Luna & Larry's Coconut Bliss

Sustainability
Luna & Larry created Coconut Bliss as an alternative to dairy ice cream not only for the great taste and health benefits that coconut milk provides, but also with the hope of lessening the heavy ecological and ethical impacts of dairy farming. This section of our web site outlines our Sustainability practices.

Our Product
Every Luna & Larry's Coconut Bliss product is created with thought and care relative to environmental concerns. Read on to learn more about our policies regarding ingredients, production, and shipping.

Ingredients
All of our ingredients are carefully and mindfully chosen based on the original high standards that Luna & Larry set when they made their first batches of Coconut Bliss for their family and friends. Along with the idea of simplicity (using ingredients you could find in your kitchen), and an awareness around their own food sensitivities, Luna & Larry also considered sustainability.

Production & Manufacturing
Luna & Larry’s Coconut Bliss is manufactured at a Eugene, Oregon-area, third generation family-owned dairy facility: Lochmead. It has manufactured several other vegan ice cream products over the years and is very familiar with the protocols used when moving from from dairy to non-dairy milk production. As an added precaution, we test every batch of Coconut Bliss mix for the presence of dairy proteins before flavoring and freezing.

Luna & Larry’s Coconut Bliss is produced in a facility that also processes foods containing many of the common allergens. We employ a strict allergen control program which is comprised of two primary parts. The first part is scheduling; our products are run exclusively on days devoted to Coconut Bliss, so there will be no dairy or soy present in the plant. When we make a flavor that contains a tree nut or peanuts, we will schedule that flavor as the last one in the day. When the run is over, we will take the equipment apart, wash it carefully, inspect it and then leave it to air dry. The following morning, the equipment is inspected again, reassembled, sanitized and then rinsed with clean water. Only then will we start up with a flavor that does not contain the allergen. The second part of our program is the handling of allergenic materials: when we receive things like nuts, we mark each case with a dedicated label and store them separately from the other ingredients. We will not move these allergenic ingredients into the production room until we are ready to start that particular flavor. The production staff is well aware of allergen issues and has been trained to follow strict protocols for scheduling and handling our products in order to avoid accidental ingredient cross-contamination. We feel confident that we are doing everything in our power to ensure that the products are free of allergens, except where noted on the labels.

People are continually asking us how we came up with Luna & Larry's Coconut Bliss. We'd like to say we are entrepreneurial geniuses, but the truth is much humbler—we just wanted a tasty frozen dessert that we could enjoy eating without feeling bad afterwards. We had both given up dairy for health and ethical reasons, and tried all the soy- and rice-based alternatives, but weren't satisfied with any of them. They either didn't taste good, or we felt sick after eating them, or they had a long list of ingredients that didn't really sound like food. One day Luna said 'what about coconut milk?' We'd used it a lot in Thai-style cooking and it seemed ideal. It was naturally rich and creamy and had great nutritional properties. So with the aid of a two-dollar hand-cranked ice cream maker from Goodwill we made our first batch. As soon as we tried it, we knew we were on to something special. As time went by and we shared it with our friends, who also loved it, it became apparent to us that we should focus our energy on this and make it available to more people. --Luna & Larry Kaplowitz, Founders