Ben & Jerry’s Partner With Hollywood Icon for New Vegan Ice Cream Flavor

Ben & Jerry's is always ready to help satisfy America's craving for ice cream, especially among vegan consumers as the company impressively offers over 20 dairy-free flavors. This week, Ava DuVernay –– the highest-grossing Black woman director in American box office history –– announced that she teamed up with Ben & Jerry's to release a vegan ice cream called Lights! Caramel! Action!

Duvernay help Ben & Jerry's craft this specialty flavor over recent months, which will be available in both dairy and vegan variations. The 13th and Selma director worked closely with Ben & Jerry's flavor guru Colleen Rossell to test out her favorite ice cream combinations before arriving at Lights! Caramel! Action! The non-dairy flavor features an almond milk base packed with salted caramel swirls, chocolate chip cookie dough, and graham cracker swirls.

"Ice cream is a simple joy of life. A comfort food that I've turned to on many days –– making sunny ones brighter and dark ones sweeter," DuVernay said. "Partnering with Ben & Jerry's, a company that I've long admired for their commitment to social justice, has been a thrill ride. I had the opportunity to work with food scientists to create a flavor with all the ingredients that I personally love for a cause close to my heart.

Lights! Caramel! Action! will be added to Ben & Jerry's permanent collection. Consumers can expect that the non-dairy versions of the ice cream will ship by January 2023. Ice cream lovers nationwide will be able to find this flavor for $6.49 per pint at retailers or at the brand's countless storefronts across the United States.

Ben & Jerry's new ice cream arrives after the company's fans acknowledged that Black women were consistently unrepresented in the brand's several ambassadors and initiatives. Now, DuVernay intends to create an ice cream pint to support Black women in the film industry and her non-profit ARRAY Alliance. DuVernay's proceeds will help benefit the social impact work of her non-profit to help elevate artists of color and women directors through grants mentorship, and education.

"Framing this up as a new flavor for the first Black woman to be a featured partner on our pints doesn't do Ava justice," Matthew McCarthy, Ben & Jerry's CEO, said. "We are humbled by this partnership, impressed by her work sharing not only the struggle but the joy in the justice, and we are inspired by her commitment and vision."

Now, Ben & Jerry's aims to help promote DuVernay's mission through its new personally created Lights! Caramel! Action! flavor, benefiting ARRAY directly through its ice cream sales. ARRAY Alliance helps promote the work of artists and directors of color through four distinct initiatives including the film distribution arm ARRAY Releasing, the content company ARRAY Filmworks, the programming and production hub ARRAY Creative Campus, and the non-profit group ARRAY Alliance.

"Beyond being downright delicious, proceeds from Lights! Caramel! Action! will help ARRAY Alliance further its non-profit mission of inclusion and belonging in the film and TV industries. A worthy and delicious endeavor," DuVernay said.

This ice cream flavor continues on DuVernay's previous work to both help promote Black voices and veganism. The acclaimed director rarely speaks about her vegan diet, but she released an article titled “Black Vegans Step Out, for Their Health and Other Causes” in the New York Times in 2017.

“Like many food trends that seem new, Black veganism has historical roots,” DuVernay tweeted, sharing a quote from the article. “For a lot of Black people, it’s also about social justice and food access. The food we’ve been eating has been killing us.”

DuVernay's collaboration with Ben & Jerry's adds to the brand's extensive list of non-dairy ice creams. In total, Ben & Jerry's sold approximately 282 million pints of ice cream this year, and the company continues to help make vegan options available for hungry American customers. This January, Ben & Jerry's surpassed its 20th vegan ice cream with the release of two new dairy-free flavors are Non-Dairy Bananas Foster and the Non-Dairy Boom Chocolatta.

The beloved ice cream brand uses several dairy-free bases to replicate its creamy and dynamic ice cream flavors. The company features both sunflower butter bases and an original almond milk base. Ben & Jerry's commitment to plant-based development echoes its parent company Unilever's overarching goal to expand its vegan sector. Unilever CEO Alan Jope called vegan food an “inexorable” trend, noting that the company is “seeing in every single country in the world a shift towards more plant-based diets, even in emerging markets.”

For more plant-based happenings, check out The Beet's News articles. 

This brand is one of the best anywhere and their vegan choices are no different. The mint chip went the distance in our "food duels" to come out on top in the final five. We loved the fact it tasted like the real thing. One note: It's higher in fat than most other formulas.

