Soy Ice Cream

by Vicki Reich, from the April 2001 Newsletter

It's hard to find anyone who doesn't like ice cream. I know people who don't necessarily love ice cream but will definitely eat it when it's put in front of them. So what do you do if you can't eat ice cream anymore for whatever reason, be it lactose intolerance, high cholesterol, or ethical choices? Eat soy ice cream! Did I hear you say yuck? Well, you obviously haven't tried soy ice cream in a while because they are making it mighty tasty these days.

The Co-op carries four different brands of soy ice cream (Whole Soy Glace, Tofutti, Soy Delicious, and Double Rainbow Soy Cream), and we wanted to find out what the differences were between them. I chose to sample the chocolate variety of each brand because, basically, chocolate rules and vanilla drools (and those were the only two flavors all the brands had in common).

Now usually in these articles I take you step by step through the testing process, listing each item in the order it was tested and what everyone thought about it. But this time I can't wait until the end to tell you the results, they were too stunning. Crista, Zack, and I (this month's testers) liked three of the samples but we were blown away by Whole Soy Glace (pronounced glass-say). It was just like ice cream, with a rich and creamy texture and a very chocolately chocolate taste.

After we had several spoonfuls of the luscious nectar, I began to wonder why it was so much better than the others. I found the answer on the back of the carton and the answer was fat, that wonderful ingredient we all love to hate. Whole Soy had the highest fat content of all four samples, 14 grams as compared to 4-11 grams in the others. It was right up there with Ben and Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie at 15 grams of fat. No wonder it tasted like ice cream.

The big difference between Whole Soy and regular ice cream is that Whole Soy and all the other soy ice creams have no cholesterol and very low saturated fat. Saturated fat ranged from 0-4 grams as compared to 10 grams in Ben and Jerry's.

By now you're probably wondering about the other three samples, so I'll recap them for you. The Tofutti Chocolate Supreme had a soft serve ice cream consistency and almost felt like marshmallow fluff in your mouth. It had a mellow chocolate flavor with a slight hint of soy bean and was the least like real ice cream. The Double Rainbow Soy Cream Chocolate Chocolate Chip was more like real ice cream but had a slight icy texture. It had a good chocolate flavor that was greatly enhanced by all the little chocolate chunks in it. It was our second favorite. The Soy Delicious Chocolate Velvet had a bit of a grainy texture to it and an aftertaste of brown rice syrup. It was chocolatey but not strongly so. It was the lowest in fat and had no saturated fat at all, which is good because it only comes in quarts and sometimes I get carried away and can't stop eating ice cream until I get to the bottom of the container.

In this case you could eat two servings of Soy Delicious and still not consume as much fat and calories as in one serving of Whole Soy. But since I'm quite the hedonist when it comes to ice cream, I'll take the Whole Soy, fat and all, and enjoy every last bite.

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