John Fish Kurmann’s Recent Comments

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  Ice cream is the real thing, as in the original that all these soy, rice, coconut, and hemp (see below) frozen desserts are trying to imitate, with varying degrees of success.

  You're absolutely right that cow's milk isn't a healthy food for everyone. Wikipedia gives an estimate that 75% of the world's adult population have some degree of difficulty in digesting lactose. For those of us who don't have such difficulty, though, I see no personal health argument for avoiding milk entirely--and ice cream and gelato are absolutely luscious. There must have been some evolutionary advantage to eating milk or the mutation that allows people to continue producing the enzyme necessary to digest lactose--lactase--throughout adulthood wouldn't have become predominant in certain population

  Many ecosystems need ruminants to be healthy, so I don't see any reason why those of us who can digest milk just fine shouldn't be able to eat milk from ruminants grazing such ecosystems. We can argue about how much to eat, but there're no personal or ecological health reasons for arguing we should never eat milk, period. You can make an ethical argument, of course, but that will always be a matter of opinion.

  Personally, I think Tofutti's products have a bizarre synthetic quality to the texture and mouthfeel.

  I was in a health food store today and saw another alternative: Living Harvest Tempt frozen dessert based on hempseeds (LivingHarvest.com)! I didn't buy any--it was expensive and the hempseeds weren't organic, though some of the other ingredients were--but it's another option for those who decline to eat dairy for ethical reasons or who have health problems when they do.

  The Wholesoy Glace I mentioned in my last message used a Swedish process that reduced the beany flavor, and they still use it for their soy "yogurt" and soy "yogurt" frozen desserts.

  Anyone else remember the Ice Bean brand of imitation ice cream? When I was vegan, that was the first brand I ever had, as I recall. I remember thinking it was tasty, but it had been years since I'd had the real thing so it couldn't pale by comparison.

  On A review of six non-dairy ice creams posted 4 months, 1 week ago 30 Responses

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  It seems to me that testing different flavors from each brand is a lousy way to compare them. Why not pick a single flavor readily available from each? It would likely have to be a simple vanilla or chocolate.

  I avoided ice cream for years because I was vegan, but I also love vanilla ice cream so I've tried several different brands of dairy-free imitations. Unfortunately, the beany quality of soy tends to overpower the subtleties of vanilla and, consequently, most of them didn't taste particularly good to me. The rice substitutes never worked for me, either, because I think the strong rice syrup flavor also interferes with the crisp, clean vanilla taste. Cocoa, having a much stronger flavor, holds up much better to the soy and rice flavors.

  Unfortunately for all those who love vanilla and don't eat dairy for one reason or another, my favorite vanilla soy cream was part of the Wholesoy Glace line that was discontinued several years ago. Wholesoy does still sell a lowfat "frozen soy yogurt" (Wholesoyco.com) but I don't think I've ever tried it. Lowfat ice cream (or imitation) seems to me to be a contradiction in terms. Of the brands that are still on the market that I've tried, my favorite is the Double Rainbow Vanilla Bean Soy Cream (DoubleRainbow.com).

  The coconut-based imitations didnt' hit the market until after I started eating real ice cream again so I don't have an opinion about their compatibility with vanilla.

  On A review of six non-dairy ice creams posted 4 months, 1 week ago 30 Responses

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  Ah, I see. Boulder Ice Cream is currently in the process of transitioning to an organic line. A few of their flavors are sold in my local store so I'll check 'em out.

  On A tasting of seven organic ice cream flavors posted 4 months, 2 weeks ago 15 Responses

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  Hi, HEATHASHLI. I don't see any organic ice cream flavors on the Boulder Ice Cream site. Am I missing something?

  On A tasting of seven organic ice cream flavors posted 4 months, 2 weeks ago 15 Responses

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  Ben & Jerry's actually debuted a line of four certified organic ice creams about 5 years ago, but they seem to have quietly discontinued it because those flavors are no longer on their site. I'm betting they ended their organic line due to poor sales. Their organic flavors (Vanilla, Chocolate Fudge Brownie, Sweet Cream & Cookies, and Strawberry) weren't the sort of creative and unusual combinations B&J's has come to be known for, and all but one of those flavors is also available from 100% organic brands that are well-established in the freezer cases of health food stores. Julie's Organic Ice Creams makes Vanilla and Strawberry (and they used to sell a Cookies n' Cream), and Stonyfield Farm makers Gotta Have Vanilla and Cookies 'n Dream. Moreover, Ben & Jerry's had been selling a conventional Chocolate Fudge Brownie for years, so that wasn't a new flavor, just an organic version of an existing flavor.

  I also wonder whether the execs at B&J's and/or Unilever (B&J's parent company) were uncomfortable with selling organic ice creams, fearing that this drew unwanted attention from committed organic buyers to the fact that the great majority of B&J's flavors are conventional.

  On A tasting of seven organic ice cream flavors posted 4 months, 2 weeks ago 15 Responses