Coconut Milk Ice Cream

WHY DID NOBODY TELL ME THAT SUCH A THING EXISTED?  SERIOUSLY!!

A couple of weeks ago I was in my local Trader Joe's and saw coconut milk ice cream for the first time.  The idea makes perfect sense.  Coconut milk has a mellow flavor and it goes great with chocolate.  Unfortunately, I didn't buy it, and the next time I was there, they didn't have it.

Fast forward to today.  I found myself in Whole Foods looking for the fixings for cornbread, and I came across a rather large selection of coconut milk ice creams from So Delicious.  These ice-creams are dairy-free and come in a wide range of flavors, including chocolate, chocolate mint, turtle trails, coconut, cookie dough, green tea, pomegranate chip, and others.  Since pomegranate is my favorite fruit, I chose pomegranate chip. 

Calorie-wise, the pomegranate chip coconut milk ice cream has about 130 calories per 1/2 cup serving (about half of what you'd find in Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia).  When I lifted the first spoonful to my mouth, I didn't quite know what to expect.  Was it going to be very coconutty or would the chocolate and pomegranate overwhelm the taste of the coconut?  Is coconut and pomegranate a gross combination?  Will I be stuck with a whole pint of something disgusting?

Well, when I took my first bite, I was pleasantly surprised.  The coconut taste was there, but it was very mellow.  It was also the first flavor that hit my tongue, but the flavor did not linger as it was soon replaced by a well balanced pomegranate flavor.  The final flavor to join the trifecta was chocolate which sang a beautiful harmony with the two accompanying flavors.  As I continued to eat, the coconut flavor sunk to the background.  It was still there, but it definitely was no longer the lead singer. 

I have tried a number of vegan ice creams, as I have mentioned before.  Rice milk ice cream was very icy and left an odd freezer burn aftertaste.  Soy milk ice cream (aside from the kind that I had at Oh Yeah! in Pittsburgh) left an unpleasant film in my mouth and had a weird fatty aftertaste.  Both tasted processed.  This was the first carton of non-dairy ice cream that I have eaten that tasted completely natural. 

I am eager to try other flavors from the aptly named "So Delicious" company but I fear for my waistline, so that will have to wait for another time.