Best Vegan Ice Cream: Taste Tested By Vegans

There are now lots of high-quality vegan ice cream options available in most supermarkets, as we outline in our main Vegan Ice Cream article. But which is the very best vegan ice cream currently available in the UK? And what does “best” even mean when it comes to assessing ice cream?

In this article we will run through the results of our (laborious and not at all rewarding!) taste tests of some of the most appetising vegan ice cream there is. The things we have to do in the name of research! We will explain the categories we used to assess each ice cream later in the article, but first let’s get stuck right into the Top 5 Vegan Ice Creams.

Top 5 Vegan Ice Creams

1. Booja-Booja Caramel Pecan Praline
2. Roar Coconut Mango Passion Fruit Oat Cookie
3. Ben & Jerry’s Peanut Butter & Cookies
4. Yorica! Double Chocolate Cookie
5. Coconuts Organic Rum ‘N Raisin

So there we have it. Subjective? Of course. But we challenge any ice cream fan, vegan or not, to try any of our top five vegan ice creams without loving them!

Now let’s go into a little more detail about the top five ice creams, along with a few others we’ve tried during our research.

Booja-Booja Caramel Pecan Praline

• Typical Price – £5.49 per 500ml tub (£1.10 per 100ml)
• Available From – Waitrose, Ocado, Holland & Barrett and many independents

Booja-Booja has a solid reputation for producing high-quality vegan products with few ingredients and a commitment to ethical business practices. And they have a knack of making their food – whether their truffles, ice cream or their vegan Easter eggs taste utterly amazing. It is no surprise then that they have burst into our list of the best ice creams.

Verdict – Score (44 of 50): Sublime Flavours Make This Ice Cream Tough to Beat (or Stop Eating!)

The taste of this Booja-Booja ice cream is sublime and it maxes out in the flavour category. It is slightly less creamy than some (for example Ben & Jerry’s), which is because they have not added any of the stabilisers or emulsifiers that most other brands opt for. But once very slightly melted in the mouth the texture is great. It appears a little more crumbly than some when attempting to scoop but is not liable to become too hard to get out of the tub, which happens with some other vegan ice creams.

It’s one of the more expensive options, but given the taste, the ethical nature of the business and the fact that it isn’t piled full of random ingredients and additives, we think it still offers very good value.

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Roar Coconut Mango Passion Fruit Oat Cookie

• Price – £5.00 per 500ml tub (£1.00 per 100ml)
• Available From – Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Ocado

A refreshing flavour combo that contrasts the zest of mango and passionfruit with oat cookies to great effect.

Verdict – Score (42 of 50): Fruity, Satisfying and Imaginative

Roar’s use of coconut milk gives a nice base flavour to this ice cream, but it is the swirls of mango and passionfruit that make it stand out from the crown. The added texture given by the oat flakes and coconut and pieces of cookie allow for a more interesting and varied mouthfeel than some more uniform ice creams and it scores top marks in this category. For anyone who likes more than a hint of fruit to their ice cream, this is a fantastic option.

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Ben & Jerry’s Peanut Butter & Cookies

• Typical Price – £4.50 per 500ml tub (90p per 100ml)
• Available From – Most supermarkets

Ben & Jerry’s have become synonymous with high quality, imaginative ice cream and now they have ventured into the plant-based arena, vegans too can enjoy their undeniably tasty offerings. We’ve picked their Peanut Butter & Cookies flavour as one of our top five vegan ice creams because it offers something a little different to many other flavours out there. And of course because it is really flippin’ tasty!

Verdict – Score (41 of 50): Ben & Jerry’s Don’t Disappoint

Ben & Jerry’s have come up with a very satisfying flavour combination that also throws up good textures. The creamy ice cream base contrasts nicely with the caramel/peanut butter textures and flavour-wise this ice cream holds its own with almost anything else out there.

