Sweet Satisfaction: Interview with Temptation Vegan Ice Cream’s Founders

October 23, 2007

Ryan Howard and Dan Ziegler are two cherries on the top of a yummy vegan sundae. As founders of Temptation — Vegan Ice Cream, they're also great examples of people who put ethics before profit. For them, this means paying attention to the details, which includes using fair trade tea, chocolate, and coffee. It also means striving to use organic, non-GMO, and local ingredients, and actively making the ethical choices that other companies happily overlook. As veteran vegans, they're also 100% committed to doing right by animals; they produce their tantalizing range of ice cream flavours on dedicated vegan equipment. As they put it,

"We live our word. We are not another dairy company trying to capitalize on the rising non-dairy market (i.e. Soy Delicious, Purely Decadent, Tofutti.) While we respect them, we continue to do things our way: as vegan as it gets with no compromise. We are dedicated to lessening the suffering of animals through simple consumer choices while upping the pleasures of living a compassionate lifestyle."

What was that about pleasure? How about Peach Cobbler, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Fair Trade Chocolate (has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?), and a bunch more. Or, maybe you're feeling seasonal. Why not try a Temptation Pumpkin Pie, made with pumpkin ice cream? Or some Temptation Soft Serve?

Lest you think this interview will just be a forty-minute advertisement for Temptation, don't worry, we'll take our best shots at these guys. We promise. But seriously, we'll learn about how Temptation makes flavours creamy without cows, keeps a sticky hand in activism, and pacifies its unruly labour force with ice cream. (Just kidding!) We'll also go on an aural tour of Temptation factory, to discover how all that delicious stuff is actually made. Sounds tempting, doesn't it?

News links:

Download mp3s of the interview:
lower quality / smaller: part 1 (3.14 MB) and part 2 (2.54 MB)
higher quality / larger: part 1 (6.36 MB) and part 2 (5 MB)

Tags: Veg Businesses

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Okay, I listened to the show

Submitted by Wendy (not verified) on Mon, 2007-11-05 16:38.

Okay, I listened to the show :) Mostly a great show - I am impressed by the ethics of the founders. I love how they talked about Dean Foods owning Silk and White Wave. It's just incredible sometimes how people try to justify drinking Silk because of the taste when it supports factory farming, yet can condemn others for refusing to give up milk or animal flesh for the same reasons.

I still have to admit to not finding the taste of the specialty flavors to be as good as Soy Delicious, and I do wish that during the interview the founders of Temptations would have -not slung mud, but told us which companies rent from dairy producers, etc. I can't imagine if it's true that that would be libel, and as vegans we need to speak this kind of truth. This doesn't mean fighting among ourselves or calling names, but I for one am very picky about what corporations get my money (mostly none if I can help it, and usually I can!) and any insider information is critical to me. Because if I do ever eat cane sugar again I can be happy eating Temptations Chocolate and not Soy Delicious Chocolate Chip Mint (which is my favorite flavor ever) knowing that I'm not supporting practices that turned me into a vegan in the first place.

Thanks again for such a great variety of shows :)