Beyond the Bean: Sweetbird Syrups / Zuma Cocoa

Sweetbird Syrups. Vegan Coffee Syrups


Coffee, Hot Chocolate, Mocha, Granita, Cocktails, Lassi... courtesy of cafe-bar drinks specialist Beyond the Bean. The Bristol company specialises in everything a coffee shop could need... except for the coffee itself. They sent us some samples of their Sweetbird line of syrups and their Zuma hot chocolate powder (plus a range of teas we'll review separately). We took them along to the legendary veggie/vegan Alley Cafe Bar in Nottingham for our review:

Does it blend? Magimix 4200 Food Processor


She's French, she's expensive and she's mine. I hope she's good in the kitchen. The Magimix 4200 is actually quite a macho machine in terms of brute power, with a solid build and the weight of a horse. After blowing a fuse on our little Philips blender trying to blend cashew nuts while reviewing Artisan Vegan Cheese, we've done our homework and dropped some serious cash on this beast. Now we've got it, we're planning to review it.

Review: Redwood Mini Sausage Rolls

Redwood Mini Vegan Sausage Rolls

Cold weather calls for hot sausage rolls... vegan ones of course. Redwood recently joined Frys and Linda McCartneys in the vegan sausage roll market (sounds like enough for a Veganoo Taste Test). The mini sausage rolls are cocktail sized and are ideal for buffets and party food, if you can resist eating them all as they emerge from a hot oven.

Review: Propercorn Sweet & Salty Popcorn

Propercorn Sweet and Salty Popcorn

Ever mixed sweet and salty popcorn? Like salted caramel... it's strangely good. Propercorn make four flavours of popcorn, two of which are animal free, including this mix of sweet and salty. The plain salted flavour is also dairy-free, but the sour cream and worcester sauce flavours contain milk. We grabbed a bag of the sweet and salty stuff to see if it's as good as it looks.

Review: Cofresh Hummus Chips

Cofresh Hummus Chips

Not for dipping in hummus... made from hummus, or chickpeas at least. Leicester based company Cofresh produce these naturally gluten-free crisps from a mixture of chickpea, rice, potato and cornflour. That sounds like a recipe for cardboard, but these chips are amazingly tasty and fantastically crisp:

Review: Black Soya Milk from Yon-Ho


Love weirding out your non-vegan friends? Offer them some black soya milk. We spotted this in a local chinese supermarket and were intrigued. It genuinely is made from black soybeans - there's no food colouring in there. The only version on offer was sweetened... very sweetened. How does it taste?

Rejuvelation!... How to make Rejuvelac

Rejuvelac

Make your own rejuvelac... a step by step guide. Our sister site plantfoods.org has a new demo on how to make rejuvelac at home. Rejuvelac is a non-alcoholic fermented liquid made from sprouted grains. It can be used to make vegan nut/seed cheeses or plantmilk yoghurts. You can also just drink it as a digestive aid.

Plant Milks: Provamel Oat and Rice/Coconut

Provamel Vegan Plant Milks

Dairy-free milks really took off in the UK last year. Anything other than soya milk or rice milk used to be a niche market, but now we have several producers offering a range of plant milks. Provamel are the leading brand in the health and wholefood market and we've long dreamed that they would offer a range of milks as good as their soya. Does their Oat Milk and their Rice-Coconut Milk deserve the hallowed Provamel brand name?

Review: Cairnsmhor Wholegrain Mustard Crackers


Vegan oatcakes from Scottish producer Cairnsmhor. We needed something to eat vegan cheese on as we work through the Artisan Vegan Cheese book. These mustard flavoured oat crackers appeal to us for their practical shape... they're narrow enough to bite. Round and square crackers often break apart on first bite by contrast. These are practical...but also tasty.

Cashew Chèvre from the Artisan Vegan Cheese Book


We're reviewing Miyoko Schinner's vegan cheese book. This is the first recipe in the book, and the cashew recipe is the base for many other cheeses in the book, so we thought it a good place to start. Chèvre is a goat's cheese which we've never eaten so making comparisons is difficult. It's also difficult to know if you've achieved the same results as the author...

