By Rae Frey

Welcome back to another edition of our Vegan Ice Cream Taste Test. If you missed our original blog post, you can read it here to catch up on why we are on this ultimate quest for vegan ice cream. This week we take a look at this classic American favorite, Ben & Jerry’s!

**Please note that our review does not reflect the views of New York University or the Office of Sustainability. We are a bunch of college students who love nature and are looking for a good time

If you haven’t tried Ben & Jerry’s before, you truly have not lived life to its fullest extent. These bright blue pints were the centerpiece of many birthdays, school fundraisers, and movie nights for many of us. I mean, what’s not to like? Ben & Jerry’s is known to be a super ethical company when it comes to manufacturing the product, managing their environmental impact, and giving back to the community (not to mention delicious). However, our deepest sympathies go out to our lactose-intolerant and vegan friends who could not partake in this deliciousness…until now! 

Do not fret any longer! Ben & Jerry’s heard our cries and finally made not one, but seven different dairy-free flavors! Most of us in the office have loved Ben & Jerry’s for their delicious ice cream, so we were all super curious to try their dairy-free line-up.

Sustainability: 

We would like to start off by saying thank you, Ben & Jerry’s. It was extremely heart warming to see how important sustainability is to your company! We are in awe of how well thought out your practices are. Where do we even start?

Packaging: Their containers are Forest Stewardship Council certified, essentially meaning that the paperboard pints are made from responsibly sourced pulp that doesn’t threaten deforestation or loss of biodiversity.

Ingredients: While we tasted their vegan line-up, it should be noted that Ben & Jerry’s has a program called “Caring Dairy” that helps farmers commit to more sustainable practices on their farm. The dairy from these sustainable farms is then used in their regular dairy flavors. All of Ben & Jerry’s flavors are also Fairtrade certified! According to Fair Trade USA, “by establishing Fair Trade prices, farmers are able to practice sustainable growing techniques and are supported in learning new skills that will preserve their land for generations to come.”

Waste: Ben & Jerry’s has committed to reducing the amount of solid waste produced in their manufacturing plants. The waste that is produced from their dairy farms is actually sent to the farms in the Caring Dairy program. Then, the waste is sent into a methane digester and generates biomass energy to power the farms! How cool is that?! While these aren’t necessarily initiatives that their vegan line-up is directly tied t0, it’s great to see Ben & Jerry’s really think about their ice cream from all angles.

Storage: If their methane digester wasn’t enough, Ben & Jerry’s solely uses hydrocarbon freezers containing hydrocarbon (HC), a refrigerant that produces fewer emissions than the market standard, hydrofluorocarbon (HFC). HFC is commonly used in most freezers in the United States and have a huge environmental impact. But! Ben & Jerry’s actually petitioned for the commercial use of HC in 2011 to the EPA and got it approved. Most freezers in Europe actually use HC instead of HFC. Maybe now that HC is commercially approved, we will see more of it in the US!

Climate Change: I was honestly shocked to find a webpage solely dedicated to Climate Change. Just, WOW! Where do we even begin? We can start at their life cycle analysis (LCA) of their pints. LCA is a summation of all the carbon emissions produced from making a pint of ice cream–from sourcing the ingredients, to the manufacturing process and transportation of the finished product to grocery stores. While we couldn’t find any statistics on their dairy-free line-up, the results for their dairy pints were surprisingly great. One pint of dairy ice cream is equal to 2 lbs of CO2 emissions. Compared to the 17.6 lbs of CO2 produced from a gallon of milk, this is pretty great! Most of Ben & Jerry’s carbon emissions actually stem from the dairy industry. While they are actively trying to reduce their emissions from all angles, I certainly would not mind seeing more vegan flavors in store if it’s a double win for both taste and their next LCA.

Lastly, I found their webpage on climate change to be extremely useful as an educational resource. While I don’t mind reading through piles of scientific journals, I understand why so many people can get confused about the facts on climate change. Much of the literature out there on climate change is extremely dense and is tailored for people within that field, not the average person. More simplified and readable literature on climate change is needed for the majority of people who aren’t scientists. It’s an extremely complex topic and touches so many different fields, so seeing climate change spelled out so clearly was refreshing. Definitely give this page a read and send it to your friends who may find it useful!

Price: $5<x<$8

It’s hard to pinpoint an exact price for a pint. We went to 3 different stores in Lower Manhattan looking for all seven flavors with a $2-3 difference between stores. However, nothing was priced more than $8 in our area. I definitely believe that these pints are worth every penny considering everything that Ben & Jerry’s does.

Delicious: (rated from 1 to 10, 10 being the best)

Our favorites: Caramel Almond Brittle (10.0), Chocolate Fudge Brownie (8.6), P.B. & Cookies (8.4), Coconut Seven Layer Bar (8)

We thoroughly enjoyed all the flavors we tested but we certainly had favorites! The P.B. & Cookies strongly reminded all of us of the Parent Trap when they eat Oreos with peanut butter. If peanut butter isn’t your thing, we all loved the Caramel Almond Brittle and gave it a perfect score! One of us even commented, “I’d sell my soul for this. Or put myself further in debt to buy a pint of this regularly.”

Conclusion

Ben & Jerry’s has done it again, winning the hearts and taste buds of us all here. We would love to see more environmental reports of your dairy-free ice cream, but even for your dairy flavors, seeing all the work y’all do is really inspiring. Thank you Ben & Jerry’s for the delectable ice cream, it was truly awesome! We want to see more vegan flavors (and perhaps some that are nut-allergy friendly). Please keep up the great environmental work!

That’s it for this week! Stay tuned for this delicious weekly blog series next week on…DF Mavens!