Sometimes this ice cream (and Ben & Jerry’s ice creams in general) have a tendency to be too hard to scoop when taken out of the freezer, so despite wanting to tuck in as quickly as possible it pays to let it stand for five minutes or so before scooping … if you can resist! Once in the bowl it looks almost as delicious as it turns out to be once in your mouth!

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Yorica! Double Chocolate Cookie

• Typical Price – £4.99 for 355g tub (£1.41 per 100g – which is more than 100ml)
• Available From – Waitrose, Ocado, Holland & Barrett and others

Chocolate ice creams are relatively common, even when it comes to vegan ice cream, but this offering from Yorica! stands out for us.

Verdict – Score (37 of 50): Chocolate Lovers Will Be More Than Satisfied

Despite a hint of coconut, the flavour is certainly very chocolatey, and with a good contrast of creaminess and the texture of the cookie pieces, this is sure to be a winner for anyone who describes themselves as a chocoholic.

It does have a slight propensity towards forming ice crystals if left in the freezer for a while, but these are only superficial and the ice cream maintains its smoothness and creamy texture once scooped.

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Coconuts Organic Rum ‘N Raisin

• Typical Price – £5.00 per 500ml tub (£1.00 per 100ml)
• Available From – Selected Tesco stores, selected M&S Food Halls, direct from the Coconuts Organic website

You might have seen Peter Jones describe Coconuts Organic as the best non-dairy ice cream he’d ever tried on Dragons’ Den. Or maybe not, but either way, this company certainly does the business when it comes to flavour. And that is particularly apparent with their Rum ‘N Raisin offering!

Verdict – Score (36 of 50): A Traditional Flavour Executed Exceptionally Well

Rum and raison ice cream isn’t for everyone, but for lovers of this combination this offering from Coconuts Organic will definitely hit the mark. Given that 42% of the ice cream is made up of organic coconut cream, it should come as no surprise that the flavour is coloured, and we would say enhanced, by coconut.

A few spoons of this on a hot summer day conjures thoughts of supping coconut-infused rum punch on a Caribbean beach. Okay, it’s not quite the same in your back garden in the suburbs, but the bottom line is, this is a very good vegan ice cream!

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Oatly Chocolate Fudge Ice Cream

• Typical Price – £4.50 per 500ml tub (90p per 100ml)
• Available From – Tesco and other supermarkets and retailers

Having diversified from their core product, an oat milk alternative to dairy milk, Oatly have produced some very nice oat-based vegan ice creams that are well worth checking out. Just edged out of our top five, this is still a very decent option, especially for chocolate lovers.

Verdict – Score (36 of 50): Chocolatey & Smooth But Sometimes Over-Freezes

Smooth and creamy, at least once melted a little, sometimes this ice cream comes out the freezer rock solid and has to be left a while before you attempt to scoop it. Once you get stuck into it though it is very flavoursome and chocolatey and brings all the smoothness and creamy texture one would hope to find from a good quality ice cream.

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Alpro 360 Velvety Chocolate Swirl

• Typical Price – £4.00 per 450ml tub (89p per 100ml)
• Available From – Most supermarkets

Another company who are better known for their vegan milk alternatives than for their ice cream, Alpro have attempted to put their expertise in the non-dairy sphere to good use. Unfortunately we feel they fall short of expectations when it comes to their Velvety Chocolate Swirl ice cream. This is a decent ice cream but far from the best vegan chocolate option.

Verdict – Score (35 of 50): Velvety, But Falls Short in Flavour Stakes

Yes this soya-based ice cream is smooth and could feasibly be described as velvety. Its texture is spot on from an ice cream point of view and it looks the part too. But the problem – and it’s quite a big problem – is that it just doesn’t taste that good. We think it would benefit from a higher proportion of powdered chocolate and their rather vague “flavourings” don’t quite hit the mark for us.

This tastes like the kind of ice cream you might find in the middle of an ice cream bar or fake Cornetto rather than a standalone product that is trying to impress on its own merits. There are plenty of better options for vegan ice cream fans in our opinion.

