Trader Joe's Soy Creamy Non-Dairy Frozen Dessert--Cherry Chocolate Chip

As we have previously noted, Nina has been greatly reducing her consumption of milk products--and I'm not averse to substitutes if they are good ones.

This, my friends, is a good one.

I came to it naive; I had not heard or read anything about it. I just knew that I wanted to try another TJ's ice cream of some sort, and I thought this one looked promising.

When I tasted it, I could hardly believe it. This did say non-dairy, didn't it? I rechecked the label and the list of ingredients. Yep. Then how can it taste so good? How can it have the mouthfeel of real ice cream? I swear that if you fed this to me, telling me it was regular ice cream, there is not one thing about it that would tip me off that you were lying. Now, I wouldn't pit it against some of the super-premium ice creams that I have had in my life. But it's at least as good, and possibly better, than most non-premium ice cream. That that can be said of a soy-derived product is rather astonishing.

I wondered if maybe it was a lack of discriminating palate that made me easily duped, and others would see through the non-dairy ruse. Well, here's a bunch of reviews I found in the first two pages of Google results, some of them dating back to 2008, when it appears this product was first introduced. See for yourself:

Eating at Joe's blog: "I may never go back to dairy ice cream.... Vegan ice cream that [is] as good as the real thing."

San Jose Mercury News comparison test: "Except for the slight beany flavor of soy, this budget-priced dessert is a solid swap for standard ice cream."

A Soy Bean blog: "[I]t's been a LONG time since I've had Ben & Jerry's ice cream. But I do fondly remember the taste of their Cherry Garcia flavor, and this cherry chocolate chip knocks it out of the park!"

PETA Prime blog: "The cherry chocolate chip flavor starts with a yummy cherry base, not vanilla. It is so full of big pieces of cherries and chunks (not chips) of chocolate that you will feel like you are eating frozen chocolate-covered cherries. They definitely did not scrimp on this one--you practically have to chew this bowl of “nice” cream."

Kitchology blog: "Sweet, rich, and creamy, Trader Joe’s Soy Creamy Cherry Chocolate Chip had me from the first spoonful. The smoothness of the cream is perfectly complimented by the crunch of the chocolate chips and the chewiness of the cherries. In my opinion, this blows every other cherry-chocolate ice cream like dessert out of the water. Nothing can compare. Not even Ben and Jerry’s famous Cherry Garcia."

Diana Takes a Bite blog: "TJ's Soy Creamy Cherry Chocolate Chip "ice cream" is beyond compare. There is no contest -- it blows Ben & Jerry's [Cherry Garcia Frozen Yogurt] completely out of the bowl."

Son of a Vegan blog: "Let me start by saying it is absolutely heavenly, I swear I could hear arcs gloriously playing in the background while I was eating that "ice cream". It has chunks and chunks of cherries and a whole lot of chocolate chips so this "ice cream" is sure to please your sweet tooth."

Rookie Magazine: "Since going vegan in the late ’90s I have always been pretty content with my dairy-free ice cream options. But two summers ago, my dessert world was ROCKED when I came across this cute red-and-green container in the frozen section at Trader Joe’s—a quart of Soy Creamy Cherry Chocolate Chip. Cherries are my favorite fruit and chocolate is my favorite food period, so I thought I’d give it a whirl. Reader, IT CHANGED MY VEGAN LIFE: sweet, smooth cherry-flavored cream, big chunks of real cherry, and plenty of chocolate chips. I started telling everyone I knew that it wasn’t just my favorite vegan ice cream, it was my favorite ice cream, period! My non-vegan husband even loves it, and when my ex-vegan friend came to stay with me after living in Asia for a few years, she had the same total mouth orgasm as I did. In fact, she practically wept when she could not figure out how to take a case of it back to China. Now I just get to eat twice as much and say it’s for Lindsay. That works for me and I encourage you to eat some for her, too."

So as you can see, I'm not just imagining things here. This stuff really works as ice cream, whether or not you're consciously choosing to avoid dairy. This is one case where you don't have to settle for something that isn't as good as the "real thing."

I'm just gonna go right ahead and plop it onto my Top Ten list.

Will I buy it again? 

Yes indeed.