Last year I was fortunate enough to go to a vegan cooking competition in New York called Veggie Conquest. While there I met lots of really interesting, motivated vegetarians and vegans and got to sample lots of fine food. One of the more memorable tastings of the evening was from a small ice cream company called Raw Ice Cream Company. The owner of the company was there and kindly offered me a couple of flavors to check out. I have to admit, my first impression before tasing this raw ice cream was that it would somehow be lacking. Upon closer inspection I found that this ice cream was unlike any other ice cream I've tasted thus far. I sat down to do an in-depth tastig of this ice cream.

Raw Ice Cream Company is a small company out of Long Beach, New York. Their goal is to make delectable ice cream using eco business practices for "hungry vegans". Their containers are paper and 100% recyclable. I'm down with this business philosophly! On the back of the container there is a Why Raw? section explaining the benefits of the raw food lifestyle and how it has all the beneficial enzymes and phytonutrients. I think it's rather silly to tout the health benefits of a dietary lifestyle on an ice cream package. It's still junk food, just a teensy tiny bit less detrimental to your health than traditional ice cream. But not by much.

I don't know about you but I've had my share of vegan ice creams that taste like everything from ice milk to silly putty. You just never know what you're going to get. This ice cream blew me away with it's rich cream-factor. It was just so thick but meled in my mouth to the point of where it's thickness doesn't seem out of place to me. I could see how it's thickness after being melted in the mouth may bother some people however. The ice cream is not really smooth while being handled and the ice cream broke off into chunks as it was being scooped as you can see in the pictures. It took me considerable effort to scoop this ice cream and make it photogenic. Most of the time it ended up falling apart into several small pieces. Having said that, I didn't really care about how much it fell apart when being scooped after I tasted it as you'll see below.

Raw Ice Cream Company Mint Chip

The Taste Test
The Mint Chip ice cream has a thick and smooth mouthfeel. There's no starchy, gummy feel because the base consists of coconut oil and cocoa butter. The primary sweetener, agave syrup not only aids in creaminess, it also inhibits ice crystal formation. There was absolutely no ice crystal formation inside this ice cream even after months in my refrigerator. In the flavor department there is a great initial blast of mint which trails off slightly to reveal chocolate chips bringing up the rear of the flavor journey. There is a slight coconut and cocoa butter flavor which adds great complexity and makes me not miss the lack of dairy flavor that a traditional ice cream would have.

One small issue with this ice cream is also a benefit: it doesn't really melt because it contains saturated fats and probably a hefty dose of cashew cream. Lack of melt can be beneficial when eating this ice cream on a cone. It can also be a an issue if, like me, you love ice cream dripping over a hot brownie or slice of apple pie. Usually I put down many vegan ice creams after a few bites because I grow bored with what it has to offer. My primal instinct told me to keep eating- a sure sign that this is great ice cream.

The Ratings (0 to 5 with 5 being the best)
Overall Flavor: 4
Creaminess: 4
Overall: 4

Ingredients
Organic raw cashews, organic coconut, filtered water, organic agave nectar, organic raw cacao nibs, organic vanilla bean extract, organic mint extract, organic mint, celtic sea salt, organic raw cocoa butter.

Raw Ice Cream Company Chocolate

The Taste Test
The Chocolate ice cream was pretty fascinating. It had all of the creaminess of the Mint Chip but with considerably more flavor complexity. This is probably due to the initial flavors of a combination of coconut oil, cocoa butter and cocoa powder which evolved to a perfect chocolaty finish on the palette. I found it interesting that the ice cream didn't need to hide behind a bunch of added chunks of various ingredients in order to still taste amazing. This flavor still suffered the benefit/drawback of just getting soft instead of melting but the flavor was so intense it really didn't seem to matter. Surprisingly, I don't believe I've ever had a vegan ice cream this good before. I was unable to convince myself to put this ice cream down and had to run to the freezer and put it back so I could save some for writing this review. Seriously!

The Ratings (0 to 5 with 5 being the best)
Overall Flavor: 5
Creaminess: 4
Overall: 5

ingredients
Organic raw cashews, organic coconut, filtered water, organic agave nectar, organic raw cocoa, organic vanilla bean extract, celtic sea salt, organic raw cocoa butter.

Wrap Up

Going into this review I was a little prejudiced and thought this ice cream would be on the mediocre side of things. One of the most fun things about vegan and raw foods is that you never know what you're going to get until you dive in. In order to make this ice cream have unrivaled creaminess and a full bodied mouthfeel, along with flavor complexity driven by coconut oil and cocoa butter, lack of meltability is one of the necessary evils. It also suffers from scoopability issues (I can't believe I just said scoopability) for the same reasons. This ice cream is so flavorful and creamy that you probably won't care. Raw Vegan Ice Cream Company Mint Chip and Chocolate are some of the best vegan ice creams I've ever tasted and I recommend them wholeheartedly.