I Just Tried Ben & Jerry's Newest Dairy-Free Ice Cream And You Should Too

If you're vegan or dairy-free, you should know about this.

Hi Guys! I'm Abigail, and I'm lactose intolerant and allergic to peanuts and tree nuts. This rules out almost all ice cream, as ice cream includes dairy — and dairy-free alternatives almost always include some sort of nut milk. This leaves me with VERY few options.

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So, when I found out that Ben & Jerry's was creating dairy-free ice cream using sunflower butter... I knew I HAD to try it.

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For those of you who don't know, sunflower butter is an alternative to nut butters. It can usually just be found at local grocery stores, in a few different varieties from smooth, to crunchy, to organic.

Instagram: @sunbutter

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I picked up the Crème Brûlée Cookie flavor from my local grocery store. There are two other flavors: Milk & Cookies and Mint Chocolate Cookie. All three of these flavors are vegan.

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I decided to go with the Crème Brûlée Cookie flavor primarily because I LOVE caramel, but also because I felt like the other two flavor options would easily mask the sunflower butter taste. Also, I was extremely curious to see if Ben & Jerry's would be able to mask the strong taste of sunflower butter, even ever so slightly.

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The flavor of the ice cream is described as "burnt caramel non-dairy frozen dessert with brown sugar cookies and salted caramel swirls," but the first thing I tasted was the sunflower butter flavor.

I'd had sunflower butter quite a few times during my childhood, so I already knew it was a bit of a strong flavor. Because of this, I wasn't super surprised that I could taste it here. But, I quickly moved past it and fell in love with the salted caramel swirls, which were the perfect mix of sweet and salty. Those specifically made me go in for another bite... about forty times.

There was also a huge amount of the brown sugar cookies mixed in, which didn't have a particularly strong taste, but I didn't mind because they added the perfect contrasting texture to the soft ice cream. This ice cream good enough to savor for a couple nights, and every time, it was well worth the wait.

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Instagram: @benandjerrys

I would rate this ice cream a 10/10 for overall texture: soft ice cream with beautiful chunks of cookies, and incredible salted caramel swirls. Then, I'd give it an 8/10 for overall taste because the sunflower butter flavor was a bit strong.

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Overall, the ice cream wasn't perfect.

My favorite part: The salted caramel swirls were absolutely incredible, and the brown sugar cookies added the perfect amount of texture.

My least favorite part: Luckily this flavor only had one real fault, which was that the sunflower flavor was a bit too strong.

This ice cream really blew other dairy free alternatives out of the water. It had the perfect texture, perfect strong flavors that attempted to combat the sunflower taste. This ice cream was far better tasting than any other dairy-free alternatives I've tried, and melted and refroze the same as "normal" ice cream would.

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YES.

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I would definitely suggest this ice cream to my lactose-intolerant and vegan friends, and I am super excited to try the other two flavors and see how they compare!

I highly recommend this for anyone who is lactose-intolerant, vegan, or allergic to tree nuts. If you've tried any other flavors, let me know your thoughts!

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