For the best soy ice cream on the market, look no further than Lombard.
According to the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Temptation Ice Cream (made by Lombard’s Chicago Soy Dairy) is the tastiest vegan-friendly dessert out there.
Last week the brand was voted No. 1 in PETA’s second annual Libby Awards.
Doled out by peta2, a branch of PETA geared toward young people, the Libby Awards — short for “liberation” — are meant to give attention to products and people that are friendly to animals.
The 22 categories include Cutest Vegan Shoe and Most Animal-Friendly Band, in addition to Best Vegan Ice Cream.
“It’s to get people thinking about why they should try a soy ice cream and a non-dairy ice cream,” said Lara Sanders, senior youth marketing coordinator for peta2.
Chicago Soy Dairy co-founder Dan Ziegler, 33, of Schaumburg was at first surprised, then pleased, to hear about the award. He had no idea they were in the running, he said.
The brand of ice cream was one of four nominated and the favorite of the roughly 5,000 peta2 members who voted in the online poll.
For Ziegler and his business partner, Ryan Howard, 30, of Wheaton, their soy dairy business began as a shared passion and hobby.
In 2001, the two friends created a dairy that made soy milk, which they then sold to Chicago-area restaurants. They got into the ice cream business a few years later when one buyer asked if they made the dessert out of their soy milk.
“Before I could say, ‘No,’ Ryan said, ‘Yes, we do do ice cream,’” Ziegler said.
The first step was finding a means to make the ice cream — which proved to be more challenging than they anticipated.
“Trying to find a home ice cream machine in the middle of winter is not fun,” Ziegler said.
Once they finally located a machine, the next step was crafting a recipe. Ziegler said they found most soy-based ice creams on the market were a lackluster taste — a “sacrifice rather than a pleasure,” he said.
“We didn’t really feel like the products they were making were that great,” he said.
They wanted to make an ice cream that tastes on par with Haagen-Dazs, he said. Not only did they have to use substitutes for the milk and cream, but they had to find alternative ingredients for the variety of flavors, including chocolate chip cookie dough or peach cobbler.
But Howard, drawing on his experience as a food processing engineer, and Ziegler quickly found a lasting recipe.
“Ryan definitely had a flair for foods,” Ziegler said. “The recipe hasn’t changed much from what we made in the kitchen that day.”
Their business has grown — fourfold since 2004 — and they sell the ice cream across the country. Their success, Ziegler said, represents a return to form for the vegan and health foods industry.
Decades ago, health foods were first made by small businesses like Chicago Soy Dairy, Ziegler said. As they increased in popularity, they grew into corporations, forfeiting their personality, he said.
“We go to these food shows,” he said. “We see guys that probably used to be auto parts salesmen that are trying to sell vegan products.”
Now, aided by the Internet, home-grown companies once again are finding a grass-roots niche.
“We know what our customer base is,” Ziegler said. “We are the customers.”
With that first-person insight, Ziegler and Howard hope to create more vegan products, driven again by what they, as vegans, would want to eat.
Soon, they hope to roll out a Chicago Soy Dairy line of cheese.
“There’s no good cheese alternative,” Ziegler said.