On the plus side, it is decent enough value and it has fewer calories than most ice creams out there. But overall when it comes to ice cream, taste counts for a lot, and that is where the Alpro offering falls down.

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Northern Bloc Vegan Chocolate & Orange Blossom Ice Cream

• Price – £3.50 per 500ml tub (70.0p per 100ml)
• Available From – Morrisons, Co-op, Ocado

For some people, mixing chocolate and orange just doesn’t work. But for people who like this combo, Northern Bloc’s offering here could hit the right spot for you.

Verdict – Score (34 of 50): A Nice Flavour Combo, But Could Be Executed Better

Whilst the flavour of this Northern Bloc ice cream isn’t too bad, it’s also far from mind-blowing. The fact that there is only 0.01% of orange blossom extract could explain why the taste buds are not exactly flooded with tangy orange zestfulness; though that also perhaps explains the price point, as this is certainly one of the cheaper options around at the moment. The use of coconut milk powder (as opposed to coconut milk or cream) is probably the reason the texture isn’t too impressive either.

We would see this as sub-premium but better than “everyday” when it comes to its quality, which in some ways means it falls betwixt and between the two most obvious ice cream markets. For us, it’s just about okay; but with so many exceptional offerings mentioned above, we can’t envisage needing to buy this anytime soon. That said, for the money, the value is decent enough.

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Swedish Glace Dairy Free Smooth Vanilla Ice Cream

• Typical Price – £2.50 per 750ml tub (33p per 100ml)
• Available from – Most supermarkets

Whilst most of the vegan ice creams we’ve examined come in small tubs with relatively high prices, the Swedish Glace range of vegan ice cream options are aimed at the more budget end of things. But can it hold its own against some of the more highly regarded – and priced – ice creams?

Verdict – Score (29 out of 50): Great Value, But Little Else

This is the best value vegan ice cream we have found, so in terms of the quantity you get for your money, it scores highly. This is the go-to option for those on a budget or for kids’ parties (there’s no point wasting the premium quality stuff on the little nippers is there?). The ingredients list is topped by water, which says a lot.

All in all this is not particularly tasty though, and there is little in the way of real vanilla flavour coming through from the “vanilla bean pieces” that are included. With a tendency to form ice crystals after a while in the freezer, and a general lack of creaminess, this would be a vegan ice cream of last resort that might work as an accompaniment to hot desserts or maybe just as a cheaper option to give to the kids to keep them away from your secret stash of Booja-Booja!

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Vegan Ice Cream: Factors Considered When Assessing Quality

Some ice cream just has that je ne sais quoi that makes it stand out from the crowd, and these you will know when you taste them. But to keep things as scientific as a subjective taste test can be, we considered a number of factors when assessing the quality of the vegan ice creams we sampled. These were as follows:

Flavour

Clearly key when it comes to ice cream, or any dessert and most foods for that matter… to score highly it has to actually taste nice. This could be seen as rather subjective, but we have attempted to ascertain whether the flavours that come through are actually those described on the packaging… for instance, whether a strawberry flavoured ice cream tastes like strawberries, or is neutral, or, as sometimes happens, actually tastes of a cheaper, filler ingredient.

Aroma

Linked to flavour, but the aroma of an ice cream can significantly enhance or detract from the overall taste experience so is worth a category in its own right. The olfactory impact of a given scoop can be the difference between indulgence and indifference, and we take that into account here.

Mouthfeel

Simply how the ice cream feels in your mouth, essentially its texture, creaminess and consistency. When assessing this factor we evaluated how smooth and creamy each ice cream was and whether any ice crystals were apparent. With ice creams that included added extras (such as chocolate chips or cookie dough) we also considered how the various textures knitted together and how satisfying the overall mouthfeel was.

Appearance

We considered the look of the ice cream itself rather than the packaging, both when straight out of the freezer and when slightly softened.

Value

Ice cream varies as much in price as it does in quality, but here we’re looking for the biggest bang for your buck when it comes to vegan ice cream.