The Ben & Jerry's Non-Dairy meets
the So Delicious Dairy Free
21 flavors, oat milk base, the biggest non-dairy lineup in the freezer aisle. We tested it head-to-head against the So Delicious Dairy Free ($4.99) across 6 key dimensions.
Ben & Jerry's Non-Dairy
“21 flavors, oat milk base, the biggest non-dairy lineup in the freezer aisle”
So Delicious Dairy Free
“The blind-taste-test champion with three milk bases and a price that works weekly”
Head-to-Head Breakdown
Strengths & Weaknesses
Ben & Jerry's Non-Dairy
- Ranked #1 by Tasting Table across 21 vegan brands and #1 by VegNews for oat milk ice cream, the only brand to top two independent rankings simultaneously
- 21 non-dairy flavors means you can stock a full freezer rotation without repeating, something no other vegan brand can match
- Mashed reviewer called Milk & Cookies 'SHUT THE FRONT DOOR fantastic' and said it may surpass the original dairy version
- Reviewed's 12-person taste panel ranked it only #5, calling out icy and grainy texture with excessive sweetness compared to dairy originals
- At $5.99 per pint, you're paying a premium over store brands like Trader Joe's ($3.99) for what some tasters found to be uneven quality across flavors
- The switch from sunflower butter to oat milk base in 2024 changed the texture profile, and some long-time fans of specific flavors noticed a downgrade
So Delicious Dairy Free
- Won the NECTAR 2026 Tasty Award for ice cream in the largest-ever blind taste test of dairy-free foods, with 2,183 participants across San Francisco and New York
- Three different milk bases (oat, cashew, coconut) let you pick your preferred texture; cashew is the creamiest, oat is the most neutral, coconut is the lightest
- At $4.99 per pint, it's a dollar less than Ben & Jerry's and two dollars less than Oatly, making it the best performer you can buy weekly without flinching
- Reviewed's 12-person panel ranked it #9 of 11 brands, with tasters flagging 'aggressive saltiness/sweetness imbalance' and a strong coconut off-flavor in the coconut-based line
- Quality varies sharply between milk bases: the cashew line is excellent, the oat line is solid, and the coconut line splits opinion because the coconut taste overpowers other flavors
- Fewer signature or inventive flavors compared to Ben & Jerry's; the lineup skews toward classic profiles (vanilla, chocolate, caramel) without the chunky, swirled options
The Verdict
Our Bottom Line
Ben & Jerry's is the only vegan ice cream brand that ranked #1 in two independent sources simultaneously: Tasting Table's 21-brand ranking and VegNews's oat milk ice cream roundup. Tasting Table's Sara Klimek praised the 'impressive flavor selection, chunkiness, and overall pizazz.' VegNews highlighted the brand's full transition to an oat milk base in 2024, calling it a meaningful improvement over the older sunflower butter and almond milk formulations.
Ben & Jerry's Non-Dairy
Ben & Jerry's is the only vegan ice cream brand that ranked #1 in two independent sources simultaneously: Tasting Table's 21-brand ranking and VegNews's oat milk ice cream roundup. Tasting Table's Sara Klimek praised the 'impressive flavor selection, chunkiness, and overall pizazz.' VegNews highlighted the brand's full transition to an oat milk base in 2024, calling it a meaningful improvement over the older sunflower butter and almond milk formulations.
- You want the widest flavor selection so everyone in the household can pick a favorite
- You shop at mainstream groceries and want something you can always find on the shelf
- You care about creative, chunky, loaded-with-mix-ins flavors (brownie pieces, cookie dough, caramel swirls)
- You're feeding a group and want a crowd-pleasing brand that non-vegans recognize and trust
- You value Fair Trade certified ingredients and a brand with decades of social responsibility track record
So Delicious Dairy Free
So Delicious won the NECTAR 2026 Tasty Award in the ice cream category, and that matters because NECTAR's blind taste test was the largest ever conducted for dairy-free foods: 2,183 participants in San Francisco and New York, rating products on a seven-point scale for flavor, texture, and appearance. Winning a blind test at that scale, where brand recognition plays zero role, is hard to argue with.
- You buy vegan ice cream weekly and want solid quality without paying premium prices
- You're experimenting with different milk bases (oat, cashew, coconut) to find what you prefer
- You prioritize blind-tested quality over brand name recognition or flavor novelty
- Budget matters, and the $1 per pint savings over Ben & Jerry's adds up across a year of weekly purchases
- You want the cashew milk line specifically, which several reviewers called the creamiest affordable option