Saturday, November 10, 2007

VeganMoFo: Faux Cheese Review

I fear that I might be kicked out of the vegan blogging community for this, but here goes...

I've tried the Mozzarella Style and Smoked Cheddar Style Sheese and the Mozzarella Style and Mature Cheddar Style Cheezly and they are nearly identical products, in my opinion. I was not impressed. Don't get me wrong, they're not unpleasant and they're not bad. They're just not great or worth $8+ per round. The texture is too soft for my taste, maybe a little like more solid cream cheese (I never ate cream cheese as an omni, so I don't know if that's a perfect comparison) than the mozzarella and cheddar cheese I remember. Mind you, I haven't eaten cheese in 6.5 years, but I believe I remember its texture. They melt, but they don't melt how real cheese does...they just kind of soften more.

The taste of all 4 flavors was pretty mild and not necessarily cheesy (the smoked cheddar Sheese probably had the best flavor). I tried them all plain, in grilled cheese, and in recipes. I used the last of the mozzarella Cheezly to make a "quesadilla" on brown rice tortillas. A liberal dose of chipotle sauce livened up this otherwise bland meal. The moral of the story is that, again this is only my opinion, these are not realistic cheese replacements.

For now, Follow Your Heart's cheese will remain my preference (although, I have to admit that I very rarely eat/use faux cheese at home). Their nacho flavor is really good. I've yet to try Veganrella (I can't find their website, so no link), so I suppose that should be next on my list. Stay tuned...

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, I appreciate your review because, though I was curious, I had been unwilling to fork over the necessary cash to try these for myself. So thanks. It's been a long time, but if I remember correctly veganrella is kind of grainy and unpleasant. I for one vote you not at all kicked out of the vegan blogging community. I'm enjoying your writing.

Jenni (aka Vegyogini) said...

Good, then I'll just scratch the Veganrella right off my list. If I ever "need" vegan cheese, Follow Your Heart or homemade will do just fine. :) Thanks for the heads up! Oh, and a big thank you for not kicking me out of the vegan blogging community. I'm blushing from the compliment. :)

TB said...

ooh, i remember veganrella being grosser than gross (although it's probably been 6 years since I tried it, so maybe it has improved since then...). FYH is also my vegan cheese of choice (although I also try not to use it too often at home), and I like Sheese but haven't tried Cheezly. Nice to hear your review, since it makes me a little less obsessively eager to try the stuff!