Review: Cocofina Coconut Water


100% natural and isotonic, available in bottles, cartons and mini cartons. Cocofina supplied us this 500ml long life bottle of coconut water, which can be drunk on the go. Coconut water is the water from the centre of fresh green coconuts.

Review: Olivia Soaps & Balms


Natural, organic, handmade vegan soaps, butters and balms. Michelle from Olivia Soaps sent us a selection of their range for our review. We got the Lavender & Sandalwood Soap, Rosa Mosqueta Balm, and Peppermint Lip Balm. It certainly smells good:

Review: Cocofina Coconut Oil / Nectar

Cocofina Raw, organic, unrefined coconut oil and coconut flower nectar

Raw, organic, unrefined coconut oil and coconut flower nectar. Cocofina's marketing team sent us a range of the company's products for review, and we're working our way through them. Cocofina specialise in all manner of coconut products, including drinks, cereal bars, oils and syrups. Come see what we made with these two:

Review: Cherub Cheesey Sauce Mix

Cherub Cheesey Sauce Mix

Dairy-free cheese sauce from New Zealand producer Cherub. We reviewed their parmesan shaker back in September, and now this sauce mix has started to hit the shelves of health food shops across the UK. We made up some macaroni cheese to check it out:

Review: Eti Tutku Mosaic Biscuits

Eti - Tutku - Chocolate Cream Mosaic Biscuits

From @vegantuckbox this month. Crunchy biscuits with a creamy chocolate filling. These biscuits are Turkish, and the ingredients seem to vary depending on where you are in the world - the US version has eggs and milk in. This pack is vegan, but you need to read the German or French ingredients if you want to see for yourself.

Review: Biovegan 1001 Eis

Biovegan 1001 Eis Vegan Ice Cream Powder Mixes

Vegan ice cream powder. Three minutes prep for dairy-free ice cream. Biovegan are a German vegan producer who specialise in organic packet mixes, from sauces, to bread mixes and desserts. These ice cream powders are sold through Plamil in the UK. Are they worth the online order...and the faff?

Review: Dragonfly Premium Marinated Tofu

Dragonfly Premium Marinated Tofu

It's tofu.. but in a gold box! Premium tofu... count us in! Dragonfly obviously feel the need to shout from the rooftops about the quality of their new marinated tofu. We could hear them shouting, so we grabbed a pack, and made some kebabs:

Father's Day: Venchi Chocolate Truffle Cigar

Venchi - CUBA - Cacao Aromatico (Chocolate Truffle Cigar - Aromatic)

VeganTown.co.uk have the perfect Father's Day gift: dairy-free gianduja cigars from Italian confectioner Venchi. The folks at VeganTown sent us a sample cigar to review (thank you folks!), while you can get yours for under a fiver. Father's Day this year is Sunday June 15th:

New: Provamel Relaunch, New Products

Provamel Oat Milk and Rice-Almond Milk

Dairy-free plant milks from @Provamel including, Oat, Rice-Almond and Macadamia. New stylish packaging, with slimmer cartons too. The marketing team at Provamel sent us the new recipe Oat milk and the brand new Rice-Almond milk, ahead of the June relaunch. We hope to get hold of the Macadamia milk soon too.

Review: Ombar Coco Mylk

Ombar Coco Mylk Chocolate

Vegan 'milk' chocolate bar made with coconut cream. Produced with organic raw cocoa and bio live cultures. This chocolate bar arrived with the May Vegan Tuck Box and is the first time we've encountered the Ombar brand.

Review: London Tea

The London Tea Company: Black, white, green, fruit and herb teas

Black, white, green, fruit and herb teas from London's premier tea company. From breakfast tea to sencha green tea, the range has something for all tastes. The marketing team at London Tea sent us a selection to try. What else could we do...we held a vegan tea party.

Review: Marmite Rice Cakes

Marmite Rice Cakes are vegan

Rice cakes that aren't dull, but flavoured with love-it or hate-it Marmite. A low fat snack alternative to crisps, with 3% fat. We found these in the Co-operative supermarket.

Review: Shneider's Delinut Dip

Shneiders - Delinut Dip - Dairy Free chocolate cream dippers

Chocolate dipper snack pack from the May Vegan Tuck Box selection of treats. Shneider's Delinut Duo spread gained top marks in our review last year, so we were thrilled to see this snack pot arrive. Oddly, Delinut is sometimes spelled Dellinut, depending on which country the product is manufactured for. Is the Dip as good as the Duo?

Review: Fourre Vanilla Cream Biscuits

Fourre - Vanilla Cream Doppelkeks - Vegan Biscuits

Doppelkeks sandwich biscuits from Vegan Tuck Box this month. Vegan custard creams are hard to come by, so these vanilla cream biscuits are a welcome substitute. Large round doppelkeks (double biscuits) are popular in Germany and France, but rare in the UK:

Review: Vegamigo Egg-Free Omelette Mix

Vegamigo Egg-Free Omelette Mix for vegan omelettes

For dairy-free, soy-free and gluten-free vegan omelettes, just mix with water. This German powdered mix is the first egg-free omelette product to arrive in the UK, and is based on a mix of flours including chickpea, potato and tapioca. Just like The Vegg, it's also got an eggy flavour thanks to kala namak:

Review: Co-operative Cherry Pie / Gooseberry Pie

Co-operative Vegan Cherry Pie / Gooseberry Pie

Large fruit pies from the Co-op in-store bakery. Listed as vegan on the supermarket's current vegan list (link below). UPDATE: The Apple Pie and Rhubarb Pies are also on the list, but the pies are not listed together.

