Frozen Goodness

See More Photos

Nob? means no cow and it’s your new go-to dairy-free ice cream…

Dairy-free ice cream might seem a contradiction but these are enlightened culinary times we’re living in, and we just discovered Nob?. If you can remember something from your fifteen odd years of rote learning gaelic that means no cow. Nob? replaces the diary with avocado, yes, and coconut milk so the dairy-intolerant are a now a much happier and healthier bunch.

Founders Rachel Flynn and Brian Nolan had been working in New York for a few years, succeeding in the high-octane careers of advertising and finance. However dreams got in the way and the couple decamped to Italy to learn more about their passion – food. Brian and Rachel worked in a professional kitchen for six months in the Italian countryside and when they came back to Ireland found their calling in healthy and delicious ice-cream making. ?We loved the idea of using nutrient rich whole food ingredients like avocados to replace the animal fats and love coconut milk for it’s taste and benefits to the body. We started experimenting in our kitchen with a borrowed ice cream machine to try and create an ice cream alternative made from just a few pure ingredients. It took a while & there were lots of failed attempts, but we got there in the end.?

When starting out their business they applied to Foodworks run by Bord Bia, Enterprise Ireland and Teasgasc with the concept for Nob??and since then it has taken off. Nob? also tries to use Irish suppliers whenever possible with the honey homegrown. The more exotic ingredients, such as the uncanned coconut milk comes from Indonesia and the lemon ice-cream gets its flavour from hand juiced Sicilian lemons, harking back to the Italian foodie sojourn that got Nob? started.

Rachel puts the success of Nob? down to timing. ?We’ve seen a big shift in how people are eating. Consumers are paying more attention to ingredient lists and want to know exactly what’s in a product which is great. They are looking for healthier treats they don’t feel bad about eating. Each of our ice creams only has 4-5 ingredients. Taste has also always been a priority for us, so we work hard to make sure it tastes even better than ice cream and we’re delighted that our customers regularly tell us it does? nutrition is about health enhancing foods, unprocessed ingredients, balance and treats that make you feel good. We believe that real food comes from real raw ingredients that grow on trees and in the ground, that’s why all the ingredients we use are recognizable whole foods like coconut milk and avocado..?Our ice cream alternative also contains no refined sugar (we use pure honey as our sweetener) and no cholesterol and the fats in it come from plant based sources. It is also lower in calories than it’s dairy ice-cream counterparts.?Premium dairy ice creams of comparative flavours, contain up to 35% more calories than Nob? Frozen Goodness.?

Fall in love with Nob?’s Instagram here. For more details and a list of stockists see nobo.ie

Jeanne Sutton @jeannedesutun