We have never seen kids go as crazy for ice cream as these testers did for this tub of strawberry. It literally was met with chants and screams that it tasted like "real strawberry." If you, too, love strawberry, this treat is for you. Even if you don't, we think it's worth a taste.

If you love cinnamon, meet your new favorite treat. It's like if a cookie dough ball met a cinnamon bun. If you're carb-conscious, note there are 35 grams in a half-cup serving, and 25 grams of sugar.

Halo Top is the best pick for a health-conscious cookie-dough loving ice cream seeker. A serving (half a cup) has 90 calories and 3 grams of protein so if you want the fun of a sweet cold treat with fewer cals, this is your best option. That said, the texture is smooth, so if you're looking for chunks of cookie dough this isn't the right pick for you.

Oatly does it again. First, they claimed the high road with their oat milk that took the nation by storm this past summer. Now they've introduced oat milk ice cream that—we swear—is as delish as the classic, and offers seven classic flavors including chocolate, vanilla, salty caramel, strawberry, and hazelnut. We tasted four and loved them all. With 218 calories for a 2/3 cup serving, 23 grams of carbs and 13 grams of fat, this treat is right in the middle of the pack, health-wise. But you'll love every spoonful.

We loved the mint taste and if you like a thinner texture, here's your pick. It tastes like frozen yogurt and on a hot day that makes for a refreshing change from the creamier options. This version has half the fat and sugar of other mint chip varieties we reviewed.

Halo Top is super smooth (no need to microwave it right out of the freezer—you can just dig in with your spoon). Our testers loved the milkshake-like quality but there were no chunks of peanut butter cup to be found. Still, with 3 grams of protein and 4 grams of fat, this is among the less-indulgent choices.

This tasted like Moose Tracks, with chunks of chocolate chips and peanut butter swirls in it. We love that it boasts 5 grams of protein, but it also has 20 grams of sugar and 28 grams of carbs.

This is one of the richest of the bunch, and Van Leeuwen always over-delivers on its promise of taste and texture. The zingy peanut buttery aftertaste means just a little will leave you super satisfied, which is good as it packs a punch in carbs, sugar and fat.

This top-five winner was the most like the real thing, and everyone went crazy for it. The chunks of fudge were epic. It's slightly higher in cals than most other picks, but it also contains 6 grams of protein.

If what you love is a classic chocolate ice cream taste, this delivers. It is creamy and rich, and anyone avoiding coconut milk will appreciate the cashew milk option. Still, with 23 grams of carbs and 21 grams of sugar per 2/3 cup serving, we would limit our consumption to 1/3 a pint at a time.

For chocolate lovers, this is a great choice because it tastes like real ice cream and will satisfy your cravings. But if you're keeping an eye on saturated fat, this one is on the high end with 10 grams. Still, So Delicious has cracked the code on how to make a plant-based non-dairy ice cream that is ...so delicious!

Cookie dough is a specific kind of treat that's like Kryptonite for some people. We are those people. Ben & Jerry's has figured out not only how to make non-dairy ice cream taste like it's creamy dairy counterpart, but the cookie dough does, too. How do they do it? We don't care, we just want more. Caveat: One pint has 1050 calories, and a serving according to the label is 1/3 of a pint. With 49 grams of carbs per serving, proceed with caution.

Sometimes you think you don't love something but you just keep eating it. That was the experience with NadaMoo! Dairy-Free Birthday Cake Cookie Dough. It went fast. Even when some of the testers claimed it wasn't their favorite, they kept digging in for more. We say: Do you.

This one was so dark and rich it almost tasted like there was a cherry aftertaste. For dark chocolate lovers, this is the closest thing you'll get to a dark chocolate bar taste in ice cream. The coconut cream base adds a higher saturated fat content, but it's lower in sugar than other options on our list at only 9 grams.

This chocolate treat has the least calories per serving of any that we tested, but still delivered all of the taste you're sure to want from chocolate ice cream. It had a mousse quality that made it fluffy and light. We love the fact that this family-owned company has been creating non-dairy treats for over 15 years and growing strong. Yesamooooo.

This one had actual pieces of oatmeal cookie in it, and we watched the testers go completely bananas for it. The ice cream tasted like the real thing and the cookies were legit home-made quality. How they do this we don't know but if you love oatmeal cookies, you will love this flavor. Nutrition-wise, this option is higher in fat, carbs and sugar plus contains palm oil.

