coffee

I think by now, every vegan has tried at least a few non-dairy ice creams. I know I have. But what I didn't realize is just how many options there are these days. There were so many options, in fact, that I had to restrict our taste test to vanilla-only, just to keep it manageable. In this taste test, we tested 12 brands of vegan vanilla ice cream, but we could have tested many more.

I'm really happy to say that we found 5 really excellent options in our taste test. And all of our top five choices have different ingredients and bases. So if you can't find a particular brand in your area, or if you're allergic to a certain ingredient, you can likely still find an amazing non-dairy vanilla ice cream option that works for you.

It wasn't too long ago that vegan creamers were hard to come by. But today there is a plethora of vegan coffee creamers out there, and so there's a new problem: it can be hard to know which one to choose. Many simply don't stack up to their dairy counterparts. A good creamer provides richness and can even balance some of the bitterness of coffee.

To find out which creamer is the "cream of the vegan crop," I sat down with two friends (one vegan, one not) to taste-test eleven creamers and barista milks.

“It's just one cup of coffee a day, I know people who drink 3, or 4, or 5... I'm definitely not addicted.”

“Most days, coffee is the only thing I have to look forward to—it's my self-care ritual.”

“I can't focus without my coffee.”

These were all things I told myself to justify my caffeine habit. I'm not the type of person who likes to be dependent on anyone or anything, but I felt sure I wasn't addicted. Until one day, I was really short on money and I couldn't get groceries until payday. That was 5 days away. And I was out of coffee.