The Hands-Down Best Ben & Jerry's Non-Dairy Ice Cream Flavor Was Made For Chocolate Lovers

Thanks to lactose intolerance and dairy allergies, unfortunately not everyone can enjoy a regular pint of ice cream, but modern food science has by now created a wide array of genuinely delicious non-dairy ice creams. What's even better is that everyone's late night favorite brand, Ben & Jerry's, offers a ton of non-dairy flavors with its signature playful ideas. We wanted to try as many as we could, so we did a taste test of not just a few but all the non-dairy Ben & Jerry's flavors available to us.

Ben & Jerry's has over a dozen non-dairy ice cream varieties, including Phish Food, Cherry Garcia, and Karamel Sutra, but our favorite featured a very popular ingredient: chocolate. And you've got to love being crushed by chocolate to enjoy our top pick, which is the Chocolate Fudge Brownie. It has everything you want in an ice cream, dairy-filled or not; the ice cream base is rich and the brownie bits contained therein are absolutely delicious. Our tester noted, "Aside from their wonderfully deep taste, the beauty of the brownies in this non-dairy option is that they add a textural component that complements rather than obstructs the eating experience."

All of Ben & Jerry's non-dairy ice creams are made with an oat milk base, which is great because for years we have maintained that oat milk makes the best base for non-dairy ice cream. It's creamy, silky, and has a fatty mouthfeel. Another interesting detail is that Ben & Jerry's uses brownies from the same bakery it's used since the flavor was created — Greyston Bakery, which is based in New York. Formulas for any product can change through the years, so it's refreshing to see years of consistency. (The same chunks go in Ben & Jerry's Half-Baked flavor too.)

Speaking of chocolate, it's apparently what the brand does well, as four out of the top five flavors we ranked contained chocolate. While dairy seems like an important ingredient in both chocolate and ice cream, somehow Ben & Jerry's makes it seem almost unnecessary. This just goes to prove that even without the moo from the cow, ice cream can still be a delight, and Ben & Jerry's knocked this one out of the park. If you're looking for some more non-dairy ice cream recommendations, we have some here.