The only thing nicer than a Nice Block

A few months ago, a new product started appearing in Nice Blocks freezers around Auckland: tubs of Nice Cream!

The first coconut-based icecream I’ve seen in New Zealand, Nice Cream is made from Samoan coconut cream and comes in three vegan-friendly flavours: vanilla bean, chocolate and banana bean. All are lovely, but my favourite is vanilla – it’s smooth, almost soft-serve in texture and perfect with flakes of dark chocolate on top.

And it’s not only vegan and delicious, but good for you, probably? Consider:

• it’s safe for people with most potential dessert-related allergies: free of gluten, nuts and soy as well as dairy and other animal products.

• it’s made of coconut, the best vegan “dairy” product, so it’s full of medium-chain fatty acids that metabolise easily and lauric acid that’s good for your brain.

• the product website claims it contains “less sugar and half the fat of regular ice cream”, and of course because it’s vegan, it doesn’t contain any cholesterol.

Nice Blocks fridges are all over the city these days, so you should be able to find some Nice Cream somewhere near you. Places I’ve see it stocked include the Gluten free Grocer in Eden Terrace and Farro Fresh in Grey Lynn.