We recently gave a rave review of this Madagascan chocolate, and the company got in touch afterwards to offer us some seasonal flavours with a festive twist. Blogging's a hard life sometimes eh. Naturally, we snatched their hand off, so here's our review of the Hazelnut and Orange Cranberry flavour bars.
Review: Madécasse Festive Chocolate...
We recently gave a rave review of this Madagascan chocolate, and the company got in touch afterwards to offer us some seasonal flavours with a festive twist. Blogging's a hard life sometimes eh. Naturally, we snatched their hand off, so here's our review of the Hazelnut and Orange Cranberry flavour bars.
Review: Quorn Vegan Meat-Free Pieces
Our second Quorn review, this time for the chicken-style chunks. After finally getting hold of these, we were keen to try them out, so we set to making both a stir-fry and a thai curry. The meat-free pieces can be used in anything you might use chicken chunks.
Review: Vegetarian Caviar Club Seaweed Pearls
Red and black vegan caviar, or 'vegan pearls of deliciousness' as the company bills them. These gourmet seaweed pearls are a vegan alternative to caviar (fish roe) and are equally as versatile as a garnish or topping. The company sent us these jars to review.
Review: Quorn Vegan Hot & Spicy Burgers
It's been a long time coming, but Quorn's first vegan products have hit the shelves in the UK. The company's first two vegan lines are some meat-free pieces (review soon) and these spicy chicken style burgers. The clamour to try them out is causing shortages for supermarkets stocking the range, so it's clear there is some pent up demand from vegans who want to find out what they've been missing for all these years.
Review: Sacla 'Free From' Pesto
UK Review: Vegenaise Mayo
Another US import that arrived with a buzz this year. Follow Your Heart's egg-free mayo is labelled 'Better than Mayo'. The range available in the UK includes plain, organic, soya-free and grapeseed oil varieties. The standard and organic versions are soya based, combining soybean oil with soy protein. How does it compare with Plamil and other UK mayos?
Reblog: Win for Vegan Protein Powders
Review: Madécasse Chocolate
New chocolate brands come and go, but rarely do we say oh! this is good! This chocolate is Fair Trade with a difference - they don't just buy fair-trade cocoa, but also make the chocolate over there too. The Brooklyn based company makes all of its chocolate in Madagascar, employing over 200 people. Of their 6 product lines, only 1 isn't vegan.
UK Review: Vegan Gourmet Cheese Shreds
UK Review: Tofurky Sausages
US imports are now more widespread in the UK, but is it worth seeking Tofurky sausages out? We bagged four packs last month (while it was still summer...) and gave them a try. We grilled, boiled and fried them all to see if they're any better than UK and European brands:
Review: Tyne Chease
You've heard of Kite Hill and Treeline nut cheeses? Tyne Chease is the UK's version. Having never tried the American cheeses we're not going to compare, but the arrival of Tyne Chease has generated a lot of excitement, so let's see if it's any good. We sampled the Classic and the Garlic & Herb hard cheeses, along with the Soft Macadamia:
EDIT: THIS REVIEW IS OUT OF DATE. PLEASE SEE OUR 2016 REVIEW OF THE REFORMULATED AND IMPROVED TYNE CHEESES:
New: Violife 'Prosociano' Vegan Parmesan
Out with the shaker, in with the grater! At last, a big wedge of pungent vegan parmesan to grate on your pasta! There have been vegan parmesan substitutes for years, but few in block form, with most sold in shaker pots. The Violife cheese brand is now a firm favourite, so it's only right they should take up the parmesan challenge.
New: 'Nothing Fishy' Algae DHA Omega 3
Forget fish, 'Nothing Fishy' are farming sustainable algae to get Omega 3 direct from the source. Fish don't actually produce omega 3, they get it from krill, who get it from algae, which means vegans can too. These new supplements are made with cold pressed algal oil. Nothing Fishy sent us a pack to try out:
New: "Lots of This, None of That" Chocolate
Plamil have launched a new UTZ Certified line of faux milk chocolate, with reduced sugar. The Plamil brand is hidden on the back of the pack, with the "Lots of This, None of That" branding adorning the front. The company sent us a few bars over to check out, so let's get chocolatey:
Review: 'Natural Cool' Frozen Vegan Pizza
Bake at home dairy-free pizza with vegan cheese and vegan pesto. German brand Natural Cool is a frozen food specialist, but beware, it's not a vegan or even vegetarian brand. This pizza is available in pesto or peperoni (spicy vegan sausage) flavours. Is it better than the offerings from UK and US producers?
Vegan Shopping: Google Shelf View...
