We Tried 10 Kinds of Non-Dairy Chocolate Ice Cream and These Are Our Favorites

A few months ago, I decided to quit dairy-based ice cream. I finally reached a place where my body completely rejected it, so I took that curse as an opportunity to fully explore the world of non-dairy ice cream (or frozen dessert if you're a stickler).

Whatever reason you have for giving up or moving away from dairy, know this: We have entered a golden age of non-dairy ice cream, with various nut and plant-based milks to choose from — and these pints can totally hang with their lactose-rich predecessors.

Although I've tried other flavors, I've mostly gone for chocolate non-dairy ice cream because it's a hard flavor to mess up. In most cases, the chocolate will overpower or at least complement the base alternative milk. Using that logic, we tried 10 non-dairy chocolate ice creams, either available in stores or online, to determine which reigned supreme.

Best Non-Dairy Chocolate Ice Cream at a Glance

Best Overall: Talenti Dairy-Free Sorbetto, Dark Chocolate
Best Texture: Cado Avocado Frozen Dessert, Non-Dairy, Deep Dark Chocolate
Best Dark Chocolate: Revolution Plant-Based Gelato, Dark Chocolate
Best Almond Milk: Breyers Non-Dairy Frozen Dessert, Chocolate Chocolate Chip
Best Cashew Milk: Forager Project Cashewmilk Frozen Dessert, Bittersweet Chocolate
Best Coconut Milk: NadaMoo! Organic Chocolate Frozen Dessert
Best Oat Milk: Oatly Chocolate Non-Dairy Frozen Dessert

What We Looked For When Ranking Non-Dairy Chocolate Ice Cream

Availability: You likely will have to carefully scan the ice cream selection until you see "non-dairy" or "plant-based." We didn't want to make the search harder and suggest elusive ice creams, so I visited a Publix in search of general brands and a Whole Foods to look for smaller, but still beloved brands and chose what I could find there. For that reaso, some non-dairy gourmet pints, like Jeni's or Ample Hills, didn't make the cut. I also didn't try any store brands.

Flavor: I searched to find non-dairy ice creams with pure chocolate flavor. That means no chocolate-peanut better, no chocolate with caramel, and as few ice creams with altered forms of chocolate, such as fudge or chips, as possible. I'm sure those ice creams are all great, but they're not what I'm looking for in a true chocolate flavor.

Texture: Technology has advanced so dairy-free ice cream can actually be creamy now, but nobody wants something that's more ice than cream.

Price: Anyone who strays away from dairy products knows that plant-based products are more expensive. That higher cost may be inevitable, but shoppers can at least know if any of the less expensive brands are good, as well as whether the more expensive brands are worth the money.

How We Tested Each Non-Dairy Chocolate Ice Cream

Since this taste test involved a lot of sugar, I tried the ice creams in small groups rather than all at once. This helped me deliberate with super similar products: For example, all of the coconut milk ice creams were in the same group. To level out my bias towards dairy-free ice cream, I enlisted the help of my dairy-loving boyfriend, who is super receptive to trying new things. There were a few times I had to intervene so he wouldn't down the entire pint in one sitting, which is proof that even a dairy diehard can fall for a dairy-free ice cream.