News: Fry's vegan range now in Booths


Vegans in the Northwest welcome news of Booths supermarkets stocking the market-leading meat replacement brand. The range of Fry’s Family Foods products is available at half-price until May 20 as a special introductory promotion at Booths.

Review: Tofutti Minis - 'Better Than Cream Cheese'

Tofutti Minis - 'Better Than Cream Cheese' - Dairy Free Cream Cheese

Mini snack packs of dairy-free and soy-free cream cheese. Based on a protein blend including rice, fava bean and garden pea. This is a six pack of little snack pots, so you can get your dairy-free fix on the go. We picked up the Roasted Red Pepper & Garlic flavour.

Review: Teese Creamy Cheddar Sauce

Teese Creamy Cheddar Sauce - vegan cheese sauce

Pre-packaged cheese sauce, made with dairy-free cheese. Teese is a US brand of vegan cheese that's becoming more widely available in the UK. Teese mozzarella came second in our massive Meltdown cheese taste test last year. This sauce comes in an identical package to the firm cheese - a sort of cheese sausage. Quick mac and cheese is on the menu:

Review: Coconut Yoghurts from Bessant & Drury / The Coconut Collaborative

Photo Credit: The Coconut Collaborative

Between reviewing the product and writing up this review, the company has gone and changed its name, and packaging. The Coconut Collaborative is the new name for Bessant & Drury. The product hasn't changed, which is a relief, as it's rather good:

Review: Vegamigo Parmezzo Cheese

Vegamigo Parmezzo Cheese - vegan parmesan dairy-free

Vegan parmesan alternative made with cashews. Dairy-free, soy-free and gluten-free. Pasta sprinkles for vegetarians and vegans. This is now the third brand of grated 'parmesan'-in-a-tub that we've reviewed, after Bellissimo and Parmazano. After soy flour and coconut flour, this time it's ground cashew nuts doing the cheesy thing:

Review + Recipe: La Guli Condensed Soya Milk

La Guli Condensed Soya Milk: dairy-free and vegan

Vegan caramel shortbread made easy, with dairy-free condensed milk. Lactose-free and gluten-free, this vegan version of condensed milk is made with soya and corn syrup. Available in the UK from several online retailers. It works well, and the recipe for millionaire's shortbread is below:

Review: Nuvale 'Cubes' Seitan Chunks

Nuvale Cubes Seitan Chunks

Canned seitan pieces in stock. Great store cupboard standby for pie fillings, like a vegan version of steak chunks. We tried them out in a seitan and mushroom pie:

Review: Dragonfly Leek & Potato Soysages

Dragonfly Leek & Potato Soysages - vegan sausages

Handmade vegan sausages from Devon. Meat-free and gluten-free, made with soya bean fibre. We've avoided these sausages until now, based on the fact that a sausage which is 70% potato and rice just can't be any good, can it?

Vegan Easter: Lidl mini chocolate eggs

Lidl - Favorina Mini Chocolate Eggs - Vegan

Favorina brand mini eggs with marzipan, amaretto and cassis centres. Dark chocolate eggs for liqueur and marzipan lovers. These bags of chocolate eggs appear every Easter at the budget German supermarket:

Review: Sojade Seitan Steaks

Sojade - Grilled Seitan Steaks - Meat Free and Vegan

A pack of three griddled vegan steaks made from gluten. Sojade's meat-free range now includes burgers, steaks and the roulade we reviewed, but strangely their soya mince contains egg (despite espousing the benefits of a vegan diet on their UK website). Can a seitan-based steak cut the mustard?

Vegan Easter: Choices White Choc Easter Bunny

Celtic Chocolate - Choices - Dairy-Free White Choc Easter Bunny

Single dairy-free easter bunny from the Irish firm Celtic Chocolates. Vegan white chocolate is getting less rare as products like these become a fixture on supermarket shelves. The dairy-free Choices range is one of the better tasting faux-milk and white chocolates.

Food Fight: Schlagfix vs SoyaToo

Vegan Food Fight: Schlagfix vs SoyaToo dairy-free spray creams

Battle of the dairy-free spray creams. Whipped vegan cream in a spray can is now something we've grown used to in the UK, but until now we've not had a choice of brands. SoyaToo make three varieties themselves (soya, rice and coconut), but it's great to have a further choice now that Schlagfix has arrived:

Review: Schlagfix Whipping Cream

Schlagfix Schlagcreme Universal / Sweetened Dairy-Free Vegan Whipping Cream

Schlagcreme dairy-free cream, universal or sweetened, for vegan whipped cream dishes. Schlagfix make a range of dairy-free products, including spray cream and vegan coffee creamer. These cartons compete with the SoyaToo range of soya, coconut and rice based whipping creams. How do they compare?