You know sometimes you have to travel to do your vegan shopping? Wouldn't it be handy to have a look around your destination shop before you get there. You might know about this already, but Google Maps offers a 'See Inside' feature as part of their Street View service. A great example is this one of Out Of This World in Nottingham (embedded Streetview - try it).
Review: Koko Dairy-Free Spread
New, from the makers of Koko coconut milk, a margarine / spread made with coconut oil. There are lots of vegan margarines on sale in the UK, but most are very similar. They no longer contain hydrogenated oils, but most still use a blend of palm oil and sunflower oil. This one is different:
Face Off: Easter Bunnies Go Head to Head
Lindt and Aldi chocolate bunnies came to visit this Easter, so we put them head to head. We've reviewed the Aldi Choceur bunny before, and awarded it full marks (for the price), but how does it compare to a Lindt bunny that costs 3 or 4 times as much?
Review: Yu Fruit Chews
100% fruit based snacks, high in fibre with no added sugar. Now in new shapes and packs. If you're looking to wean yourself off jelly sweets in favour of something less sugary, these fruit chews could help. They're basically dried fruit made to look like sweeties.
Book Review: The Fresh Vegan Kitchen
New recipe book from vegan street food pioneers and founders of Wholefood Heaven, David and Charlotte Bailey. The book includes cooked and raw food recipes, and focuses on Asian, Indian, Spanish and Middle Eastern dishes, both sweet and savoury. It's a beautiful hardback book, but do the recipes deserve the glossy presentation?
New: Hotel Chocolat 'Milk-Free Milk Chocolate'
Vegan easter egg made with almond milk. This new No Dairy chocolate range has launched this week just in time for Easter. It's not labelled 'dairy-free', but it is labelled vegan. Hotel Chocolat have eschewed rice powder and soya to replace the milk, in favour of almond powder, something we haven't seen before.
Review: Amisa Vegana Gouda Style Cheese
Organic vegan grated cheese with coconut oil and lupin flour. With Viotros, the Greek cheese maker, now doing contract manufacturing of dairy-free cheese, we're seeing a lot of very similar vegan cheeses on the market. Veganic, Violife, Jeezini and even Field Roast's Chao are all variations on the same product, and Amisa have joined in the fun too:
Review: Astonish Cleaning Products
Review: Almond Dream Ice Cream
Dairy-free, made from almond milk, by the Rice Dream people. Velvety Vanilla and Mint Chocolate Chip. We finally found some of this in a Little Waitrose, but not the two most exciting flavours - the Praline Crunch and the Salted Caramel were not stocked unfortunately. We'll add those when we find them, but does Almond Dream live up to the hype?
Review: VBites Turkey Style Goujons
Vegan party food from the 2014 Festive Range. We got these in as a sort of Boxing Day thing, as naturally there is no leftover Turkey to use up. These faux-turkey breadcrumbed strips are chilled, with a good shelf life, and only need a quick blast in the oven. They should be ideal vegan buffet food:
Opinion: Ottolenghi versus Tofurky
I’ve never warmed to Yotam Ottolenghi, the Guardian food columnist and chain restaurateur. Maybe that’s because he’s a meat eater who did the ‘vegetarian’ column in the Guardian for a while, or because his recipes don’t appeal to plant eaters, with their reliance on egg and dairy. After reading his opinions about Tofurky, my aversion has only grown:
Editor's Picks: Best Vegan Products of 2014
Our pick of the ten vegan products that most impressed us this year, from yoghurts to ice cream, burgers to chocolate, crisps to spray cream. We concluded last year, that 2013 had been an exceptional year for vegan produce, and maybe we haven't seen quite as many great launches in 2014. How far we've come in the last decade though, that we have to pick and choose from so many good vegan foods. Read on for the Editor's picks of the best vegan products of 2014.
Review: Booja Booja 'chilled selection'
New sophisticated mini boxes of truffles in bright and vibrant colours that ditch the old fashioned styling of the traditional lines. These chocolates are sold chilled - that is you'll find them in the dessert chiller at Waitrose or in your local wholefood shop. The fridge treatment is necessary because of the new 'delicate' flavours:
Vegan Christmas: Elizabeth Shaw Gingerbread Crisp Chocolates
Limited Edition honeycomb crisp chocolates, perfect for the festive season. These dark chocolates are much more versatile than the mint ones, which are usually sidelined as after dinner chocolates:
Review: Ethicoco Oat Milk Chocolate
Faux milk chocolate, made with oat milk instead of the usual rice milk. Ethicoco are a startup bean-to-bar producer making all-vegan all-organic fair trade chocolate, from imported beans. The guys at Ethicoco were kind enough to send us a couple of sample bars for our review... and we're excited about it..
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