21 Vegan Ice Cream Brands, Ranked Worst To Best

The increased demand for vegan and dairy-free food options has prompted many companies to innovate and offer ice creams. Up until only a few years ago, you wouldn't have been able to find a single dairy-free ice cream at your local scoop shop or in the frozen dessert aisle of your grocery store. Now, almost every fruity, confectionary, and chocolate ice cream comes with a vegan option. Brands use numerous bases to make vegan ice cream, including oat milk, almond milk, coconut milk, and more niche ingredients like avocados or sunflower butter. This broadens the opportunity for folks with dairy sensitivities or dietary restrictions and other allergies to enjoy a sweet frozen treat.

We've brought together some of grocery stores' most popular vegan ice cream brands. Our standards for rating these products are based on the flavor and ingredient availability, as well as the overall product taste and texture.

Overall, Tofutti offers some diversity in its product lineup, including pints and Tofutti cuties (petite ice cream sandwiches that can fit in the palm of your hand). Could you guess that the ice cream is made with tofu? Probably not.

The brand offers six flavors of pints, including the standard vanilla and chocolate, vanilla fudge, butter pecan, vanilla almond bark, and wild berry. The Cuties come in vanilla, chocolate, and mint chip flavor options and are perfect for a quick sweet snack after dinner or on the way to an event. Tofutti ice cream tends to run a bit sweeter than the other brands, and the product diversity is average. The chocolate flavor in its sandwiches and pints is also not noticeable and slightly disappointing, which is why we ranked it at the bottom.

Vegans can now hoard the tiny plastic Talenti jars in their cabinets! Besides its mango and raspberry sorbet, Talenti offers several dairy-free gelato flavors and layered desserts. But before you get too close, check the ingredient list. Because although its gelato and layered gelato desserts are made without dairy, they do contain egg. Cue the sighs of disappointment.

The only dairy-free and vegan options Talenti has are the Alphonso mango and Roman raspberry sorbetto in pops and pints. Several users have complained that the Roman raspberry pops taste borderline fermented, while others complain that both flavors are sickeningly sweet, even for a dessert. While we're glad to have at least a few options from Talenti, we're disappointed that there aren't any creamy gelatos for us to enjoy.

JD's Vegan Ice Cream was created by recording artist, music producer, and vegan Jermaine Dupri. It's available at select Walmart stores nationwide but is much harder to find than other brands we've reviewed.

Our favorite part about JD's Vegan Ice Cream is the names of the flavors. Welcome to Atlanta, Peach Cobbler includes decadent peaches and cinnamon hunks with a smooth, silky coconut milk base. You'll also find more traditional flavors with unique names like (404) Cookies & Cream, Chocolate My Way, and Strawberry Sweetheart. The reviews on this brand are mixed, but the consensus is that this ice cream has the icy texture of sorbet with a scant amount of creaminess and mix-in ingredients. It appears JD's needs to go back to the drawing board in terms of textures.

If you purchase ice cream from Wonderlab, you can be sure there is a commitment to sustainable and ethical business practices. The brand chose to use hemp and oat for its ice cream base because of its drought tolerance, carbon capture rates, and its potential to make velvety, creamy ice cream.

The offerings for this brand are scant and only include four flavors: smooth coffee, chocolate mint chip, banana cinnamon date swirl, and chocolate raspberry swirl. However, we give this brand props for offering more than just the dull chocolate and vanilla combo. Sourcing this ice cream is difficult because it is only available in some specialty grocers rather than major grocery stores, meaning fewer folks enjoy its unctuous texture and fun flavors.

As its name suggests, Planet Oat ice cream is exclusively made with oat milk. And, although we hate to admit it, Planet Oat's flavor options don't totally "wow" us. Its coffee fudge swirl needs more fudge swirl and has a muffled coffee taste, while its chocolate peanut butter swirl needs a balanced ratio of peanut butter to chocolate. If you're a fan of plain Jane flavors like vanilla or chocolate, you may find that even these varieties are muted in flavor, too.

