Question: Is Bournville vegan?

Unrelated to today's other post...

The ingredients list on the back of Cadbury's Bournville chocolate has changed back and forth over the years to include or exclude dairy products...usually milk fat. The current ingredients list is animal free, but includes one of those annoying disclaimers:

When is vegan-certified chocolate not vegan?

When it comes with live maggots...  We're not going to name the brand as they're a small company, but this probably wouldn't have scored highly in our review...

Review: Lima Seitan Pieces...Bottled Seitan

What have the Belgians ever done for us? Well they've certainly made seitan much more accessible...by putting it in a jar. You can make your own seitan...in a couple of hours, or you can buy chilled seitan...but what if you want it in the store cupboard, ready to go? Lima has the long life solution you're looking for. These large jars are sold across Europe for seitan worshippers everywhere:

Gluten-Free Vegan: Mamma Cucina Quiches Review

Delicious dairy-free quiches....at least that's what it says on the pack. You may have seen these gluten, egg and dairy free quiches in the freezer at Holland & Barrett. The Mamma Cucina brand from Triano (the Tofutti makers) also appears on cheesecakes and pizzas. We popped a couple of these mini quiches in the oven to see if they're any good.

Review: Allsep's Party Mix Jelly Sweets

Australian confectionery brand Allsep's products are not widely available in the UK, but their vegan Party Mix jellies are. These are firm jellies, but not quite hard gums...think somewhere between jelly babies and wine gums. The sweets in each bag are in a whole range of shapes, colours and flavours...hence the 'party' moniker:

Review: Deli Fry's Mock Meats

If you've been to a recent VegFest you might have sampled Bute Island's range of mock meats, sold under the Deli-Fry's label. That's not to be confused with Frys...our favourite frozen mock meat producer. Deli-Fry's stuff is all ambient packaged in vac pacs and ready to eat. We put the mock ham and mock chorizo to the test:

UPDATE: Deli-Frys has been rebranded as VEGANDELI

Bon-Bons, Jellies, Chocolate and Liquorice...from the National Trust

Probably not the first place to look for vegan confectionary, but the National Trust has a pretty good selection at some of their locations. Vegan toffee bon-bons are still as rare as hen's teeth so to find them sitting there in an NT gift shop is quite a surprise. Even vegetarian jellies are still unusual, and what about hard liquorice without gelatin or beeswax:

Review: Smart Fries..air popped potato sticks

For UK readers these are crisps rather than chips...and for US readers these are chips rather than fries. Now that's out of the way, on with the review. With "80% less fat than regular potato chips" according to the pack, these potato sticks claim to be healthier than your usual potato-based snack. They're air-popped, which we guess means they're not deep fried...

Review: Pudology Puds....sshh...they're vegan

We've got our hands on the three new vegan desserts produced by gluten, egg and dairy free producer Pudology. The espresso and mango flavours don't seem to have made it to market just yet, but we've got the chocolate, banoffee and strawberry puds to keep us happy. The desserts are sold singly or in twin packs and are beautiful to look at...with colourful designs and clear pots so you can see what you're getting:

Review: Askeys Brandy Snap Baskets

A vegan version of that splendid but peculiar affair...the brandy snap basket. We say peculiar because they never contain brandy, and are never flat like a 'snap' biscuit. They probably used to be made with brandy, and are still usually made with butter...which thankfully these aren't. These ginger flavoured baskets are designed to be filled with ice cream, so we added a scoop of the dairy-free stuff and gave them a try.

Review: Dorset Cereals Breakfast Pot

We recently reviewed Dorset Cereals vegan chocolate macadamia bar and now it's the turn of their breakfast cereal...a 'breakfast pot' in fact. This is a single serving of muesli in an oversized plastic pot...you supply your own milk. It isn't the cheapest way to get your breakfast, but if you're away from home it's about the healthiest option available. We filled ours with Rice Dream and gave it a try.

