Even at small-town newspapers, food writers are inundated with promotional materials for all manner of new food products, samples and requests for reviews or articles.
The vast majority of these go unanswered here at the Mail Tribune (and likely most newspapers) for obvious reasons. Our coverage — blogs included — serves local interest in local companies. But I’m breaking with this practice on behalf of an unbelievably good product that isn’t so far afield.
Corvallis-based Grow Your Family Healthy pitched its dairy-free, soy-free, gluten-free, vegan, non-ice cream to me some months back. If it wasn’t a small, start-up company, samples would have been in the mail. But Grow Your Family didn’t have the ability to ship a frozen product with any hope that it would arrive intact.
I promised owner Amber Humphrey that I would pick up a carton of her Heaven Sent dessert the next time I was in Ashland, where it’s available at Ashland Food Co-op and Shop ’N’ Kart. Then I put it out of mind because, I figured, one nondairy “ice cream” pretty much tastes like the next. The only conclusion I’d ever reached is why eat nondairy ice cream unless you had to, and if you’re lactose-intolerant or allergic to soy, why not stick with sorbet?
Then I spied Heaven Sent in the frozen section at Food 4 Less. The packaging doesn’t look like much: just an all-over rainbow effect with a few little smiling flowers under the brand name, printed in fairly small script. But ingredients are listed more prominently than other, similar products’ by virtue of there being so few.
I went straight to the ingredients column to determine if the mint-chocolate chip flavor had artificial colors. Nope. Score one in Heaven Sent’s favor. Then I saw the words “slippery elm bark” and “mint oil” — real ingredients in real terms. Yea!
The roasted-coconut version also revealed blessedly few ingredients in everyday language and, again, the slippery elm. So I bought both for the much-reduced price of $3.88 per pint.
I couldn’t stave off my curiosity until dinner and popped the top on the mint flavor. Although the mixture was ice-cold, the aroma of mint wafted out. The first bite revealed a dessert so smooth and creamy that I wondered if the heady mint was otherwise compromising my taste buds. The second bite confirmed what I gathered from the first: This is not just another nondairy ice cream.
Humphrey is used to the skepticism and forgave my delay. She’s still converting customers two years after rolling out Heaven Sent from a certified kitchen at her Corvallis home. Now made by Junction City’s Lochmead Farms, also part owner, the dessert just landed accounts at New Seasons Markets. It’s a staple at Whole Foods Markets in several states and earned a place on Food 4 Less’ shelves about three months ago, says Humphrey.
“That is the lowest price I have seen,” she says, adding that Corvallis stores keep it to $3.99 per pint while $4.99 is the normal price.
The cost reflects not just high-quality but also organic ingredients like agave, which lends Heaven Sent a low-glycemic profile. Other key ingredients are almond and rice-bran oils, as well as whole versions of those foods, tapioca starch and guar and xantham gums. While the slippery elm isn’t the recipe’s secret weapon, it is an effective texturizer, says Humphrey, adding that she put it in there for its soothing and lubricating effect on the throat and digestive system.
“It’s a very expensive hug,” says the mother of five who holds a nutrition certificate from the Global Institute for Alternative Medicine. “It’s not in any other products.”
Although no one in her family suffers food allergies, Humphrey liked purchasing nondairy ice cream but couldn’t find one that was truly healthy. So she started experimenting with recipes and eventually produced her “ice la creme” in 5-gallon batches. Already operating three home-based businesses, she kept on because hers was the only “chocolate-chip ice cream that diabetic kids can have.”
Rich Chocolate, Strawberry and French Vanilla Bean are the most popular flavors. Vanilla Espresso sells out in Bend while Portlanders like mint, says Humphrey. Her personal favorite is Choco-Conut Chunk. Next time, I plan to try the Amaretto Chunk, soon to have a cherry swirl. Butter Pecan and Caramel flavors also are in the works.
A half-cup serving of Heaven Sent mint dessert has more fat and calories (13 grams and 195) than an equal amount of Tillamook mint-chocolate chip ice cream (11 grams and 180) but less saturated fat — 3 grams compared with 7 grams. And like most commercial ice creams, Tillamook’s contains corn syrup and artificial coloring agents.
Nutritional information is a mere afterthought, though, given the compulsion to keep eating Heaven Sent’s mint dessert. Must be that oil, which Humphrey says is the most expensive she could find.
“I didn’t want it to taste like Pepto-Bismol, and I didn’t want it to taste like toothpaste.”
Rest assured, it’s heavenly.