Planet Oat's average taste and minimal selection put it at the lower end of our rankings. However, the one positive feature of Planet Oat is that it can be found in many grocery stores and is priced comparable to other vegan ice cream brands.

Brave Robot is one brand that has been experimenting with adding animal-free whey to its products. The company uses precise fermentation to create milk proteins from microflora, like yeast and plants, to make this whey. No animal is involved in the process, and the resulting ice cream has the same soft, buttery texture as dairy-based ice cream. However, the drawback to this innovative technology is that individuals with milk allergies cannot eat this ice cream.

The brand offers eleven ice cream pints in flavors like buttery pecan, white raspberry truffle, and chocolate cherry brownie. In addition, a collaboration with COOLHAUS brought mint chocolate chip and chocolate chip cookie dough sandwiches to the brand's lineup. We found some of the brand's pints relatively easy to find but could not locate any of the "sammies" at our local grocery store.

Daiya, the popular vegan cheese brand, offers nostalgic, chocolate-covered dessert bars in vanilla bean, chocolate fudge crunch, and salted caramel swirl flavors. Unfortunately, the brand only offers pints in similar flavors to the bars, meaning there is little variety.

Daiya makes all of its frozen dessert products using coconut cream — and we're happy to report that the flavor of the coconut doesn't rear its ugly head. The products also contain no soy, nut, or gluten allergens — making them one of the most allergen-friendly brands we've reviewed. The chocolate coating on the outside of the dessert bars is snappy, and the ice cream isn't too icy or watery, making this an excellent all-around ice cream bar. The pints contain an average amount of ingredients swirled in.

Earth Grown is Aldi's in-house natural foods brand. For being such a small retailer, Aldi offers a competitive range of frozen dessert products in almond and oat milk pint varieties and bars. For example, you can purchase almond milk-based mocha fudge, vanilla, and chocolate. Its oat milk ice cream covers more niche flavors, including strawberry, vanilla cookie chip, and cold brew. The bars for this brand are massive for the price and come in flavors like peanut butter, caramel, and forest fruit — all covered in a delicious layer of crunchy chocolate.

The Earth Grown peanut butter bars and vegan mocha fudge pints are some of the best vegan foods at Aldi. The ice cream is creamy, decadent, and much more reasonably priced compared to other name brands at a conventional grocery store. However, our major complaint with Aldi is that its products are only sometimes consistent, meaning you can fall in love with its vegan ice cream only not to have it in stores for several months.

Ripple Foods has a relatively conservative lineup of pint flavors, including vanilla, cinnamon churro, and mint chip. Its ice creams are made with a coconut base for creaminess and some pea protein for texture. All the flavors except for cookies & crème and cinnamon churro are gluten-free, making this brand somewhat accommodating for folks avoiding gluten, soy, and lactose.

Overall, Ripple Foods ice cream is silky and has a good mouthfeel. Including pea protein in this ice cream makes it slightly less rich than other ice creams but not so "healthy" that you think you're eating diet ice cream. We would love to see Ripple Foods offer a more comprehensive selection of ice creams for customers and flavors that include chunky bits.

Wicked Kitchen offers numerous plant-based foods, with ice cream being one of the brand's novelties. Its pints are available at many Kroger grocery stores across the United States, but it's difficult to find the brand if you live in certain parts of the country otherwise. Unlike other brands, Wicked Kitchen uses the lupin bean to make its ice cream, giving it a creamier texture than some non-dairy varieties.

The brand's offerings are much more limited than the others we reviewed. The four flavors of ice cream include the standard vanilla, chocolate, cookie dough, and mint chocolate chip. You can also purchase chocolate almond or berry white ice cream sticks and chocolate and berry novelty cones. The novelty treats are fun, exciting, and filled with chunks of flavorful ice cream. The chunky ice cream pints are stand-outs from the brand, while the plain vanilla and chocolate are lackluster in flavor.

