Sunday, April 06, 2008

Coconut Bliss: A Review

Fear not, dear readers! My recent absence from blogging is not because of my very bad veganness or because I'm bored with ice cream. Unfortunately, I've been ill for a few months now, and haven't had the time or the energy to make up any new recipes. (And, no, before you ask, I am not ill because I am vegan. I've seen four internists, six specialists, two naturopaths, two acupuncturists, and one shaman. No one has suggested that my diet has any relation to my ongoing illness.)

Anyway. Since I'm not up to making my own ice cream, my poor husband has had to start buying his ice cream at the grocery store. However, this led to a wonderful discovery! I heard about Larry and Luna's Coconut Bliss from a reader quite some time ago, but I didn't purchase any until recently. My husband found it at our local co-op, and it was on sale. Normally this runs about five or six dollars a pint--yikes! Since it was on sale, though, he picked some up for us to review. Our sample: Cherry Amaretto.

The verdict: I love that I can recognize all the ingredients on the label: organic coconut milk, organic agave syrup, organic cherries, organic vanilla extract, organic almond extract. Cool. (They're also gluten-free, which is great for those with allergies.) Also, the texture was quite creamy, though it does freeze pretty hard. The label says to let it sit at room temperature for five to ten minutes before serving. I'm too impatient and would just microwave it for a few seconds to soften it up. And, most importantly, it was yummy. I think my husband polished off the entire pint in about four days.

Unfortunately, this brand isn't available nationwide
yet. Their website says you can check stores in Washington, Oregon, Northern California, Hawaii, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho. If your local Whole Foods or other health/natural food store doesn't carry it, you can always request that they try carrying it!

30 comments:

  1. Thanks for the update! I'm sorry to hear that your health has been poor and I wish you all the best and a speedy recovery. I missed your posts!

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  2. i just found your site again after seeing it a while ago and not adding it to my reader and then promptly forgetting it. you know, the ol' "out of sight out of mind."

    for a treat, i'm gonna make the fancy vanilla and some gingersnap cookies for the kiddos for lunch today. (yep, just the cookies and ice cream, you're a bad vegan, i'm a bad mom)

    you know, i could have commented on the vanilla post, it would have made more sense, but oh well. here i am and just wanting to say, thanks for taking the time to figure these recipes out...

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  3. Nice to see a post from you, I hope you're feeling better these days.
    I've seen this at my co-op, I'll have to check it out!

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  4. I hate that you've been sick, but glad to see you back now. I suppose it will be forever before this ice cream gets to Texas. We NEED lots of ice cream here!

    It's gluten free AND soy free!

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  5. Anonymous7:22 PM

    Thank you. I've been looking for a vegan ice cream site for a while.

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  6. I have seen this ice cream and wondered how "coconutty" it is. I love coconut but hubby doesn't. Nonteheless, I will pick some up based on your recomendation thursday when I'm near the market.

    Been checking weekly for you, glad to see a new posting. My Father-inlaw will be getting Guinness Soy Cream for his birthday next weekend!

    Cheers and good Health!
    Shann in Spokane

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  7. Anonymous5:57 AM

    feel better soon!

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  8. Hi there! I'm not Vegan, but I do try to eat vegetarian or vegan at least twice a week in an effort to be more environmentally and health conscious :D I also find it fascinating to know what kind of foods I'm actually putting in my body and well, ice cream rocks.

    I just wanted to say that I was intrigued by the last two posts and I'm sorry that I wasn't able to comment on them.

    It's intriguing because this morning I was just reading a post about Wine by Allergic Girl on Worry-Free-Dinners were they were talking about how Wine is sometimes fined (like Guiness) with Milk or Dairy -- or in the case of Guinness with Fish.

    Very strange indeed, here is the link

    http://worryfreedinners.blogspot.com/2008/04/allergic-to-wine.html

    Also, mmmh to Coconut & dark chocolate ice cream! Sorry if this comment was a bit off topic, but I thought you would be interested in the post as a Vegan!

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  9. Anonymous11:20 AM

    Hope you feel better soon. You may have just caught a flu-like virus turned into lots of other things. It happened to a friend of mine and she developed numerous other complications that had nothing to do with feeling like you have the flu (neurological, cardio), but just an effect of her body being worn out and some of the muscle mass she lost while bedridden.

    Although it took a few months to recover, she's doing as great now (back to long bike rides, regained weight, etc.) and yes-she went through ridiculous numbers of doctors who were clueless until she found the one that was smart enough to pinpoint it...any Northwestern trained docs in your area:)?

    Until you find one, I suggest lots of vegan ice cream as treatment while monitoring your condition!

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  10. Anonymous3:35 PM

    Sorry to hear you aren't well, but I'm glad you are back! I have only been reading your blog for a month or two, but was worried you'd dissapeared after the last post and no new ones! :o

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  11. Anonymous5:38 PM

    I am a new vegan with a new ice-cream maker and I think this blog rocks! When you send out a positive message as you do (and especially when you share yummy things!) I think that makes you the best kind of vegan of all :)

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  12. please feel better! thanks for the heads-up about the yummies... i greatly value your opinion, because you are the queen of vegan ice cream as far as i'm concerned.

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  13. Anonymous9:29 AM

    Coconut Bliss ice cream...wow, sounds very intriguing! Will have to watch for it.

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  14. Anonymous3:32 PM

    Hi-googled "can i make vegan ice cream in my ice cream maker" and it took me right here. After perusing your recipes I made it my mission to acquire an ice cream maker. Got a Cuisinart 2 qt and their recipes have turned out well (veganized,of course). Now, I can't wait to try out some of your awesome recipes and some of the cool ideas I've got in my head too.
    Thanks so much for your blog and your creativity!! Gonna try your caramel sauce on chocolate chocolate chip tonight. Sorry to hear you haven't been feeling well and hope things improve for you very soon.

