Chicago Vegan Foods

Posted on Jun 10, 2020

We sat down with Dan Reed from Chicago Vegan Foods, who are also the producers of Temptations Vegan Soft Serve and Dandie’s Marshmallow’s, a vegan marshmallow line. “The company started in 2001, our founder Ryan Howard, was a long time vegan, who is actually celebrating his twenty-sixth year in veganism. Vegan has always been extremely important to him. At that time there weren’t a whole lot of vegan options. In short, we got started through activism, which led us to where we are today.”

Current establishments that feature Temptation Soft Serve and Dandie’s Marshmallow’s is a pretty healthy mix of mom and pop restaurants and ice cream shops. “Ice cream shops are the norm,” says Reed. “But we also have pizza places, quick-serve fast-food type places that are also using the product. Whether using it straight of out the machine or to make milkshakes or any other kind of creations, customers respond to it very well. It is a fat-free product and tastes very creamy without any dairy.” Reed states that the vegan scene in Chicago is pretty vibrant, which makes it the perfect hub for Chicago Vegan Foods. “There are a number of restaurants you can eat at that are vegan, whether you are in the city or the suburbs. There are a number of restaurants here that are great, so it can even be difficult deciding where you want to go!” 

In regards to upcoming products, “we’re extremely busy with our two main brands, Temptation and Dandie’s. We’re growing more than we anticipated, which keeps us pretty busy. That being said we’ve been working on some new and interesting stuff on our soft serve line to make it easier for operators to use. Temptation soft serve is shelf-stable and you need to just mix with water, which is pretty easy, but we’re working on ways to improve that.”

An innovation that Reed says has really improved the vegan frozen dessert industry is the quality of vegan soft serve ice cream. “It has improved so much in recent years,” says Reed. “The vegan industry has made amazing strides. The fact that Baskin Robbins is now carrying amazing vegan ice cream is very impressive. It’s far surpassed my expectations.” 

Reed’s favorite part of being in the frozen dessert industry is having a soft serve machine in office to try new recipes. They are currently using a Stoelting F231. 

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