate sandwich cookies, and chocolate cookie swirls. It’s basically a sundae in a pint—simply add vegan whip and a cherry.
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Ben & Jerry’s
2 Netflix & Chill’d
I’ve nagged on flavors that attempt to incorporate too many elements, but this over-the-top taste one way or the other doesn’t exceed the “an excessive amount of” barrier and delivers on the final word indulgence. I’ll perpetually be enamored with this peanut butter ice cream that’s decked with fudge brownies and a salted pretzel swirl. How do they even create a swirl out of salted pretzels? My thoughts is blown, and my senses are overloaded with delight at any time when I deal with myself to this taste. Hat’s off to you, Ben and Jerry, for frequently pushing the boundaries of what vegan ice cream may be.
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Ben & Jerry’s
1 Phish Meals
Like Cherry Garcia, I wasn’t a fan of this taste within the pre-vegan days. I held my pattern spoonful with low expectations, figuring out that I had no nostalgia for this feature and in addition figuring out that Ben & Jerry’s chocolate base wasn’t my favourite. I used to be so mistaken. Phish Meals is the flavour to beat. The chocolate is wealthy, the fudge phish mouthwateringly decadent and tender, and the marshmallow swirl isn’t too candy. When it’s all put along with a ribbon of caramel, this taste is just enchanting. You’ll stand at your kitchen countertop, digging via the pint to carve out your good chunk, misplaced in your personal pleasurable world till all of a sudden you understand half the carton is gone. It’s harmful, however when you’re on the lookout for a candy escape, that is it.
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