Ice cream company Ben & Jerry’s just launched a vegan version of its Stephen Colbert’s AmeriCone Dream flavor, which is inspired by The Late Show host. The almond milk-based flavor features vanilla ice cream dotted with fudge-covered waffle cone pieces and caramel swirls. In order to make the ice cream flavor vegan, flavor scientists at Ben & Jerry’s had to reformulate its waffle cones—which contained dairy—to be free from animal products. The new non-dairy AmeriCone Dream flavor is starting to hit store shelves now where it will retail between $4.39 and $5.99 per pint.
Colbert took to social media to announce non-dairy AmeriCone Dream and urged fans to ask him anything about the new flavor using #InsideScoopwithStephen. “The vegan nondairy Americone Dream is here,” the funnyman said. “Fun fact: the container is vegan, too. But I wouldn’t recommend eating it.” Colbert will donate proceeds from the new non-dairy flavor to charities through his The Stephen Colbert AmeriCone Dream Fund.
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Ben & Jerry’s vegan classics
In 2016, Ben & Jerry’s created its first four almond milk-based flavors: PB & Cookies, Coffee Caramel Fudge, Chocolate Fudge Brownie, and Chunky Monkey. Since then, the brand has developed a variety of vegan offerings from dairy-free versions of classic flavors such as Cherry Garcia, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, and Cinnamon Buns. In addition to almond milk, the company developed a sunflower butter base for the launch of “Milk” & Cookies, Crème Brûlée Cookie, and Mint Chocolate Cookie vegan flavors in January 2020. Ben & Jerry’s used its innovative sunflower butter base to create its new Change the Whirled flavor, developed in partnership with vegan racial justice activist Colin Kaepernick, donating a portion of the vegan flavor’s sales to Know Your Rights Camp—an organization Kaepernick founded to help empower Black and Brown communities.
This year, in addition to AmeriCone Dream, Ben & Jerry’s has rolled out two veganized versions of its classic flavors: Phish Food (made with gelatin-free marshmallow swirls) and Karamel Sutra (its first vegan addition to its Core line which features two ice cream flavors surrounding a soft dairy-free caramel core). Both flavors are hitting store shelves now.
This post was originally published on VegNews.com.