    Radar

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  15. Just found your blog... I can't wait to try some of these declicious recipes you've come up with!!

    Hope you get better soon!

    Super-nice blog by the way...

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  16. I hope you feel better. I've been sick pretty much since November. There's something nasty going around, that's for sure.

    This stuff is delicious! We've tried both the vanilla and mint varieties and we still have a pint of dark chocolate in the freezer. I'll have to look for the cherry amaretto - that sounds yummy!

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  17. I live in Seattle and this coconut cream ice cream is unreal - so damn good. The best is the dark chocolate - it reminds me of rich chocolate ice cream I had as a kid - with a flavor similar to a Wendy's Frosty. Such amazing texture and ridiculous. I ignore the calorie counts but it is a real treat. I love the coconut flavor one (the only one that has a super coconut flavor to it) and I love the vanilla one too. It doesnt take long to finish it off in our house.

    glad to see you are back!

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  18. Anonymous8:32 PM

    We miss reading your vegan ice cream posts. We hope you are getting better!

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  19. I came across your blog while looking for soy ice cream recipes and am so happy that I found it! My son is allergic to eggs, dairy, peanuts, and rice, so it's hard to buy a lot of things for him in the grocery store. We live in a very remote part of Montana with two small grocery stores and where the closest co-op/organic grocery store is 4.5 hours away. So the need to find good recipes is important to us.

    Thank You - Thank You!

    I do hope that you're feeling better. We'll be sending you good wishes from Montana.

    All the best,
    Laura & Crean

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  20. Hey there-

    I don't know how I only just now discovered your blog, but I am SO GLAD I did! I've had "Vice Cream" for years, but we've never had an ice cream maker (the book was a gift). I was trying to decide whether I was too cheap to shell out for an ice cream maker and I found you, and, hello, I am NOT too cheap - not when gorgeous recipes like these are around!

    Thanks so much!
    xoxox, a long-time vegan, MJ

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  21. Anonymous2:19 PM

    I just read your post from February 13th about being a "Bad Vegan". I'm not vegan, but my boyfriend's friends are and I have been researching it a lot lately. I think that it's great that after reading a lot of propaganda, that I read something informative from the perspective of a vegan who I feel isn't taking things to the extreme. I think it can be awfully demanding and silly to think that you will make sure that every place you will ever eat is not going to let your food touch where a meat or meat byproduct had been cooked. My boyfriend and I are both reducing the amount of animal products we consume, but I don't think I will ever go completely vegan. I have read a lot of good recipes and reasons to be vegan, but I find it very disheartening to first read all of this propaganda like "most" or "almost all" sugar manufacturers use bone char and then read factual information on places like wikipedia, that it's actually only 1/4 of manufacturers and more still are switching to activated charcoal . I can't believe that others freak out because someone may or may not, at some point, be using sugar from one of those companies or that someone wrote a recipe that said to use the ingredient "Guinness" and not "Extra Stout Guinness" without knowing that by SOME definitions of veganism one version might NOT be vegan. I can definitely see where both sides come from, but I don't see why everyone doesn't realize that there are gray areas and we all have to respect everyone else's personal definition of what is vegan and what is not. Or that if it's not something you usually consume, you probably don't know how it's manufactured. What are you supposed to do, call up every company that makes a drink to ask them if at any point they use an animal byproduct in the creation of their product even if they dont actually use animal products in the drink? Reading your post made me want to jump up and say "BRAVO" because I doubt that any one of them has never done anything that someone else would think is a little hypocritical or they thought might be a little wrong, even by accident. You stated that it was a recipe from a non-vegan and I don't think everyone can know whether every single food made in this world is vegan or not based on whether or not at some point in the process they used some material that at one point in time came from an animal anyway. And as it turned out, Extra Stout Guinness is vegan anyway. So thank you for that post, it was pretty inspirational.

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  22. Anonymous6:36 AM

    I love the post below!
    I have been a vegan for a little over a year now, and I am becoming more and more turned off with how the vegans make me feel guilty for not following every single rule they have.
    It's nice to see someone who doesn't say that using honey makes me one who is "hurting the cause" or "not a real vegan." What the heck is that? Shouldn't I live by my own conscious and not by the rule of some club?
    Anyway, thank you for your post.

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  23. Anonymous1:13 AM

    I also really appreciated your post below. I think that boycotting the microscopic ingredients does nothing to reduce suffering that may or may not have been used in the processing of a product. Should we also boycott foods that were transported in trucks with leather seats?

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  24. you're my hero! posting a link to your blog on my website asap...this site is genius!

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  25. very cool. i just read an article on ayurvedic eating in the summertime, and apparently coconut is a very cooling fruit. hence i have taken every opportunity to make an excuse to indulge in the stuff, and this will be another one to add to my repertoire....(think coconut-frosted cupcakes every other week...mmm....)

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  26. MMMM... I had the mint flavored Coconut Bliss and fell in love. The only issue were the calories! Well, that and I couldn't stop eating it!

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  27. Anonymous8:22 PM

    Just tried vanilla coconut bliss. Have to say it was absolutely decadent. I love that it has agave syrup and no soy. Very creamy and blisssful! Hope you are feeling better.

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  28. Thank you for the reccomendation! I will definitely try it asap.

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  29. Anonymous6:19 PM

    I love this "ice-cream" however it's not as healthy as it seems - lots of saturated fat - read the label - really disappointed since i was so happy when i discovered it

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