There are twice as many vegan cheeses on the market in the UK as this time two years ago, but the two 'big cheeses' are still Redwood's Cheezly and Bute Island's Sheese. Bute Island have recently joined in the 'melty' cheese revolution with their new line Sheese Melty. We put the red cheddar style Sheese to the test to see how it fares against the competition..
The first thing we have to say is hallelujah for the frustration free packaging! (Are you listening Redwood?) The worst thing about vegan cheese...apart from some of them tasting like soap...is usually the terrible packaging. This cheese is also square, which is also an improvement as you can cut even slices for your sandwiches at last! So far, so good.
A good vegan cheese has to cut and grate well and this new recipe Sheese is the best we've ever come across....it's very firm (just like dairy cheddar) and cuts and grates exceptionally well. Some dairy-free cheeses end up in a mush when you try and grate them, but this stays..well...sprinkle-able.
Taste wise, eaten cold this is the same old Sheese flavour...quite strong too...it's not bad, but there's always room for improvement. We'd be happy to have it on our sandwiches.
So, on to business. This being the all new and improved Sheese Melty....the mega melty version of Sheese....it's gotta melt right? Wrong. We tried and tried but we couldn't get it to melt. We tried baking and grilling, but to no avail....just like the Sheese of old, it burns and goes crispy before it melts.
The shot above is a lasagne after 35 minutes in a hot oven at 190C (375F)...and you can clearly see the grated strands just where we left them...except now they're shrivelled up and crispy. This would be forgivable if it still tasted good, but it doesn't...the baked Sheese is now dry, sticky and cloying.
A hot grill made the difference in our recent review of Teese vegan cheese, when that stuff didn't melt in the oven, but the Sheese didn't melt when grilled (broiled) either. Again it went crispy and dry rather than melty, and with the same result to the texture...sticky and cloying. Disappointing.
We'd like to be kind to Bute Island...their cheese is a vegan mainstay in the UK, but we expected better from Sheese Melty. There are vegan cheeses coming onto the market that do melt, so it proves it can be done. At the very least, even if the melting is limited, the cheese still has to taste good when cooked...but this doesn't.
Verdict: Sheese is a cheese best served cold
Veganoo Score: ★★★☆☆
Sheese Melty 'Red Cheddar Style' vegan cheese
Sheese Melty gets an extra point for being a really good cheese eaten cold!
Footnote: Ingredients
Here is the ingredients panel from the pack we reviewed.
I came to look this up after tasting a tiny bit of their Red Leicester by Tesco and barely rescuing the evening with anti-nausea meds and an hour feeling really ill. Same thing happened when I tried the versions Sainsburys are selling. Glad it's not just me. A lot of the other reviews out there say that it's totally revolting too.
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