Leftovers: Sainsbury's Chocolate Orange Thins


Sort of orangey After Eights. Part of the stuff-we-didn't-review-before-Christmas. These chocolate thins were in all the supermarkets at Christmas, in flavours including mint, turkish delight and orange. They all seem to be made in the same place, as the packs and the chocs are identical. Even the Divine ones are identical (though made with fairtrade chocolate). We picked up these orange ones from Sainsburys. Were we fond-ant of them?

Vegan Business: Moo Free Needs Your Help


A Kickstarter project for new chocolate machines. The fine folks over at Moo Free Chocolates need new chocolate machines to keep the business going. They've launched a Kickstarter project to help them raise sufficient funds to make the investment. Kickstarter is a crowd-funding website where users can pledge money towards creative business ventures. If you financially back the project, you receive something tangible in return such as a key-ring, a T-shirt, some chocolate or even a factory tour, depending on the amount you pledge.

Vegan Kebab: Wheaty Gyros and Doner


Vegan Doner and Vegan Gyros from German firm Wheaty, bought from Vx. We've seen vegan kebabs before such as the Vebab, but never pre-packaged ones such as these. Based entirely on wheat protein these kebab 'meats' are intended to replicate the thin slivers of lamb cut from those rotating spits seen in kebab shops. We can't remember what kebab tastes like, but are these kebabs worth seeking out to extend the vegan food experience?

Review: Redwood Breaded Cheezly Bites

Redwood Breaded Pepperjack Style Cheezly Bites

Chunks of vegan cheese with a crispy breadcrumb coating. Redwood's selection of snacks and party food seems to have exploded lately. We're not quite sure where these fit in to an everyday menu but we can imagine them being served as an appetiser. We've no idea what dairy pepperjack cheese tastes like as it's not really a cheese eaten in the UK. We certainly know what Cheezly tastes like though and we're interested in how it tastes hot and breadcrumbed.

Review: Morrisons Free From Millionaire's Shortbread

Morrisons Free From Millionaire's Shortbread

Vegan caramel shortbread in the Free From section at Morrisons. There is at least one other widely available dairy-free caramel shortbread that we've reviewed - in the Lazy Day range of tray bakes. This one is distinctly different and isn't made by Lazy Days and repackaged. Have Morrisons managed to perfect that all important vegan caramel layer?

Review: Morrisons Peppermint Cremes


Yet more vegan after-dinner chocolate mints. We know you've started your New Year's regime by now of broccoli and lentils and... no?...us neither, not until we've eaten all of this stuff left over from Christmas anyway! We don't review many things from Morrisons, as their vegan selection isn't great so we rarely go there. They do have occasional gems though, like their mince pies and these peppermint cremes.

Soy-Free Vegan: Cheezly Soy & Dairy Free


Melting vegan cheese made with pea protein. Cheezly's dairy-free range is now pretty extensive and Redwood even cater for those who wish to avoid soya too. Most home-made vegan cheeses are made from nuts, but the commercial stuff is invariably made with some kind of soy. If you are avoiding soy for whatever reason the options are limited. We tried out Redwood's soy-free option to see if it's on a par with their regular Cheezly.

Review: Sainsbury's FreeFrom Chocolate Mint Crisps


Ever get the feeling you've had something before? These after dinner mint chocolates will be very familiar if you've eaten the Celtic Chocolates version... which we reviewed just last month. Companies like Celtic repackage their chocolates for supermarkets to sell as their own brand and we're sure that has happened here. Sainsbury's also sell a chocolate bar remarkably similar to a Celtic bar. If you missed our recent Celtic review, read on:

Review: Vantastic White Chocolate with Smarties


More from our recent trip to Vx. Vegan white Chocolate with dark chocolate 'smarties'. German company Vantastic make a large range of vegan foods and some of it is available in the UK through Vx and Vegan Store. We recently reviewed their vegan white chocolate spread which was a little disappointing... and didn't contain any cocoa. These white chocolate bars have cocoa butter as the principal ingredient so at least they're authentic... but are they any good?

