Review: Annas 'Pepparkaka' Biscuits

Annas - Original Pepparkaka - Ginger,  Almond, Cappuccino Thins

Ginger, Almond or Cappuccino flavour biscuit thins. Sweden's most loved pepparkaka, since 1929. These biscuits are from the Lotus biscuits stable, and are similar to caramelised biscuits. They're perfect with tea or coffee:

Food Fight: Anandas Vs Sweet Vegan

UPDATE: Sweet Vegan are now trading as Marshmallow Deli



Chocolate-coated marshmallow lollies from two artisan producers go head to head. Looking like edible gladiator's pugil sticks, we put both in the ring for a Food Fight. Will Ananda's or Sweet Vegan take the title of best vegan marshmallow lolly? Read on, fight fans:

Review: McVities Fruit Rolls

McVities - Fruit Rolls (biscuits) - Strawberry/Apple

Just like Fig Rolls... without the figs! Soft-baked biscuits with a fruity filling, in Apple and Strawberry flavours. If you've ever thought "I wish they made fig rolls with other fillings apart from figs", you're in luck - get the kettle on:

Review: Lidl Crownfield Muesli Cereal Bars


Crispy chewy cereal bars with no added sugar... and no added honey. 8 bar multipacks mean these are great value. The lack of added vitamins means there's no danger of animal-source vitamins making these unsuitable for vegans.

Review: Sweet Vegan's Vegan Nougat

UPDATE: Sweet Vegan are now trading as Marshmallow Deli


Sweet Vegan's Vegan Nougat

Traditional white nougat, without the egg-white. Call it fairground style, or french style, this is the chewy white block sort of nougat you get at the seaside (or in France). It's traditionally made with egg-white, or with gelatine, but Sweet Vegan use carrageenan, like they do in their marshmallows:

Review: Ananda's Valentine Round-Up

Ananda's - Limited Edition Valentine Round-Up - Vegan Wagon Wheel

Limited Edition heart-shaped vegan wagon wheel, from the February Vegan Tuck Box. We've previously reviewed Ananda's gelatine-free wagon wheels, but this heart shaped cutie is worth its own review. Your Vegan Valentine will be yours forever if they get one of these this Friday.

Review: Kingdom Double Choc Mousse

Kingdom - Double Choc Dark Chocolate Mousse

British dark chocolate bar with 'mousse' filling. Kingdom chocolate is a new brand which uses "ethical Ugandan cocoa", but doesn't have Fairtrade certification. The company produce several dark chocolates, but all except this one contain dairy. This one gets a vegan label, but with a king of mousse chocolate already crowned, can Kingdom take the throne?

Review: Camille Bloch Torino Truffle / Mousse

Camille Bloch - Torino - Truffle / Mousse vegan chocolate

A return review for the mousse bar, plus the truffle bar with a smooth almond and hazelnut filling. We loved the mousse bar so much that it made our Best Vegan Products of 2013 list. Now that Veganstore sells both bars, we thought we'd review them together. We're also going to compare these bars to the British made Kingdom truffle bars in our next review.

Review: Tanpopo Vegan Sushi

Tanpopo - Wholegrain Mix Vegetarian Sushi

Wholegrain Mix Vegetarian Sushi stocked at Ocado, including a mix of maki rolls and nigiri. This is a fairly unusual sushi made with brown rice. The presentation is great, but is brown rice sushi any good?

Review: Pudology Lemon Pudding

Pudology Vegan Dairy-Free Lemon Dessert Pudding

Gluten-free and dairy-free dessert made with coconut milk. We last reviewed Pudology puds in 2012, shortly after their launch. A couple of new flavours have landed since then, including this lemon pudding. It's a sort of mousse / fool rather than a cheesecake, as it doesn't have a base:

Review: Soya Mate Coffee Creamer

Soya Mate Dairy-Free Vegan Coffee-Creamer

Dairy-free coffee whitener from Veganstore UK. We've reviewed several coffee whiteners and found them mostly disappointing. Anyone want some unloved SoyGo sachets...? Veganstore were equally frustrated and set out to create their own creamer to fill the gap in the market. Should you pack some on your next trip?

Review: Leha Schlagfix Spray Cream

Leha Schlagfix Vegan Spray Cream

Dairy-free whipped cream in a convenient spray can. German firm LeHA has brought a range of dairy alternatives to the UK, including whipping cream, coffee creamer and a couple of spray creams. There is a "super kosher" version of this spray cream called 'Whiptop' which you can also find in the UK - it's even sold in Tesco.

Review: Buono Ice Cream Mochi

Buono vegan dairy-free ice cream Mochi

Dough balls with coconut milk ice cream filling. We previewed these last September and promised a full review - so here it is. There was some doubt that these were vegan initially, as the packs don't even state that they're vegetarian. We wrote to the UK distributor who assured us that they're vegetarian as well as non-dairy, which is great news for lovers of vegan ice cream:

Review: Vantastic Foods Vitali Cereal Bars

Vantastic Foods - Vitali Müsliriegel - Schoko Banane (chocolate banana vegan cereal bar)

Chocolate-banana flavoured crispy cereal bars from German producer Vantastic. These came from Vegan Tuck Box (we promise to diversify our sources soon...!). We hold the view that cereal bars fall into two camps - worthy and healthy, or sugary and tasty. These fall into the latter group, as high energy snack bars:

Review: Whole Plus Hot Pots - Vanilla Spice

Whole Plus - Hot Pots - Vanilla Spice - Vegan Snack Porridge

Vegan snack pot / porridge / instant breakfast - just add hot water. This is a great idea in a sector where many other instant breakfasts have dairy ingredients. Whole Plus make this range of three varieties of Hot Pots in Vanilla Spice, Cinnamon and Chocolate Boost. We got the Vanilla Spice one from Vegan Tuck Box.

