These days, I often find myself thinking “Need… water… need… ice…” 🌡☀️😵
In an unstoppable impulse to find something that would quickly bring relief ❄️, I rummaged through various ice boxes, looking for ice cream. 🍦 (To be more precise, those of the popsicle kind – the “single servings”.) While checking the loooong labels with TINY letters on the colorful packaging, its contents were on the verge of melting [unforgivable sin!] and it felt like I would soon get more than just strange looks from shopkeepers… 😅
Even when something looked like it was a simple, water-based popsicle, its ingredient list surprisingly often revealed that there was some kind of animal component hidden inside. Beside mysterious additives for sweetness🍭, aromas👅 and color🌈, there was milk powder🥛, dairy-based calcium🥛 and gelatin🐷 [yikes!]! And sadly enough, those ingredients were not always marked in the allergen section. 🚫📝
Furthermore, even if one kind of ice cream contained only plant-based ingredients, that didn’t mean that another flavor of the same kind was also vegan. 🚫🌱Seriously each one needed confirmation.
🍦 It can be hard to find good ice cream.
But who thought the hunt for VEGAN ice cream would be this difficult and frustrating? 🌱🍦
[Whether the available vegan options are delightful after all, is a whole new topic…😣]
Anyhow, here’s a collection of meat-free, dairy-free, egg-free (though not guilt-free) vegan ice cream, which are commonly sold in convenience stores and supermarkets.
Mango-flavored ice cream bar with 40% fruit. 
Mango juice plus mango chunks, 100% mango. 
100% Mango: a piece of mango, frozen. Naturally delicious. 
Another mango-flavored ice cream bar. 30% fruit. 
Grape-flavored ice cream bar, 46% fruit. 
Pineapple-flavored ice cream bar. 
100% Durian: Blended and frozen. Only for Durian lovers. 
Tomato ice cream! Like sweet, diluted ketchup! 
Refreshing pineapple and kiwi flavor! 
Like frozen lemonade! 
Squeezable slushie, flavors strawberry & apple. 
Squeezable slushie, peach flavor. 
Squeezable slushie, lemon flavor. 
Ice cubes filled with fruit sauce 
A Korean classic! Apple and strawberry flavor 
Shark ice bar “Jaws”! A classic! 
Shark ice bar “Jaws”! Standard flavor. 
Strawberry edition of Jaws 
Popsicle with green grape flavor. 
Two types of icecream made from the traditional rice drink Sikhye 식혜 
Korea’s Sikhye drink – frozen! 
Pearl-shaped ice cream: apple and kiwi&peach flavors 
Jumbo “mini melts” in grape and soda flavor! 
Citrus-flavored ice cubes: Calamansi
✍️ This compilation began in summer 2019 and is gradually expanded as new discoveries are made. New additions since 2020 are below! 👇
Flavored ice cubes: Calamansi (yellow), watermelon (red), grape (green) 
Ice cubes with green grape flavor 
Ice cubes with apple flavor 
Ice cubes with watermelon flavor 
Ice cubes with lime and mint (Mojito) flavor 
Ice cubes with peach flavor 
Piece of cantaloupe melon 
Squeezable slushie with kiwi flavor 
Squeezable slushie with green grape flavor 
Pearl-shaped ice cream, flavors melon&soda and Korean energy drink. 
Sweet and sour popsicle with Maesil (unripe ume plum) flavor 
Grape-flavored “Screw” bar 
Creamy (!) ice cream made with roasted cashews (smells like peanuts) 
Non-sorbet ice cream with pineapple & coconut 
Green grape sorbet 
Coconut milk ice cream 
Ice cream bar with a soft (!) chocolate coating.
I’m an ice cream junkie, I know. 🍦🍨😍🍧❄️
If you have more time, money and patience to go to a (vegan) cafe that serves vegan ice cream, congratulations. Enjoy that blissful moment for me, while you’re at it!
So where ARE those cafes with vegan ice cream? 🍨 They are rare and more expensive than regular ice cream places… 💲😓 Currently, there exist merely a handful of such locations in Seoul. You can find an overview of sit-in locations serving various kinds of home-made frozen desserts on this page. 🛋💁♂️🍨🙋♀️
And what do YOU do in the heat of summer, when you don’t have access to your freezer (which is ideally filled with frozen fruit) but you are in desperate need of that sweet and refreshing cool-down THIS VERY INSTANT??? 🌊🤯❄️
[This is a serious question. Very curious about other survival strategies.]
♣️Sesame Sprinkles♣️ 
Thank you for this amazing list. What convenience stores are likely to have them?
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Thank you for your comment and the question! 🤗 Most of the items above I found at GS25, CU and SevenEleven. But each convenience store offers a different selection of goods, so you may not find all ice cream at each location (sometimes, there were only 1 or 2 vegan option available).
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I live in Busan and am trying out all the vegan flavors before my brother visits me, because he can’t have dairy. Unfortunately, I noticed the back of the packaging on the 죠스 아이스크림, has dairy, as it shows “우유,” which means milk. I’m still trying out all the flavors, but I’m glad I can speak and read Korean, so my brother won’t get sick because I’ll help him. So, ALWAYS check the labels for yourselves to be sure everyone!~~ ^^
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Hi Tisha, thanks for your message! I checked the label on 죠스 아이스크림 again, but I do not see dairy in the ingredient list. It mentions milk (우유) in the disclaimer mentioning that it may contain traces of it because it has been produced in a factory handling other foods containing allergens, including milk, pork, eggs, peaches, wheat, tomato, walnuts, peanuts.
Certainly, if your brother is highly sensitive against any possible traces of dairy, it is best to watch out for foods that may be cross-contaminated.
Stay safe~
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