Turtle Mountain Adds New Dairy-Free Flavors

I'd said before that I appreciate the hard time reporters have, writing on new subjects every day, but I wish reporters would get things right more often.

Take this article by Anna Ferguson of the Gwinnett Daily Post.

The name reads Purely Decadent. Well, that sounds promising. And then the ice cream label states it is dairy-free. For a die-hard ice cream eater, the two just don’t go together. But for the lactose-intolerant, the thought of ice-cold ice cream, without the stomach pains later, is a dream come true.

Turtle Mountain recently introduced pints of dairy-free, gluten-free chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream to its the Purely Decadent line, as the first dairy-free cookie dough flavor available on the market. The ice cream is delicious. It’s rich and creamy rather than gritty, like most non-dairy options. All-natural, gluten-free and vegan-friendly, the recipe is seriously sweet, presumably to make up for the lack of cream.

If you’re looking at this as a diet version of ice cream, be warned: there is nothing light about it — from calories to taste. It packs the same nutritional punch as the regular dairy version, with the same satisfying flavor.

Retailing for $3.49 a pint, the ice cream is sold at select grocery and natural food stores. Visit www.turtlemountain.com

Despite the mention of a lack of cream, I don't see how anybody reading that could help but think that Turtle Mountain Purely Decadent is ice cream.

It isn't. It's a soy-based, non-dairy ice cream substitute. Some people may certainly find it to be an acceptable substitute, but many won't. There are real lactose-free ice creams on the market, from companies like Lactaid and Breyer's. But those are not the same as the many soy- or rice-based substitutes.

And Ferguson doesn't even get the whole Turtle Mountain story. They've introduced three other flavors as well: Coconut Craze; Pomegranate Chip; and So Very Strawberry.

Turtle Mountain also notes that its Purely Decadent products have "less than half the fat of Super Premium Dairy Ice Cream" and contain "only 65% of the calories." That may or may not make them light, but they are still not quite the same either.

None of this is to say that Turtle Mountain isn't a fine product. I've been listing them for years on the Frozen Desserts page in my Product Clearinghouse. But they don't make ice cream and don't claim to. They strive for a superior ice cream substitute. Make the distinction clear.