We visited the Berlin (Friedrichshain) branch of vegan supermarket chain Veganz last week and were blown away by the amazing range of vegan products available. There is nothing like this in the UK (although the Kensington branch of Whole Foods has a lot of the US import stuff). The rumoured London branch of Veganz has been delayed, so we thought we give you a preview and share just what's on offer in the company's stores:
Although the store is small for a supermarket, they have a disproportionately sized chiller and freezer section. The whole back wall is filled with glass fronted chillers. In the freezer, there are US and UK brands amongst the German offerings. Tofurky and Gardein are well represented.
Frys and Field Roast fight for space with the massive Gardein range in the freezer. The chick'n looks good... wish we'd bought that!
Uptons is a brand we haven't seen before, but they look to be big in Seitanism...
The German alternative to The Vegg is this MyEy range of egg substitutes, which isn't just egg yolk (EyGelb), but also egg white (EyWeiss) and whole egg (VollEy) too.
In the chillers, Coyo gets a look in, next to the chia desserts, and Joya Soya is available. Joya is no longer available in the UK, after pulling out earlier this year.
We spotted some Rebel Kitchen coconut milk drinks, although not that strangely flavoured Chai one...
The cheese section had every brand of vegan cheese we've ever reviewed (well, apart from Vegerella..), plus US imports like Daiya and Vegan Gourmet.
Vantastic Foods had a chiller all to themselves, with a huge range of mock meats and cheeses on offer.
Several varieties of frozen vegan pizzas from Tofurky and local brands were available, plus vegan cornettos from Naturattiva.
The Vegetarian Plus brand (what a duff brand name) was well in evidence, but they really got our attention with this Vegan Whole Turkey. We'd like to go back at Christmas and try it...
Two of the best chocolate bars on the planet - Vego and Torino Mousse were rather invitingly sat next to each other in the confectionery section.
Vantastic have this Vegan Bakery brand that they use on their baked goods. Go Max Go bars were all present and correct.
Dandies marshmallows from the US sat next to 'Freedom Mallows' in a Vantasic Foods branded pack (we assume these are repackaged Freedom Mallows from the UK).
Lots of ice cream brands we've never heard of were in the freezer, and yes those are vegan magnums in the upper right of the picture.
Our haul was rather modest given what's on offer, but we were on public transport without a cool bag (bad planning) on a hot day. We also tried the in-store cafe, which was OK, nothing special. The biggest disappointment was the vegan soft serve ice cream, from a 'Mister Whippy' style machine... it was nothing more than soft served sorbet... should have gone for those magnums!
We're not planning on doing restaurant reviews, so we'll just mention a couple of other places worth a visit if you're in Berlin: Kopps vegan restaurant does an excellent vegan brunch (all you can eat), while the Tanne B ice creams shops do some great dairy-free options in vegan cones, including an amazing pistachio.
Our conclusion is that Veganz supermarkets are great, if a little pricey (not unlike Whole Foods). We'd love to see a Veganz store or two in the UK - the feeling of being in an entire supermarket where you don't have the check whether things are vegan is just mind blowing, and we'd love to repeat it on home soil.
We'll review some of those products in the following posts.
Vegan Blog · Vegan Product Reviews · Vegan Food Reviews · Vegan News · Vegetarian
Hi ya, loving all the yummy treats.
ReplyDeleteWill you be reviewing the Wilmersburger cheese as I heard from a couple people it is the best vegan cheese on the market at the moment? How is the Daiya cheese also? Any better than the uk vegan cheeses on offer.... :)
Thankyou
Yep, the Daiya and Wilmersburger cheese reviews are on the way...
DeleteI went to Berlin last year for a couple days and ran out of time to go Veganz so hopefully Veganz open a store in London soon....any idea when?
ReplyDeleteI went to two branches of Veganz in Berlin and they were both great! Almost too much choice! I was tempted to get some Veganaise but didn't want to pay for hold baggage on the plane home!
ReplyDeleteDo they sell any less processed foods like -- um vegetables?
ReplyDeleteThey could have sold alien technology and I wouldn't have noticed, as I was blinded by all the vegan goodies, but yeah point taken..
DeleteDaiya is actually a Canadian company (specifically, Vancouver!) not US.
ReplyDeleteWe stand corrected!
DeleteDaiya ingredients includes xanthan gum. Won't be buying that anymore but Follow Your Heart brand has a new formula with no xanthan gum or carrageenan and it tastes really good. I'm glad Veganz is carrying FYH :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the info
DeleteWhat don't you like about xanthan gum?
Delete