Vegan ice cream and vegan sundaes – at the ice cream parlour or in the supermarket, they're conquering our freezers and our hearts.
The 10 best vegan ice cream flavours
All our sorbets are vegan – and on top of that there are creamy vegan flavours you'd never guess were vegan. The vegan flavours sit on the left-hand side of our counter. These are our ten vegan bestsellers:
The Flavor Board shows which vegan flavours are in today. You'll find all of our 100+ flavours from A to Z in the list of ice cream flavours.
WHAT DOES VEGAN ACTUALLY MEAN?
Being vegan is a way of life that aims to avoid consuming animal products. For ice cream, that means no animal ingredients like milk, eggs or cream. Instead, plant-based alternatives such as almond, soy or oat milk are used to create a creamy texture. But how long have there been vegans, and who invented veganism?
In short: vegan ice cream is ice cream without anything that comes from an animal – and it can be every bit as creamy as the classic kind.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN VEGAN AND VEGETARIAN
While vegans avoid all animal products, vegetarians just don't eat animals – no meat or fish. Unlike a vegan diet, a vegetarian diet can include eggs, milk or cheese. Ice cream is normally always vegetarian, because nobody adds meat to their ice cream recipe. Except in Bavaria, which takes the biscuit: there you can buy liver sausage ice cream. That one is neither vegan nor vegetarian.
WHICH ICE CREAM IS ALWAYS VEGAN?
Sorbets and water ices are generally always vegan, because they're water-based and contain no dairy. These flavours are often fruity and refreshing and offer a wide choice for people on a vegan diet. But be careful here too, because some ice cream parlours still make sorbets with eggs – to be safe, ask whether the sorbet is vegan if there's no clear label.
VEGAN ICE CREAM – HEALTHIER THAN DAIRY ICE CREAM?
Vegan ice cream is often promoted as a healthier alternative to traditional dairy ice cream – but is that true? It often contains less saturated fat and cholesterol, which can be good for people with special dietary needs or allergies. But keep in mind that vegan ice cream can still contain sugar and other additives that are unhealthy in large amounts. Instead of cream, it often gets its fat from coconut oil or nut butter. These fats are essential, because they give the ice cream its delicious creamy texture – cremissimo!
But a vegan flavour isn't automatically the better choice compared with dairy. Both contain sugar and fats that are unhealthy in excess. Dairy ice cream contains milk sugar, while vegan ice cream often gets its sugar from oat drink or other milk alternatives. At the same time, these alternatives generally contain less sugar than milk, so more sugar is often added to vegan ice cream – a certain amount of sugar is needed to get the right texture.
WHO INVENTED VEGAN ICE CREAM?
The term "vegan" goes back to Donald Watson, who founded the Vegan Society in 1944. But vegan and vegetarian diets existed long before that, of course. Pythagoras – whose famous theorem probably drove all of us to the brink of despair at school – said back in ancient times: "Whatever man does to the animals will come back to man." He was a vegetarian, and alongside the odd maths formula he surely tucked into the odd vegan sorbet, too.
VEGAN ICE CREAM – ONE BASIC RECIPE, MANY POSSIBILITIES
The basic recipe for vegan ice cream is often plant-based milk, sugar and emulsifiers such as locust bean gum. This base lets you create all kinds of flavours, from vegan chocolate to vanilla to fruity flavours. While flavours like chocolate or pistachio are fairly easy to make vegan, vanilla has a few hurdles. And vanilla ice cream is the base for the famous spaghetti ice cream.
VEGAN SPAGHETTI ICE CREAM AND OTHER SUNDAES
Delicious, refreshing and animal-friendly – vegan ice cream is taking over the dessert world! Vegan spaghetti ice cream and other sundaes are especially popular with plant-based food lovers and people looking for healthy, delicious alternatives. Spaghetti ice cream is a classic that wins hearts not only in summer. For the vegan version, vegan alternatives like almond, soy or coconut ice cream replace the dairy ice cream.
Vegan spaghetti ice cream is a delicious take on the traditional dessert. The Bourbon vanilla ice cream of course needs a tasty alternative. Instead of cream, a mix of soy or coconut milk is often used to get the characteristic texture. It's then served with fruit sauces or other vegan toppings to imitate the familiar look.
A vegan ice cream fresh from the machine is the key base for every kind of spaghetti ice cream, and there are lots of variations. In theory, any flavour can be used for the popular sundae. There's one catch, though: if the recipe has peanut pieces or other chunks, it can't be pushed through the spaghetti press, because the pieces clog the holes. Flavours without chunks, like salted caramel, are ideal – even if salted caramel with strawberry sauce is an unconventional combination.
CREATIVE, DELICIOUS SUNDAES WITHOUT ANIMAL PRODUCTS:
Besides spaghetti ice cream, there are plenty of other fantastic vegan sundaes. For example:
- Nice cream: a healthy and tasty option. Nice cream is made from frozen bananas blended with different fruits or nuts. It's a great way to enjoy a creamy, icy treat without any animal products. There are lots of recipes online that show you how to make it by hand. This vegan treat is easy to make yourself with a blender and a few ingredients. It tastes a lot like ice cream, but its creaminess is clearly different – the typical texture of ice cream can usually only be made with an ice cream machine.