Oatly is a successful oat milk company, but how does its ice cream compare? The company plays it relatively safe with ten flavor offerings, including the standard coffee, strawberry, chocolate, and vanilla — as well as some more intricate offerings like raspberry swirl and fudge brownie. You can also purchase chocolate-covered novelty bars in a few popular flavors, and if you own a soft-serve machine, you can transform the chocolate or vanilla base into creamy, velvety, soft serve at home.

Oatly products have a great silky texture, but they tend to lack flavor. As a result, you may taste sweetness more than any notes of salted caramel or coffee. Nevertheless, if you want an ice cream to scoop over warm apple pie, try a dollop of Oatly.

Who in their right mind would pay $12 for a pint of ice cream? If you're a Van Leeuwen ice cream lover, you might be one of the first people to fork over the cash. The brand currently offers seven vegan ice cream flavors, including chocolate chip cookie dough, (our favorite) peanut butter brownie honeycomb, churros and fudge, cookie crumble strawberry jam, and oat milk brown sugar chunk.

You're paying a high price for an innovative ice cream brand that flawlessly matches flavors and textures. This ice cream is smooth, flavorful, and packed with all of the components it claims to have. There is a delicate balance of textures and elements in Van Leeuwen's ice cream, which makes it one of our favorites. But the whole $12-a-pint thing? We're not about it.

Have you ever considered transforming avocados into ice cream? Vegan ice cream brand Cado did, and the result turned out great. Its pints include the delicious Deep Dark Chocolate, mocha-y Java Chip, and new Chocolate Mud Pie flavors. Cado cold processes all of its avocados into ice cream, resulting in a creamy dessert packed with heart-healthy fats. You won't taste the avocado, only the smooth creaminess that the fruit brings to the ice cream.

Cado is widely available in grocery stores but may be limited to more straightforward flavors like Vanilla Bean, Deep Dark Chocolate, and Mint Chocolate Chip. Overall, Cado isn't as experimental with flavor options as other brands, but its glorious texture is paramount to the brand's middle-of-the-road ranking on our list.

Favorite Day is Target's in-house brand of vegan and non-vegan food. The brand currently offers both non-dairy pints and ice cream bars. Favorite Day offers more chunky flavors rather than just the boring vanilla, chocolate, and mint flavors. We love the almond-milk-based vanilla cake and cookie dough swirl ice cream, as well as the decadent caramel brownie.

We think that Favorite Day ice creams are reminiscent of Ben & Jerry's, just at a slightly lower price point and with more limited flavor and product availability. One pint of Favorite Day ice cream costs just under $5, which is comparable to other non-dairy brands like SoDelicious and Planet Oat. The ice cream has a beautiful blend of "stuff" with a creamy almond milk base.

Think tropical with Mauna Loa's macadamia-milk-based vegan ice creams. The flavors of Hawaii inspire its flavor lineup, including Moloka'i Sea Salt Caramel, Big Island Mac Nut, Kona Coffee, and Rocky Road to Hana — along with the standard vanilla and chocolate offerings. Its flavors are all gluten-free and do not include genetically modified ingredients. You'll also find novel flavors not offered by other brands, like Strawberry Guava. The availability of the Mauna Loa product is comparable to brands like NadaMoo! and Planet Oat.

The primary reason why Mauna Loa didn't place higher on the rankings was that it doesn't come in sizes other than pints and does not include any novelty selections. The flavors also didn't excite us as much as those from the top-performing brands.

There are many vegan foods at Trader Joe's — including a delicious array of non-dairy ice creams. Our personal favorite is Trader Joe's cold brew boba ice cream. The coconut milk ice cream is rich, coffee-y, and filled with tiny chewy tapioca pearls.  Other popular dairy-free Trader Joe's ice cream flavors include oat-milk-based strawberry with flecks of crunchy praline and the soy-based creamy cherry chocolate chip — which is a vegan twist on the Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia. If you feel like eating novelty ice cream, Trader Joe's has you covered with its vegan frozen dessert cones, "Hold the Dairy," and non-dairy Mint & Chip Bon Bons.

Trader Joe's non-dairy ice cream deserves much more respect than it's gotten in recent years. The flavors are innovative and reflective of customer demand — meaning that if Trader Joe's enthusiasts don't like it, it won't stay around long.