Halo Top deserves kudos for trying to be the healthier choice among non-dairy treats, and we love the overall taste. But if you are looking for a chunky cookie filled ice cream, this isn't the choice for you. It's more like a frozen smoothie with an oatmeal cookie vibe. With just 70 calories and 3 grams of fat in half a cup, this is a great choice if you're watching your intake.

If you love salty-sweet mash-ups, this is the one for you. But if you're not into salt—skip this. Haagen-Dazs knows what it's doing—and their dairy-free ice creams are as craveable as the classics. Don't worry about serving to non-vegans; they won't have a clue this is plant-based.

If you like rocky road this will give you the fix you need. Our taste-testers loved the marshmallow sugary sweetness and rocky texture, but ultimately it didn't make our top five, which was a mystery to one tester who basically devoured the entire pint. That goes to show—every flavor has its fans. Lower in calories per serving sugar and carbs, so pls enjoy!

Maple is a specific taste and if you love maple syrup, reach for this fun treat. The testers all seemed to think it was *too* maple syrup-y but we found this to be a fun diversion from the usual suspects.

This tastes like a gooey cinnamon roll (swoon) and was one of the favorites of all the ones we tasted. Made of cashew milk, this one is relatively lower in saturated fat (6 grams) and has 3 grams of protein per serving, but is slightly higher in carbs, at 34 grams.

The taste is a chocolate lover's delight and as with all Van Leeuwen Ice Creams, it is a rich, satisfying treat. We took points off for being higher in saturated fat, but we love that it has 3 grams of fiber.

Somehow they have mastered the art of creating non-dairy ice cream that tastes like the real thing. We love Ben & Jerry's flavors and their chocolate-y fudge brownie was a delight in particular. But for health, we took points off for the 27 grams of added sugar (over half your daily value) per serving.

We don't blame anyone who wants to eat the whole pint—it's that good! This Ben & Jerry's flavor was among the top five overall winners of our entire plant-based ice cream taste test. It's so intense it's like eating half-baked brownies and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups coated in ice cream; AKA all our favorite flavors rolled together. Each serving has 43 grams of carbs and 28 grams of added sugar (that's 9 teaspoons!).

If you love mint, this treat delivers a satisfying fix. Our testers liked the fact that it was less thick in texture than some of the other ice creams we tasted, and on a hot day, it can feel refreshingly light and sweet without the heavy taste of some of the creamier choices.

We love NadaMoo! for going after the vegan market and coming out with a respectable mint chip treat with half the added sugars and carbs of some of their competitors. With 200 calories in a 2/3 cup and 6 grams of added sugar per serving, this is definitely among the healthiest of the treats. Enjoy!

When the vanilla bean in this dessert kicks in, you don't feel like you need any toppings or other flavors to enhance your satisfaction—it’s rich and full all on its own. That said, if you added a topping to it, non-vegans would never tell the difference. We took slight points off for the added sugar at 18 grams per serving, but it still comes in at a respectable 200 calories per serving.

We loved the texture of this one which was like putting Oreo cookies in a blender with vanilla ice cream and freezing it up. The cookie taste infuses the entire ice cream so if you are an Oreo fan, this is your jam. Points off for high sugar (21 grams) but otherwise, this is a winning treat.

This was as sweet a treat as you could find, and the kids loved it. They enjoyed the chunks of cookie dough in the coconut milk and the ice cream base was thinner than some we tested—a nice counter touch to the rich, thick cookie dough. A bit high in carbs, fat and saturated fat, so if you're counting, keep an eye on your portion.

We're officially fans of every non-dairy dessert that Brooklyn-based Van Leeuwen makes—choc chip cookie dough is no exception. Rich and creamy, the raw cashew milk, coconut cream and cocoa butter base is to live for and makes for a truly decadent dessert.

Oatly has its act together, and this ice cream proves it. The newcomer to the freezer nudges aside some of the long-time favorites with its oat milk ice cream that tastes as good as—or better than—the real thing. We love the packaging, flavor, and attitude of this brand. It's a rich treat and anyone who loves strawberry will not be disappointed. Even non-strawberry lovers will be converted. One serving has 20 grams of sugar, but also 1.5 grams of fiber and a small amount of protein.