Drink Brand Debuts Ben & Jerry’s-Inspired Vegan Liqueur

Adult beverage company Bom Bom Brands recently launched hemp milk-based vegan liqueur Fully Baked at stores in Connecticut, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New York. Husband-and-wife founders Kevin Mowers and Eva Maria Janerus created the flavor as a tribute to their favorite ice cream flavor, Half Baked—which Ben & Jerry’s released in a vegan Peanut Butter Half Baked flavor this year. The liqueur is a combination of Caribbean rum and cookie and brownie flavorings, and is the first alcoholic beverage to be blended with hemp milk. The idea for dessert-flavored liqueur came from a romantic gesture by Mowers, who created a custom cocktail for Janerus while the couple was dating with the help of a melted Mounds Bar, her favorite candy. The duo launched Bom Bom (which is slang for “My Sweetie” in Spain) to continue to experiment with dessert-flavored beverages. In 2017, Bom Bom’s vegan Nilli Vanilli Almondmilk liqueur was crowned by the International Review of Spirits as the Best Cream Liqueur—despite its lack of dairy-based cream. “We started down the vegan path with our Nilli Vanilli Almondmilk Liqueur because we wanted to show the world that great tasting creamy liqueurs don’t need to be made with animal products. That same commitment underscores our development of Fully Baked,” Janerus told VegNews. “However, similar to all the amazing dairy-free ‘ice creams’ now popping up at grocery stores around the country, there are more plant-based options than ever. Hemp milk allowed us to build on the benefits of almond milk over dairy—lower calories, less fat, and better product stability—while also including some of the benefits of hemp for more health-conscious consumers.” A number of brands have recently launched creamy vegan liqueurs, including Bailey’s, which reformulated its initial iteration of almond milk-based Baileys Almande to be vegan-certified last year.