Review: Hipo Hyfryd Pistachio and Rose Delight

Welsh handmade vegan chocolate from Cardiff. The range of chocolates available from producer Hipo Hyfryd is not your run of the mill stuff, but rather the unusual and unique. Rose and pistachio are normally found together in turkish delight, but here they're paired as a sort of praline filling.

Chifu: 'tofu' made from Chia Seeds

Along with our sister site plantfoods.org we're reviewing chia seeds...Chia Bia seeds even. We've so far made chia gel, chia milk and chia tofu, but chia yoghurt was a no go...it just wouldn't culture.

The 'chifu' we made is very unusual...more gluten-like than tofu-like...but if anything we thought it was most like silly putty. We can't think of what to do with it as yet, but we suspect it might be useful in gluten-free baking as it's very elastic.

If you want to make it yourself, the instructions will soon be up on plantfoods.org, but in short you do this:

Review: Dorset Cereals Choc Macadamia Bars

Vegan chocolate cereal bars from the people at Dorset Cereals, the premium breakfast muesli makers. These cereal bars are billed as 'decadently chocolatey' and are just under 10% chocolate. Rather than being a chocolate-coated cereal bar, these have the chocolate mixed with the cereals throughout the bar. The presentation of Dorset Cereals products is great...lots of shelf appeal...but do these bars justify their premium billing?

Review: Taifun Tofritto tofu steaks

Our favourite tofu producer Taifun also makes sausages, cutlets, filets and steaks, all from the finest German tofu (made from German-grown organic soya beans). The latest line to hit chiller shelves in the UK is their Tofritto brand of tofu steaks. The product comes in two flavours, Cashew & Olives and Capers & Peppers. The steaks can be eaten cold but are best pan-fried until crispy. We fried up the Cashew & Olive steak for our review:

Review: Choceur Mint Chocolate Waves

Vegan chocolate 'pringles' anyone? Aldi's Choceur brand of chocolate occasionally turns up some unexpected vegan treats. These minty chocolate waves take the form of Pringles, in a stack tube to match. They are simply very thin dark chocolate, flavoured with mint and peppered with crispy rice.

Campaign: Get Frys Stocked in Sainsbury's

Fat Gay Vegan has launched a campaign to get more vegan options stocked in UK supermarket chain Sainsbury's, and we're right behind him. The focus is on getting Frys vegan range offered in the freezer section instead of just Quorn, which contains animal products. Sainsbury's has fallen behind Tesco in catering to the growing Free From market, especially in their range of vegan food, but neither retailer stocks Frys great vegan selection.

The Frys range includes burgers, sausages, mince, schnitzels, and chicken style products, all of which are really great tasting. We'd love to see them stocked at our local Sainsbury's

You can back the campaign by signing the online petition over at FGV.
http://fatgayvegan.com/2012/08/25/petition-time/

Review: Carousel Waffle Cones for Ice Cream

We only recently ran our ice cream cone taste test but have now found another UK source of vegan cones for ice creams. Carousel were included in our original test with their sugar-free cones, but they also make these premium waffle cones which are vegan too. Unlike the other waffle cones we found, these ones are not gluten-free, but then they don't attract that 'Free From' premium price either. We grabbed some dairy-free ice cream and took these cones out for a taste test.

SPACEBAR Goes Gluten-Free, Stays Vegan

Top: wheaty version - Bottom: tofu version

Spacebar, the vegan meaty snack bar is now available gluten-free. The Spacebar range was previously based purely on wheat protein, but the makers have now brought out a tofu version. Topas are obviously keen to broaden the market appeal of the snack bar by addressing the large gluten-free market.  We compared the tofu version with the wheaty version.

Review: Reggae Reggae Jerk Nuts

Levi Roots' vegan-labelled Reggae Reggae jerk sauce has made its way to the snack shelf. These bags of jerk flavoured peanuts and cashews also carry a vegan label. It's just as well for a bag of nuts with 47 ingredients...you wouldn't want to read the back of this pack in a hurry. The nuts appear to be dipped in the jerk sauce and then rolled in extra jerk seasoning. Do this many ingredients deliver on the flavour front?