- Açaí bowl: açaí berries are rich in antioxidants and perfect for a refreshing, healthy ice bowl. With toppings like granola, fruit, pistachios or coconut flakes it becomes a real feast for the eyes. This treat is also easy to make by hand with simple recipes. But in terms of texture, the açaí bowl has little in common with parlour ice cream – it's much runnier and less creamy.
- Vegan ice cream sandwiches: creamy ice cream between two vegan cookies or brownies makes an irresistible treat. These ice cream sandwiches are a great option for anyone with a sweet tooth!
Vegan spaghetti ice cream and other sundaes aren't just a tasty alternative for vegans or people with lactose intolerance, but for anyone looking for a healthy, creative way to satisfy their sweet cravings. With so many ingredients and ways of making them, you can enjoy rich, delicious ice cream that's free from animal products.
PLEASURE AND SUSTAINABILITY
Discover the world of vegan ice cream and enjoy an almost endless variety of flavours and creations that don't just treat your taste buds but are also an environmentally friendly choice. Treat yourself and discover new ways to enjoy your favourite ice cream – without any animal products!
Most vegan ice cream makers care a lot about sustainability. They use high-quality ingredients and environmentally friendly production. This combination of pleasure and environmental awareness appeals to lots of customers looking for ethical products.
VEGAN ICE CREAM PARLOURS IN BERLIN
Berlin has a growing number of ice cream parlours that only sell vegan ice cream. They're popular meeting places for vegans and anyone who enjoys plant-based alternatives. They offer a wide choice of flavours that shows how varied vegan ice cream can be. By the way, it usually costs the same as dairy flavours – a little dream for vegan fans.
Besides that, many ice cream shops and supermarkets offer other vegan treats like vegan waffles, ice cream sandwiches and other sweet things to meet the needs of a growing vegan clientele.
HOMEMADE (VEGAN) ICE CREAM WITH CHUNKS AND SWIRLS FROM KATCHI
Homemade vegan ice cream lets you cater to individual tastes. With ingredients like fresh fruit, nuts, pistachios and special ingredients such as peanut butter cookies or dark chocolate, you can create unique flavours. Another special flavour we offer in our shops is Sticky Coco. In this vegan creation, coconut sorbet meets rice and mango plus raspberry sauce. It was inspired by the famous Thai dessert sticky rice.
WANT TO MAKE YOUR OWN VEGAN ICE CREAM?
With an ice cream machine you can easily make vegan ice cream at home. Because you control the ingredients, you can create different versions and experiment with flavours to develop your own favourite.
VEGAN ICE CREAM = HIP VEGAN?
These days many cafés offer milk alternatives like oat drink or soy milk, and the cliché of the soy-matcha-latte-sipping Prenzlauer Berg resident has become famous almost all over Germany. Being vegan is hip, but that's not the whole story. The popularity of vegan ice cream keeps rising – not just among vegans, but among people who want more variety in their diet. You can see the trend in the growing number of ice cream shops and supermarkets offering a wide choice of vegan ice cream.
TRY UNUSUAL VEGAN FLAVOURS
Feeling even more adventurous? Try our unusual ice cream flavours – and the classics with a history in our old ice cream flavours.
Some ice cream cafés in Berlin have unusual flavours like cinnamon sorbet or peanut brownie ice cream. These creations are a change from the classics and a highlight for adventurous ice cream fans. Find out which other vegan flavours there are and which are the craziest in the articles above.
VEGAN ICE LOLLIES
Ice lollies are a popular treat that also come in vegan versions. Coconut lollies or mango-vanilla lollies are just a few examples of the wide choice of vegan ice cream in Berlin. At our Berlin ice cream shop Katchi we've pulled a few vegan lollies out of the hat – or rather out of the ice cream machine – too. Mango Paw is based on our basic recipe for our popular mango sorbet. The lolly is then dipped in a mango glaze and gets chocolate dots, so it looks like a tiger's paw. A vegan treat for kids and grown-ups, summer or winter.
VEGAN ICE CREAM FROM THE SUPERMARKET: SANDWICHES, WATER ICES, TUBS
You don't only find vegan ice cream in ice cream shops but in the supermarket, too. From salted caramel to chocolate to strawberry – the classic flavours are on the shelves there as well. More unusual flavours like peanut butter cookie aren't in every supermarket, though. Here's a quick overview of well-known brands like Ben & Jerry's on the supermarket shelf:
- Nomoo is a well-known brand offering a wide range of vegan ice cream and other plant-based products. With different flavours and high quality, Nomoo has become a favourite brand for many vegans.
- Ben & Jerry's is also a well-known brand for vegan ice cream.
- Many supermarket own brands also offer vegan classics like chocolate.
CONCLUSION
For us the answer is clear: the best vegan ice cream is made from the best ingredients – and that's exactly where we don't cut corners. Anyone who wants to sell cheap ice cream in the supermarket has to keep ingredient costs as low as possible. We do it the other way round.
We make our vegan flavours ourselves, with a base of almond, coconut and peanut – soy-free. Our sorbets get real fruit with a high fruit content, the chocolate sorbet lots of 70% dark chocolate, the marzipan ice cream real marzipan and the Willy Wonka our homemade vegan brownies.
The result: vegan ice cream nobody would guess is vegan. Taste your way through our 10 best vegan flavours – and check the Flavor Board to see which ones are in the counter today.