Deborah Gorman and Nicole Cardone are winning over customers left and right with their delicious dairy-free treats!
With so many vegan frozen desserts on the market, it can be hard to narrow down your search for the right treat. If you’re looking for a dessert that’s a perfect balance between light and refreshing yet indulgent and sweet, SorBabes has you covered! Owned by Deborah Gorman and Nicole Cardone, this women-owned vegan dessert brand offers a refreshingly fun take on sorbet bars.
Female Entrepreneurs Deborah Gorman and Nicole Cardone
It all started in East Hampton back in 2012 when Gorman was hired as a live-in chef at a wealthy family’s estate that Gorman's mother-in-law, Jeanne, helped manage. Jeanne knew Cardone had a dream to reinvent sorbet in an upbeat, nutrition-focused way, so she introduced her to Gorman. “We joke that Deborah and I were [in] an arranged marriage. We weren’t friends before and came together just for this business partnership. In some ways, this was beneficial because we both took our jobs as business partners seriously, rather than trying to make a business partnership out of a friendship, which can come with emotional strings. We made a friendship out of a business partnership,” Cardone told VegOut.
In 2013, the female entrepreneurs Deborah Gorman and Nicole Cardone launched their business, which was first named Gourmet Sorbet. As catchy as that name sounded, it wasn’t long until the duo landed on a better (and spunkier) name. In the beginning stages of their business, the women worked overnight out of a small creamery in Brooklyn. “One night, when we were coming in for our shift, the ice cream guys clocking out said to each other, ‘Hey, the SorBabes are here.’ We thought it was clever—however, we did take pause because we weren’t sure how we felt about being called ‘babe.’ Then we realized this was our opportunity to take back that word and own it,” Cardone recalled.
SorBabes
SorBabes Vegan Dessert Bars
SorBabes vegan dessert bars are made from a small list of wholesome ingredients that are 100% plant-based, gluten-free, non-GMO, and mom-approved. Since the brand launched before the dairy-free movement really started to pick up speed, Gorman and Cardone had to work extra hard to source vegan ingredients and made a lot of things from scratch to ensure their products met their standards.
Gorman and Cardone both come up with ideas for new flavors. Once they’ve honed in on a few contenders, Gorman handles the R&D process. “I put my white coat on and get to be a food scientist with my multiple scales, beakers, and pipettes, measuring ingredients to the .1 gram to get the formulas just right. I freeze many versions, then I dip the best ones in our chocolaty coatings with the inclusions,” shared Gorman. After that, Gorman shares the successful samples with Cardone and Emmy Schneider-Green (Director of Digital Marketing at SorBabes). Cardone and Schneider-Green provide feedback, and Gorman continues to perfect the recipe until the team deems it fit to launch to the public.
What makes these vegan dessert bars unique is their sorbet interior and hard, crunchy exterior. From super fruity flavors like Strawberry Crisp, Mango Coconut Crunch, and Lemon Strawberry Crunch to chocolaty varieties such as Vanilla Caramel Crunch, SorBabes has you covered no matter your sweets preferences. For all of our indecisive readers out there, the Wild Berry Crisp bars are the perfect combination of fruity and chocolaty!
SorBabes
Overcoming Obstacles as Vegan Female Business Owners
Over the years, SorBabes has gained much popularity, and their vegan dessert bars are now available in select retailers across the county as well as online for nationwide shipping. But even though their products have made it to shelves and doorsteps throughout the US, Gorman and Cardone still experience obstacles as vegan female business owners.
“Being women, we have extra challenges. We are less often given access to funding, historically left out of some industries that are male-dominated, and often, we are not taken seriously. Then there’s being a mother and going through pregnancies, postpartum hormones, and raising kids. Mother’s guilt is real," Gorman shared. “With the extra challenges come benefits, too. Owning a business has made me a better mother, because I have learned to stop working. Also, having time away from [my] kids is healthy and makes me appreciate them more.”
In honor of Women’s History Month, SorBabes would like to shout out the following vegan women-owned businesses: Credo Foods, Axiology, Yvonne’s Vegan Kitchen, Owl’s Brew, Maya’s Cookies, Hera the Dog Vodka, and “everything Tabitha Brown does.”
Visit SorBabes.com for more information and to buy vegan ice cream for nationwide shipping now!