NadaMoo! is one of the most recognizable brands in vegan ice cream. Its diverse flavors are made with pure coconut milk and Roundtable of Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certified palm oil. The coconut flavor doesn't appear (thankfully), but it instead makes the ice cream silky smooth. Its flavors include the basic vanilla bean and mint chip, as well as s'mores, strawberry cheesecake, birthday cake, and peppermint bark — a seasonal winter ice cream flavor.

NadaMoo! is available in stores like Walmart, Target, and Publix and via direct ordering on the brand's website. Customers are impressed with the texture, diversity, and quality of NadaMoo!'s ice creams. The only thing that would make the brand more competitive would be to offer chunkier flavors that rival more prominent brands like Ben & Jerry's.

Breyer's has fixed one major issue with vegan ice cream — that most brands only offer pints. Luckily, Breyer's comes in numerous dairy-free flavors, including nostalgic cookies & creme, vanilla peanut butter, mint chocolate chip, vanilla, and chocolate-chocolate chip. While these flavors are in the "safe zone," Breyer's still has spent time developing its flavors and formulas to achieve the same taste and texture as its comprehensive dairy-based lineup. As a result, its dairy-free ice cream isn't icy and doesn't taste watery. Instead, it's just a pleasant, delicious, and bite-of-everything in each spoonful kind of ice cream.

Currently, vanilla is the only oat milk ice cream Breyer's sells; the rest of the flavors are made with almond milk. After the success of its dairy-free product line, we hope the brand will add more tubs for us to enjoy with a good movie and company.

If you're looking for a more localized ice cream brand, Alden's Organic should be on your list. All of its products are certified organic by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and are, by proxy, free of genetically modified ingredients. The coffee extracts and grounds used in its flavors are also Fair Trade — meaning that the producers are paid a dignified wage and work under equitable conditions.

Alden's Organic started with soy ice cream but has since expanded its lineup to include almond, oat, and coconut milk-based products. Besides its nine pint flavors, the brand also offers round ice cream sandwiches filled with flavors like vanilla or key lime, swirled ice cream pops in everything from coffee swirl to horchata, and chocolate-covered ice cream bars too. For being such a small brand, we're impressed with how many dairy-free options it has.

SoDelicious takes the cake — or ice cream cone — for the sheer availability of ice cream bases. You can purchase SoDelicious products made with cashew milk, oat milk, almond milk, coconut milk, soy milk, or "wondermilk"— a medley of dairy-free milk. Across the board of bases, you'll find plenty of innovative flavors, including oat milk coffee chip, cashew milk peanut butter brownie, and even no-sugar-added coconut milk flavors. The brand also offers novelties like ice cream sandwiches, dipped bars, and sundae cones.

SoDelicious products are a testament to what happens when a brand specializes in dairy-free ingredients and makes it its mission to offer quality textures and flavors. The texture of its options is creamy, smooth, and suited to a wide variety of allergens. Unfortunately, the primary reason why SoDelicious didn't take our top spot was that it lacked the same richness and mouthfeel of our top-performing dairy-free ice cream brand.

The top-performing brand of vegan ice cream shouldn't surprise you — it's one of the most recognizable names in all of ice cream's history. Ben & Jerry's is our top dairy-free ice cream brand for several reasons, including its impressive flavor selection, chunkiness, and overall pizazz. The brand currently offers 21 non-dairy ice cream flavors, 19 in pints, and two exclusives to its scoop shops. The brand provides both sunflower-butter ice creams and almond milk ice cream. Several of Ben & Jerry's flavors have a "give-back connection" like "Lights! Caramel! Action!" which donates to Ava DuVernay's ARRAY alliance to advance social justice through art.

The best thing about Ben & Jerry's ice cream is its dairy-based and non-dairy varieties of the same flavors. So if you're an omnivore who loves Cherry Garcia too much to go vegan, you can get your fix without the dairy.

Static Media owns and operates Tasting Table and Mashed.