Review: White Chocolate Macadamia Luna Bars

More vegan white chocolate...we can't move for the stuff. Luna bars are the nutritional cereal bars aimed at women, from the Clif Bar company. Smaller and with fewer calories than Clif bars, these are still pretty hefty cereal bars. The white chocolate is no small part of this bar either...besides the decoration on the front there is a lovely thick dipped white choc coating on the bottom.

Review: Beyond Dark Chocolate Drops

In a break from our white chocolate theme, we're going dark...beyond dark. We spotted these dairy-free chocolate drops in Holland & Barrett. They're not raw chocolate, which seems to be everywhere at the moment, but they are made in a special 'slow and gentle' roasting process which claims to preserve more antioxidants. They're certainly very dark to look at, but are they the drops of 'pure pleasure' promised on the packet?

Review: Vantastic vegan white chocolate spread

Continuing with our dairy-free white chocolate theme for this week, today's review is Vantastic white chocolate spread. You'd use this in the same way as nutella-style spreads....on bread or toast. The German spread is available online and has a long shelf life thanks to a good proportion of fat and sugar. What's immediately odd about this stuff is....it has no chocolate ingredients whatsoever...

Taste Test: Best Vegan White Chocolate

A choice of three dairy-free white chocolate bars is another sign of how vegan options have improved lately. Not too long back, non-dairy white chocolate was a novelty, but now Sweet William, Plamil and Organica are battling it out for your custom. As we like to do here at Veganoo, we unwrapped the three bars and put them to the Taste Test.

Review: Provamel Intenz Desserts

Long established organic brand Provamel has only recently made its way into the chiller cabinet in the UK. Their Intenz range of desserts are similar to their UHT range, but are sold as fresh and found in the fridge. The two pack desserts are available in chocolate and vanilla. Does the move from shelf to chiller improve the already great taste of Provamel's desserts?

Vegan Camping Food: Wayfarer Review

It's camping season...the mosquitos are feeding, and hungry vegans are too. If you're travelling light, but you want to take more than some dried TVP in your backpack, then Wayfarer's pouches might be the answer. The boil-in-the bag ready meals come in lots of varieties, of which the vegetable curry and the spicy vegetable rigatoni are animal-free. The advantage over tinned food is not so much the weight, as the convenience of the tough but malleable pouch shape...and no washing up....

Live from Leicester Vegan Fair 2012

A sunny Saturday in Leicester and the place is packed out for this year's vegan fair. Read on for our blog of the day's events.

Taste Test: Best Smoked Tofu

The next time you see a recipe calling for smoked tofu, ask yourself...which sort? The British style of smoked tofu...rubbery, coarse, bitter? Or the German style, ranging from the dry and tough to the moist and ham-like. You see, there are as many types of smoked tofu as there are producers. There is no accepted norm for what you'll get when you buy some. As to the question of quality, frankly some are better than others.

Review: Primal Strips Vegan Jerky

Recently arrived from the US, these vegan jerky strips come in a whole range of flavours. Some are based on soy and with others made from shiitake mushrooms. The shiitake ones contain wheat gluten, but the soy ones are labelled as gluten-free. Although there are vegan pepperoni-style snacks available in the UK, these are the first widely available vegan jerky strips we know of. We picked up the Hickory Smoked, Texas BBQ and Hot & Spicy strips for our review.

Gluten-Free Vegan: Prewetts Jammy Wheels

Gluten-Free recently 'beat the wheat' in our recent vegan ice cream cone taste test, so for this review we're doing it again...putting these gluten-free 'jammy wheels' up against wheat-based jammie dodgers. Both packs of biscuits (cookies for US readers) are vegan of course. The Prewetts biscuits are based on gluten-free oats and are slightly more 'wholemeal' looking than regular jammie dodgers. Can oats beat out wheat this time too?