The Ben & Jerry's Pints That Aren't Real Ice Cream

The brand Ben & Jerry's is synonymous with, well, ice cream, but that doesn't mean it's the only thing the brand sells. We aren't talking about additional products like its cooking dough chunks or its ice cream cakes. That's because out of the iconic ice cream brand's pints in freezers around the globe, some aren't ice cream at all. So if you prefer any of Ben & Jerry's non-dairy pints, enjoy it -– but know it's not technically ice cream.

It's all about the lack of dairy because the U.S. Department of Agriculture does not consider ice cream varieties that are made without dairy to be categorized as ice cream. The ingredients might be called oat milk or almond milk, but it's still not good old dairy milk. The brand sells three categories of non-dairy pints: Almond milk, oat milk, and sunflower butter. Some of your classic flavors, like its Chocolate Fudge Brownie, are available dairy-free. And to help sort through the many varieties, we published a ranking of Ben & Jerry's best dairy-free flavors and the one that took the No. 1 spot might surprise you (Hint: It has oatmeal).

You might wonder what non-dairy flavors are available. For its products made with oat milk, some options include Strawberry Cheezcake with a graham cracker swirl, Americone Dream (a flavor collab with Stephen Colbert), plus a couple of its Core products like Bananas Foster with a caramel center. If a classic Ben & Jerry's flavor like Cherry Garcia is your go-to treat, it's available in oat milk form. Flavors like Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Peanut Butter Half Baked, Phish Food (it has marshmallows and caramel and is one of Ben & Jerry's pop culture flavors), and the classic Cherry Garcia are available made with almond milk. Its sunflower butter flavors include Mint Chocolate Cookie and Oatmeal Dream Pie (yes, the one that's on top of our ranking). 

Just so you know, it's not just Ben & Jerry's, because other brands of non-dairy ice cream, like Oatly and even Breyer's, are also not authentic ice cream. This is why some brands might advertise the products as non-dairy frozen desserts — and not ice cream. That's not the case with ice cream made with Lactaid because those products remove the lactose but still contain the necessary dairy component. 

But if you simply prefer authentic ice cream, here's a ranking of every Ben & Jerry's flavor to help decide on tonight's dessert.