Review: Nutritious Delicious Lime Truffles


Vegan truffles from Nutritious Delicious, working closely with Montezuma's. We chose the lime flavour, but they also produce orange, vanilla and almond flavours. These truffles have a selling point of being 'good for you', with no refined sugar and with ingredients including lucuma, maca and ginseng. You might believe the health claims, but do they still taste like great truffles?

Vegan Christmas: Redwood Chicken Style Pieces


It's too late to buy these for Christmas Day but if you're looking for the perfect Boxing Day sandwich filling, these faux chicken pieces are the answer. Redwood offer plain and tikka style chicken pieces and they can be eaten hot or cold. Read on for why we recommend you keep it cool...

Vegan Christmas: Montezuma's Chocolate Snowmen

Vegan Christmas: Montezuma's Chocolate Snowmen

Chunky Dark Chocolate Snowmen from Montezuma. These are clearly Christmas treats but we're not quite sure of their intended use... they're not wrapped or threaded...so they're not for hanging on the tree. They're too big for cake decorations too, so quite where they fit isn't clear. We thought we'd review them anyway to see if they should be on your last minute Christmas shopping list.

Kosher Haul: Vegan Goodies from Vx


A selection from our recent trip to Vegan Cross from kosher producer Paskesz. Trios sandwich cookies, Mint Creme cookies and chocolate covered Nutty Chews. The Trios are clearly Oreo inspired and the Mint Creme cookies are almost exactly like Viscount biscuits in the UK. The Nutty Chews are harder to define.... sort of chewy peanut brittle with a chocolate coating:

More Vegan Mince Pies: ASDA / Smart Price


Do we have a new champion of our vegan Mince Pie Taste Test? The choice of vegan mince pies at ASDA includes their regular deep-filled mince pies and their shallow-filled Smart Price offering. Top marks to ASDA for having a choice of animal-free pies... the only supermarket this year to do so. As usual, we tried the pies hot and cold, to see how they fared. 

Gluten-Free Vegan: OK Foods Mince Pies

gluten-free vegan mince pies

Gluten-Free mince pies from Sainsburys. If the vegan Christmas menu at your house also includes a gluten-free option, then these mince pies are ideal. Large deep-filled mince pies that look convincing as well as appetising. After yesterday's Mince Pie Taste Test, how well can a wheat-free option compare?

Vegan Taste Test: Best Supermarket Mince Pies


A selection of vegan mince pies from various supermarkets for our Christmas Taste Test. Many supermarkets now do both regular and posh mince pies, with the latter having butter pastry. That's fine with us vegans as it means the regular pies are likely to be clear of dairy fat. We took three lots of pies and compared them, hot and cold, to see if there is a clear favourite. UPDATE: includes two sorts of ASDA mince pies.

Review: Alpro 'Fruity & Creamy' Yoghurt


A new rich and creamy version of Alpro's market-leading soya yoghurts. Alpro now have the supermarkets' own brand soya yoghurts to compete with, and are looking for a niche in the premium yoghurt aisle. We chose the peach flavour twin-pack of their new 'Fruity & Creamy' line to see if Alpro have cracked the creamniness code for soya yoghurt.

Vegan Christmas: Lidl Chocolate Marzipan


Three types of plain chocolate marzipan in the Christmas range at Lidl. Whilst much of the Favorina brand confectionery isn't vegan this year, the good old staple of chocolate marzipan doesn't let us down. We were disappointed that the rum and raisin flavour was covered in milk chocolate, but we have pineapple and two sorts of plain marzipan to choose from.

Video: Ms Cupcake's Vegan Baking Tips

The video takes time to load for some reason. Try the YouTube link at the bottom of the post.


Ms Cupcake founder Melissa Morgan shares her vegan baking tips to a packed house at Animal Aid's Christmas Fayre 2012. We've managed to improve the audio and video quality from our original liveblog post.

Liveblog: Animal Aid Christmas Fayre



We're here at Kensington Town Hall for the annual Christmas without Cruelty event. The place is packed out and despite freezing temperatures outside it's certainly warm in here: