Vegan ice cream wars into overdrive
Every now and then something unexpected comes along and changes my life. My existence is peppered with random signposts, events and life-altering moments that have impacted deeply upon me.
One such occasion occurred last week as I was innocently trolling the Internet. I was casting an eye over the Vx website (as I had heard they were hosting a 2 year anniversary celebration) when I stumbled across an invaluable nugget of information: there is a new vegan ice cream on the market in the UK. My world was once again turned on its head.
The humans behind the new vegan desserts known as Bessant & Drury’s are wildly talented individuals. I can’t recall ever having been so instantly enamoured with a vegan ice cream in my life. Stunning doesn’t cut it. Would you like to share in my accidental, life-changing joy? Read on.
Bessant & Drury's
Bessant & Drury’s first made an appearance in my life during a visit to Whole Foods Market in Kensington. My curiosity had been aroused sufficiently by the Vx mention to ensure I made a direct line for the frozen food aisle. I grabbed a mini pot of the chocolate variety, noted that is was soy/additive/gluten free and headed to the upstairs dining hall ready to consume.
This vegan ice cream was so bizarrely-good on first taste, I thought I must have been mistaken. I was actually terrified that I had made an error as surely nothing could be this delicious. The chocolate Bessant & Drury’s made my taste buds sing. Imagine if someone could harness the taste of chocolate fudge, infuse it with coconut milk and then freeze it. Ridiculous and irresistible and a reality. I am beside myself with delight that this now exists.
Chocolate delight by Bessant & Drury's
Of course this first encounter wasn’t close to enough for a FGV.
I have since purchased a large tub of the strawberry Bessant & Drury’s ice cream. Like its chocolate relation, the strawberry tub was divine. It was creamy, sweet and eerily reminiscent of frozen yoghurt. I can assure you I will be increasing my familiarity with this dessert exponentially.
Strawberry by Bessant & Drury's
The lemon flavour I picked up yesterday was more of a sorbet. Whereas the chocolate and strawberry were both creamy, the lemon enjoyed a crunch. Delicious of course, but less an ice cream vibe. That said, I will be buying it again (and again).
All that is left for me to do is to get my chubby monster paws on a tub of the vanilla… and start the whole tasting process all over again. I’ve seen the future of the vegan ice cream wars and its made of coconut milk.
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Will be heading to Whole Foods soon to try it!
Heyup!
I like the sound of this… could you tell us how much it costs to buy?
Abi (a Twitter follower)
The small is under 2 pounds and the large is approx. 5 pounds. Enjoy it!
I tried some of this today and although i’s nice i don’t think it is as nice as
the fabulous Booja Booja ice cream ( particularly their Hunky Punky Chocolate)
it’s just my opinion but i don’t think this is as rich as as theirs.
I’ve tried quite alot of vegan ice cream and always eagerly try any new ones on the market
but as yet i haven’t found anything that compares to Booja Booja.
My current favourite is the chocolate mint from Boho Gelato in Brighton (also available at
Pizzaface in Brighton) but the Bessant & Drury chocolate is a close second!
I also tried the strawberry – I’m not normally a fan of strawberry flavoured things but this was pretty good.
However I still consider Soy Delicious in the US make the best vegan ice cream!
I will have to try your gelato tip… sounds good!
I recently bought a large tub of B&D chocolate which was divine and decided to get another two which I had to get my local Heath food shop to order. The new tubs are horrible, I’m really disappointed. Has anyone else found the flavour and quality vary?
I had the EXACT same experience, around the same time as well! I was in WF Kensington looking for vegan ice creams and came across this. Fell. in. love. The chocolate one I bought was made with coconut milk, so it had a divine undertone of coconut to the chocolate which couldn’t have been more perfect.
I have recently discovered Bessant & Drury chocolate ice cream and I agree it’s delicious! I found it in my local Tesco which is great as it’s easily available 🙂
Maria, I have never had a bad experience with B&D yet. Check that your health food store isn’t letting them defrost and then refreezing them. I had that happen to a tub of Tofutti once and it was vile. I would also recommend contacting the company if you think it is a problem with the batch.
Looking at your photo it is even a different colour – very pale. They were ordered in especially for me and collected on the day of delivery so I don’t think there was any storage problems. I think I will contact them and see what they say.
Are you sure it isn’t the Booja Booja chocolate ice cream you got? Not that I think that tastes bad (it is fab) but it is a very pale colour, not dark like Bessant & Drury. Hope you get to the bottom of it!
No, definitely B&D! (In fact the ice cream is even paler than BB!!)
Mystery solved – they changed the recipe some time ago after customer feedback. They moved from the dark sorbet-like texture (as pictured above) to a paler, more creamy one. Obviously my local health food shop was still selling original recipe tubs and I bought the last of it.
The company were very responsive offering a refund as well as free samples of other flavours for me to try since I don’t like the chocolate now.
Swedish Glace is another vegan/gluten free ie cream from tesco
[…] of the leaders of this surge is Bessant & Drury. Th company has been producing one of the best vegan ice creams in the UK for a few years and are now branching into the yoghurt field with their Coconut […]