Halo Top Just Released Low-Cal, Dairy-Free Ice Cream, But Is It Any Good?

Halo Top ice cream first landed in Canada this past March with 12 low-calorie, low-sugar flavours from its original dairy-laden line. However, lactose-intolerant and vegan folks were left out of this freezer aisle frenzy, until now.

Halo Top — the American ice cream company that encourages customers to "stop when you hit the bottom" of the pint — has just announced it will be introducing dairy-free flavours across Canada in select big-box grocery stores (Loblaws, Sobeys and Metro locations in Ontario).

Like other non-dairy ice creams, Halo Top uses an alternative milk to get that creamy texture we all crave. In this case, coconut milk. And like all Halo Top products, these pints contain erythritol (a sugar alcohol) and stevia extract to keep the calories and sugar down. But how do they taste? I recently got a chance to try all four flavours — here's what I thought.

The Halo Top Dairy-Free Flavours

Peanut Butter Swirl

I could just be a sucker for anything with peanut butter, but this ice cream hits all the right notes. It is decadent and creamy — definitely not what you'd expect from vegan diet food. Best of all, it has a peanut butter swirl running through it.

Chocolate

It's hard to mess up chocolate ice cream, even if it's made without dairy. This one is pretty standard, though surprisingly rather chocolatey, and I'd happily eat it without a second thought.

Toasted Coconut

Since this ice cream-like product has a coconut-milk base, the flavour popped. All four options had a subtle grittiness to them, but it's especially pronounced in the toasted coconut flavour. I'd give this one high marks for taste, but not for texture.

Birthday Cake

Normally, I love birthday cake ice cream, but this one didn't deliver the vanilla punch I crave in a funfetti-flecked scoop. I also found it a bit gritty, much like the toasted coconut flavour.

I was dubious going into this tasting because as much as I want to love dairy-free ice cream, many of them have an overpowering nut milk flavour (I also found regular Halo Top disappointing when I tried it in March). So I was pleasantly surprised with these options, and would happily polish off a pint of peanut butter swirl.

How to make ginger beer ice cream floats: