I hope you like the taste of coconut...

     I’m a vegan that enjoys something sweet from time to time, so when I first tried Turtle Mountain’s soy-based ice cream over a year ago, it was love at first bite (or should I say pint…). However, since then, I have made the decision to consume less soy because of conflicting arguments over the dangers and benefits of soy. (It seems my list of acceptable foods becomes shorter every week.) There are several alternatives to soy when it comes to non-dairy “milks”, etc., but with ice cream, it becomes a bit tougher. Rice Dream has a pretty good line of rice milk-based ice creams, but I really didn’t want to forsake my loyalty to Turtle Mountain because of the good they do for sea turtles (Turtle Mountain has teamed up with the Sea Turtle Restoration Project by providing much-needed funds and promoting awareness). Because of this dilemma, I simply stopped buying ice cream of any kind. However, my family is celebrating a birthday tomorrow, and when I found out that there was going to be ice cream cake involved, I decided to buy a pint of Turtle Mountain’s Purely Decadent Coconut Milk Ice Cream so that I wouldn’t be left out. After testing it out, I decided to share my experience.

     With Turtle Mountain’s soy-based ice creams, you can’t really “tell” that they are made from soy. They just taste sweet and creamy, like ice cream should taste. However, the coconut milk ice cream that I tried today definitely tasted like coconut. I purchased the chocolate flavor, and could still detect the coconut. It definitely wasn’t subtle. I like the taste of coconut, but not when I’m expecting chocolate-flavored ice cream. Of course, the chocolate is the only flavor that I have tried so far, but I have a feeling that this coconut undertone will be present in all of the flavors. There is even a “coconut” flavor, as if that was necessary. The coconut milk ice cream still had a creamy texture, and it was pretty sweet, but the coconut flavor did bother me a bit. It will take some getting used to.

     As far as nutritional information is concerned, Turtle Mountain’s Coconut Milk Ice Cream is much less healthy than its soy line. While almost all of Turtle Mountain’s ice creams have chicory root extract added to them to boost the amount of fiber, one serving of the Coconut Milk Ice Cream contains at least thirty-percent of your recommended daily amount of saturated fat (that’s the bad kind). Some flavors can have as much as a whopping forty-five percent! So, if you were tempted to consume the whole pint in one sitting, you’d be eating two-day’s worth of saturated fat all at once. Regular consumption of this ice cream is enough to throw every study that suggests that vegans have lower risks of heart disease right out the window.

     Overall, if you are looking for a dairy-free, soy-free ice cream, I would recommend Turtle Mountain’s Purely Decadent Coconut Milk Ice Cream only if you enjoy the taste of coconut, and if you are willing to consume it sparingly. The Coconut Milk Ice Cream also costs a few dollars more than the soy-based ice creams. I will continue to purchase this product, but not very often. I can only hope that Turtle Mountain puts out a line of rice milk-based ice cream next.