Ice Cream News

Whole Foods Market releases new line of vegan ice creams

Mint chip on the left, mocha java fudge on the right.

Whole Foods Market has launched a new line of nondairy ice creams under its 365 Everyday Value brand.

The ice creams began appearing in stores in mid- to late-May. There are seven flavors: vanilla, chocolate, mint chocolate chip, mocha java fudge, chocolate chip peanut butter swirl, coconut almond bliss, and berry chantilly cake.

The grocery chain joins a movement that is blowing up. Market research company Technavio calls vegan ice cream "a major trend;" trend-watching Nielsen notes that it's the biggest-growing segment of the entire ice cream market.

Five years ago, the only vegan ice creams you could buy at the grocery came from vegan brands such as So Delicious, Nada Moo, and Dream, maker of the best soy milk, Soy Dream.

But in 2016, Ben & Jerry's blazed a trail of newcomers by debuting a nondairy line of ice creams made with almond milk. They've since been followed by Haagen Dazs, who launched its not-as-good nondairy line in January 2017; and Breyers, who introduced an almond milk ice cream in May 2017 with two flavors, Oreo and vanilla peanut butter.

Like Ben & Jerry's, Whole Foods' offering is made with almond milk, and contains two ingredients popular in vegan dairy items: pea protein (dubbed "the new 'It' ingredient") and a thickener called gellan gum.

Whole Foods' line is less creamy than Ben & Jerry's, especially on the flavors that have mix-ins such as chips and nuts. On those, the mix-in ingredients are shredded small and widespread, so it's impossible to get a segment of ice cream without stuff in it. Lots to chew, which makes it less about the ice cream itself.

Here are our ratings on the Whole Foods' vegan ice creams, in reverse order of appeal:

Vanilla and chocolate. As overwhelming as the mix-ins can be, these two options seemed almost dull without them. But they do afford the opportunity to fully observe the texture: mildly ice-milky, i.e. a tiny bit thin with some ice crystals, but still ice creamy. They're not using great chocolate or vanilla, so their flavor is generic.

Coconut almond bliss. This was the chunkiest, with the most stuff in it — too much stuff. Way. It had finely chopped almonds and tons of coconut, which was toasted, for a seriously coconutty experience.

Mint chocolate chip. A prototypical ice cream flavor, this had a pretty pale-green color, with small chocolate chip shreds in slightly over-generous quantity. It would have been preferable to get a little more ice cream and just a few less chips. The mint flavor was penetrating, like a sharp dart, and in its favor, not too sweet, with a thinnish ice-milk consistency that was not entirely unpleasant.

Mocha java fudge. Pioneered back in the day by Baskin-Robbins, this classic flavor consists of coffee ice cream swirled with chocolate syrup. It had great creaminess, but was marred by what tasted like a hint of cinnamon in the coffee flavor, which made it taste cheap.

Chocolate chip peanut butter swirl. A vanilla ice cream base with a fair amount of chocolate chips and a thick peanut-butter swirl. The peanut-butter swirl is the best part: not too sweet, and it stays in firm shards. When you take a bite, the vanilla ice cream melts away, leaving the residual peanut butter which is almost chewy.

Berry chantilly cake. This is a clever riff on Whole Foods' signature cake with vanilla cake, berries, and whipped cream, and it does a good job of approximating that cake's almost perfumey combination of flavors.

It has a vanilla-esque ice cream base, swirled with a ribbon of mixed berry syrup, made of strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries — no seeds, just a reddish-purple glaze. It tastes like vanilla cake, with an appealing cakey fakeness, almost like the flavor of Cool Whip, and the texture is excellent: super creamy, bordering on fluffy.

Strangely, it had no cake. This seemed not only out of step with the rest of the line but also a lost opportunity.

One interesting aspect about the Whole Foods line is portion size. It's two-thirds of a cup, rather than the unrealistic quarter-cup that most manufacturers list.

While not the best vegan ice cream, Whole Foods has good options and is now available in all stores.