Review: Cocoa Loco Hot Chocolate Spoon

Cocoa Loco Vegan Hot Chocolate Spoon

Fairtrade luxury hot chocolate serving in dark choc 'n' mint flavour. This is an unusual format for selling hot chocolate - a chunk of real chocolate with a wooden spoon embedded in it. This arrived with the January Vegan Tuck Box:

Review: Raw Nibbles Double Chocolate Brownie

Raw Nibbles Double Chocolate Vegan Brownie

A raw chocolate dairy and egg-free 'brownie' made with organic cocoa, dates and agave syrup. This arrived in the January Vegan Tuck Box. The company Raw Nibbles is a Suffolk-based artisan producer, who have a small range of raw food goodies available online. This isn't a brownie in the traditional sense:

Review: Provamel Spelt Milk

Provamel Spelt Milk (Spelt Drink)

New dairy-free milk option made with organic italian spelt and very little else. Spelt grain is closely related to wheat and is considered a cousin of modern wheat varieties. It does contain gluten, for those on the lookout. This spelt milk is made with just spelt, water, sunflower oil and salt and is unsweetened. It sounds a bit 'hair-shirt', but we like to try new things...so you don't have to...

Review: M and S Espresso Coffee Dark Chocolate

Marks and Spencer Espresso Chocolate

72% cocoa and 1% coffee in a slab of chocolate from Marks and Spencer. The speciality 'Chocolatier' range at M & S includes coffee, mint and chilli. This coffee bar is made with ground coffee for an espresso kick:

Review: Greens Quick Jel


Gelatine-free jelly, made and set in 30 minutes. Greens Quick Jel has been on the market for years, and the recipe on the pack is straight out of the 1970s... fruit flan. It's more versatile than that though, and as a widely available vegan jelly, it deserves a Veganoo review:

Review: Beyond Dark Chocolate Drops

Beyond Dark Plain Chocolate Drops

Dairy-free Orange, Raspberry and Plain chocolate in mini-button drops. For lovers of strong dark chocolate. These 70% drops have had new packaging since we first reviewed them last year. The heart-with-horns motif is gone and the tagline is now "Moments of Pleasure". The dark drops remain the same, joined by the orange and raspberry flavours:

Review: Biona Caramel & Chocolate Syrups


Organic agave syrups with dairy-free caramel and chocolate flavours. Joining Biona's plain agave syrup on the shelves recently are these pair of flavoured syrups. They're both billed as 'rich and mellow' and aimed at 'pancakes and desserts'. The difference between these and cheap sugar syrups, is that Agave makes up over 80% of the contents in both cases, meaning that they keep their Low GI status:

Review: Iceland Cherry Bakewell Cones


From the Iceland 'Party' food range. Thanks to the Vegan Womble for the tip off. We know we're late with this one for the party season, but our local Iceland had sold out of these when we first heard about them. You can still find them in Iceland stores at £2 for 14 if you want to try them for yourself, or just read on for our thoughts...

Review: Xotic Deluxe Desserts

Xotic Deluxe Desserts - Soya, Dairy & Gluten Free

Dairy-free yoghurt-pot desserts with a base of coconut cream, from producer Global Bounty. These are uncultured (not yoghurt) long life (ambient) dessert pots with fruit flavours. From the same stable as the Really Not Dairy range of yoghurts and mayos, these are a soya-free option. The pots are sold individually and come in four flavours, three of which we chose to check out:

Review: D and D Chocolate Chips

D and D dairy free Chocolate Chips

A big bag of dairy-free chocolate chips for baking. D and D Chocolates produce a range of dairy-free carob and chocolate goodies, including fondants, bars and seasonal chocolates. The Siesta brand is part of D and D. This 350g bag of chocolate chips is dairy-free, gluten-free and nut-free and is made with a mild 55% dark chocolate which even kids will enjoy.

Review: Really Not Dairy - Roasted Garlic Mayo

Really Not Dairy - Roasted Garlic Egg-Free Mayo

Leftover tofurkey in need of a lift? Roasted garlic egg-free mayo might be the answer. Global Bounty are a new UK company with several 'free from' product lines. Their Really Not Dairy range includes yoghurt-style desserts and this range of mayo alternatives. The mayo comes in Original, Chipotle and Roasted Garlic flavours. The garlic flavour might be ideal for perking up your Christmas leftovers:

Review: VBites VegiDeli Chicken Style Pieces

VBites VegiDeli Vegan Chicken Style Pieces

There's no coincidence that we reviewed these on Christmas Eve last year. Even if you're not into faux meat for the rest of the year, Christmas seems to be the season for tucking into tofurkey and vegan chipolatas. If you miss turkey and chicken since turning vegan, there are a few good options for your fowl-mouthed cravings, like these Vbites Chicken Style pieces:

Vegan Christmas: Coop Liqueurs and Mint Thins


Vegan 'after-eights' and chocolate liqueurs from the Cooperative. The Coop couldn't decide if these were vegan, so we've decided for them (see below).

Vegan Christmas: VBites Cheatin' Turkey Style Roast


Meat-free festive roast. Have you got used to saying VBites instead of Redwood Yet? The Cheatin branding lives on at least on the company's faux meat range. Outside London, you'll find it hard to get hold of exotic (and expensive) US products like Tofurky or Field Roast, so we thought we'd review a long established offering from these shores. Is this Turkey Style Roast something you could look forward to for your vegan Christmas dinner?