It’s peak ice cream season—and vegan flavors are (finally) making its mark on menus. Here’s a taste of what local purveyors are scooping up, sans dairy.
Rosie’s Handcrafted Ice Cream (431 Main St., East Aurora) rotates through five of 18 handcrafted vegan flavors for its cones and milkshakes plus different fruit-themed and tropical sorbets. Threat Level Midnight, a Belgian dark chocolate and Dutch cocoa in an oat-milk base, is one of its most popular vegan options. You’ll also find Cookie Butter Brunch, featuring brown sugar and a cinnamon oat-milk base along with cookie butter and Biscoff cookies.
Deacon and Cassie Tasker, who opened Rosie’s in April 2021 and plan on growing with a second location in 2023, discovered that oat milk works as a great base for its vegan flavors.
“We found that it melts in your mouth kind of how dairy does,” Deacon says.
“I feel like everyone is always surprised at how closely it resembles a dairy product,” Cassie adds.
Sweet Jenny’s Chocolates & Ice Cream (56 E Spring St., Williamsville) offers 50 different flavors each day with four vegan options. These dairy-free flavors are available for scooping in cones, pints or quarts or as cakes, pies and milkshakes.
Making vegan ice cream for over a decade has given Sweet Jenny’s plenty of time to experiment with new flavors using either oat, almond or coconut-milk bases.
Tara and Howard Cadmus took over Sweet Jenny’s 12 years ago, and it was the vegan flavors that they initially gave their kids when they were younger because it is easier to digest.
“The vegan options aren’t just for people who are vegan,” Howard says. “Sometimes people want a lower sugar or a healthier alternative.”
Their most popular dairy-free picks are the sweeter flavors, ones that Tara says mimics the indulgence that comes with eating regular ice cream. “I think what we do here is an affordable luxury,” she says.
Marty Fredericks makes the ice cream at Sweet Jenny’s and introduced its vegan options in 2020. His son’s dairy intolerance has inspired him to go above and beyond when it comes to creating new flavors.
“As a father of someone who can’t eat dairy,” Marty says, “it becomes your mission to find all of the places and all of the areas that aren’t just commercial products. People still want to have that artisan feel.”
PJ Cools Ice Cream Shoppe (6160 Transit Rd., Depew) is open for their seventh season. Its dairy-free flavors include a pineapple and a strawberry dole whip, blueberry pancake ice cream made with oats, lemon sorbet and vanilla and cookies and cream ice cream made with almond milk, along with milkshakes.
Owners Joe and Paula Mancini take a lot of pride in how cautious they are when it comes to allergies and dietary restrictions.
“We’ve had so many kids come in with their parents where they got their very first ice cream,” Joe says. The spot takes every precaution necessary to avoid cross contamination and is mentioned frequently on the Greater Buffalo Food Allergy Alliance Facebook page. “We do everything that we can to make parents and people feel safe and comfortable.”
Churn Soft Serve & Coffee (1501 Hertel Ave., Buffalo) offers a vegan coconut soft serve made with coconut milk, pure cane sugar and sea salt. The flavor is subtle and closely resembles ice cream made from dairy products. Get it in a cone, or as the base for one of its beloved sundae concoctions (often topped with fresh-made churros).