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Belles of the Ballroom

9 Austin bar and venue experts take over popular Old Austin space near UT

29th Street Ballroom/Facebook

Changes are coming at the 29th Street Ballroom, but the goal is to preserve what already makes it special.

The evolution continues at the 29th Street Ballroom, the music venue formerly attached to Spider House Café. It's no secret, Resound Presents CEO and co-founder Graham Williams says, that he and a large team of other industry pros are taking over the space; but now they're ready to talk about what comes next for the venue and adjoining bar.

Although Spider House Café closed in 2020, the Ballroom stayed open, and has continued serving University of Texas students and anyone else who wants to see a show outside of the ordinary: punk shows, burlesque revues, fundraisers, and more. It'll stay open through most of the renovations, scheduled through January of 2025, and is expected to hold a grand opening in March.

Now Resound — one of Austin's top live music organizers, which was itself born from the ashes of another Austin institution — is lending two of its co-founders to managing the space going forward: Williams and Ian Orth. They're joining seven other team members from venues around town, many of them overlapping: Amy Mullins, Brian Tweedy, Jason McNeely, John Yaklin, and Shannon LeBoeuf of Hotel Vegas, Chess Club, Kinda Tropical, Tweedy’s, and Yellow Jacket Social Club, in varying capacities; and Brian Buscemi and Mike Sanchez of the Little Darlin’.

Williams emphasizes that although things will be changing at the Ballroom, the goal isn't to change anything people already love.

"Over the next few months as we kind of ease into the spring, we're using this downtime to revitalize things, decorate, revamp some of the stuff in the venue and the bar, and just kind of get things moving in the right direction," Williams says, "taking what's already popular about the venue and just adding to it, really."

Bar updates
The biggest shift will be turning the bar from an accessory to live shows into its own entity that's open even when there's nothing else going on. Amy Mullins, best known as a co-owner of Yellow Jacket Social Club, is overseeing that transition. She's never operated a venue that is primarily focused on music, and has been enjoying learning more about how to do it; she even worked the door recently when a staff member called out sick.

Mullins echoes Williams in assuring that the change is more about logistics than tone. It'll still feel like Old Austin, but she does express a hope to run more than the "typical venue bar," handing out simple drinks as quickly as possible. She's working on a new menu that includes wine, beer, craft cocktails, and non-alcoholic options like tea, kombucha, or mocktails. Regardless of what's on the schedule on any given night, Mullins says the menu will stay the same.

"There's no drink too complicated for us to make, however busy we are," she says.

Food options
Another goal for the team will be making sure the space works when there's not someone onstage to crowd around. They'll expand the front and side patios and create a food truck food court that features the same trucks that are there now, plus one newcomer. All in all, that includes Yalla Burger & Wings, Gyro Center, Li’l Nonna’s Vegan Pizzeria, Guppy’s Indian Fried Chicken, Waylon J’s BBQ, and Ay Chihuahua Tacos.

The expanded patio will connect to Tweedy's Bar next door, which also has its own food trucks. The idea is to create a space to hang out after shows that feels fit for the purpose. It's possible to stick around after events now, but the layout does create a vague feeling of loitering.

Artist and fan-friendly tweaks
On the entertainment side, Williams says some of the renovations include putting in a new sound system, redoing the green room, updating the facade, and repainting signs. Since the winter is a slower time for live music, they'll be taking advantage of the extra time to work on things before packing the calendar with more events than before. Resound will handle most of the bookings in live music, comedy, and DJ sets, welcoming both national and local talent.

Whatever the details end up being, this team has proved to Austinites that they know how to run venues worth visiting. And since they're all friends and business partners on multiple levels, it sounds like having this many cooks in the kitchen just isn't an issue.

"Some of us have been roommates and known each other since we were young," says Williams. "It's a good mix of people who are all very like minded, so a lot is being brought to the table per decision. So yeah, it's it's really exciting. Sometimes that's not the case. .... But with this project, it's a lot of really great, creative people that are good at what they do [and] they trust each other."

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