Yorica

Last week I mentioned on Twitter that I was headed into London for the day and I asked if anyone had any good recommendations for places I should visit. The lovely fellow vegan and blogger Steph from The Zombie Said suggested that I should head to Soho to try out the vegan friendly ice cream parlour Yorica. I couldn't believe that i'd never heard of this place before! And after a little look on their website and Twitter page I knew that this was definitely somewhere not to be missed. 

If like me you haven't heard of Yorica before then let me just give you the low down.... 

Yorica is a completely free from ice cream parlour which also serves Fro-Yo and milkshakes. Everything in this shop is vegan friendly, gluten free, nut free, egg free and dairy free, and once I stepped inside I couldn't quite believe this was true. I've been to a few ice cream parlours in the past who offer vegan options but never before have I been to a completely vegan one like this. I think I double checked with the server at least twice that everything, including the toppings, was indeed vegan friendly! 

It was quite hard to choose what exactly I wanted to try but the ice cream looked so inviting I couldn't resist going in for a couple of scoops. It was great to see such an array of diverse flavours on offer but I was definitely in the mood for something chocolatey so I decided on a scoop of cookies & cream with a scoop of chocolate. I was also very tempted by the chocolate & beetroot flavour which looked really intriguing!

Next up were the toppings which all looked so delicious! 

I could have easily chosen a few different toppings but with dinner plans that evening I decided against making myself feel overdosed on sweet treats! I narrowed my choice down to the chocolate brownie/tiffin squares which were the perfect accompaniment to my already chocolatey feast. I think it would be fair to say that I was pretty astonished by the variety of toppings and it really was hard to believe that everything was vegan friendly. 

Enjoying this little pot of ice cream felt like such a treat! It was totally and utterly delicious. I could have easily gone back for more! 

There's nothing about this ice cream which has you feeling like you're missing out on anything. It actually blows my mind a bit that vegan ice cream can taste this good and it makes dairy ice cream seem even more pointless. Just imagine how much better the world would be if all ice cream was made in this way - the population would be healthier, the environment would be better and most importantly (for me) no animals have had to endure any torture to produce it. Surely this is a no brainer!? I wonder when the rest of the world will wake up!?! 

If you were wondering, the ice cream itself is made from sustainably sourced rice milk and all natural ingredients, without a single animal derived product in sight. 

I can't even begin to tell you all how grateful I am that Steph recommended this place to me! I also can't believe I didn't hear about it sooner. The only downside for me is that it's well over an hour away from where I live and the West End of London isn't really somewhere I choose to go all the time. Although maybe that will change now! This is definitely somewhere I know I will keep returning to again and again.

It would be so great to see Yorica's popping up in other major shopping areas and centres (please Westfield Stratford!!). This is most certainly an outlet that is needed and one which has been a long time coming. Regardless of Veganism, there must be so many people who are dairy intolerant and who suffer with allergies who would also welcome this with open arms. So show Yorica some support and get yourselves down there ASAP to enjoy all the treats on offer. You'll be glad that you did! 

Had you heard of Yorica before?