“Dairy-Like” Sundaes and Pints Are Changing Vegan Ice Cream

So Delicious Dairy-Free, a vegan ice cream company, is debuting new vegan ice cream pints and sundae-style cones at shops across the United States this month. The items are part of the company’s new Wondermilk range, which employs cutting-edge technology to improve current dairy-free goods and bridge the gap between conventional dairy drinkers and plant-based beverage customers.

Blending oats, coconut, and soy with coconut oil to produce a more neutral-tasting, creamy foundation, the new recipe tries to resemble the sight, taste, and texture of dairy milk. Other plant-based dairy products, such as coconut, soy, oat, or almond milk, rely on just one plant.

Ice cream pints ($5.49) in five flavors: Vanilla, Chocolate Cocoa Chip, Cookies & Crème, Buttery Pecan, and Strawberry are among the So Delicious Dairy-Free Wondermilk frozen desserts. Sundae-style frozen dessert cones in Vanilla Peanut Sundae and Salted Caramel Sundae flavors are also available ($6.49/box). Dairy-free milk ($4.99) in full fat and 2-percent reduced fat variations will be available nationwide in February as part of the Wondermilk range.

Dairy-Free Becomes “Dairy-Like” To Imitate Real Thing

So Delicious parent firm Danone hopes to achieve for plant-based milk what Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods have done for plant-based meats: produce goods that mirror the real thing in an effort to win over reluctant dairy consumers with this new “dairy-like” category. Danone, a traditionally dairy-heavy corporation that bought White Wave Foods in 2016 and acquired vegan brands So Delicious, Silk, Vega, and Alpro, utilized its dairy experience to target those customers with its “plant-based 2.0” platform.

“There’s been a group of consumers who remain skeptical about plant-based offerings, largely because of their taste and texture… From our research, we saw that there were about 53 percent of people who say they wouldn’t purchase plant-based beverages because of their taste,” John Starkey, president of plant-based food and beverages for Danone North America, told Fast Company.

Danone spent more than a year developing a formula that simulates the whole range of characteristics of cow’s milk, including sweet, sour, and salty tastes, as well as the creamy texture. The final combination of nutrients, according to the business, does not taste like any single plant-based ingredient, such as almond or oat, and is creamy and rich, much like dairy.

Danone plans to launch a comparable “dairy-like” product under its Silk brand called Nextmilk using this innovative technology. While both Wondermilk and Nextmilk use many of the same components, their aims are somewhat different. Silk’s Nextmilk is intended for consumption alone, whilst So Delicious Wondermilk is intended for use in cooking and baking.

The new So Delicious Wondermilk line’s store finder may be found here.

Plant-Based Milk That Tastes Like Dairy

The dairy-free sector is always expanding, and there are currently milk substitutes on the market that attempt to taste as close to the genuine thing as possible. NotMilk was invented by NotCo, a vegan firm in Chile, in whole and 2-percent variations that appear, taste, and operate just like animal-derived milk. After a $85 million Series C fundraising round, the product made its debut in the United States at Whole Foods Market last autumn.

Impossible Foods has developed its own dairy-identical “functional” milk manufactured from plants that looks, tastes, and functions like cow’s milk. Impossible Foods was in the development stage of its plant-based milk when it unveiled prototypes during a press conference last autumn, and it has yet to disclose how the new product would be launched.

Other businesses are experimenting with novel approaches, such as food technology firm Perfect Day, which employs precise fermentation to make a dairy-like whey protein without the usage of cows. In 2019, the firm created a 1,000-pint limited-batch ice cream that sold out in less than 24 hours despite a $20 price tag. To have the maximum effect, the firm is now teaming with established companies to build dairy-free versions of their traditional dairy product lines using its revolutionary vegan whey proteins.

Source: “VEGAN ICE CREAM JUST GOT BETTER WITH THESE “DAIRY-LIKE” SUNDAES AND PINTS” by VegNews