Review: Besos De Oro


Updated September 2019 - Besos de Oro has been relaunched, please see  - https://alternativeliqueurs.com/

Besos De Oro Vegan cream liqueur

Vegan cream liqueur made with brandy and horchata (chufa milk). The closest thing to vegan Baileys. Besos de Oro, meaning 'kisses of gold' launched in the UK last year after an award-winning debut in Spain in 2014. We had a little snifter to see if it tastes as good as it looks.

Review: iChoc Chocolate

iChoc Chocolate

A range of faux-milk chocolate bars in various flavours. The iChoc brand was launched last year by the German chocolate maker Vivani. The parent company makes vegan chocolate under the Vivani brand name (reviewed here), but they do also sell dairy chocolate, so decided vegans should have their own brand line. Thus iChoc was born as a pure vegan range.

Editor's Picks: Best Vegan Products 2015




Our pick of the ten vegan products that most impressed us this year, from cheese to chocolate, pizza to ice cream and two great egg replacers. It's been another great year for vegan produce, and the hits just keep on coming. Read on for the Editor's picks of the best vegan products of 2015:

Review: Tesco Strawberry & Vanilla Cones

Tesco Strawberry & Vanilla Cones (vegan cornettos)


Vegan cornettos. An unseasonal review, but our Best of 2015 list is coming up, and these may well be on it! These dairy-free cones arrived back in spring, and we took these photos in June, but we never posted the review...

There have been dairy-free cones on the market before, including the two in our review from 2012, but this is the first supermarket own-brand offering. Let's see how they compare:

Vegan Shopper: Ethical Superstore

Ethical Superstore online vegan shop

It's now easy to find vegan food in your local shops, but sometimes you need to shop online to find the brands you love, or those hard to find products. Ethical Superstore is a long established online shop, selling all things ethical, including a huge vegan range. The company sent us a selection of their vegan products so that we could spread the word:

UK Review: Follow Your Heart VeganEgg

Follow Your Heart VeganEgg

At launch, we 'scrambled' to get our hands on it, and our review is now complete. This US import hasn't hit UK shelves yet, but we couldn't resist paying the shipping fees to try this stuff out. Read on to find out if it's worth placing the order yourself:

Review: Tofurky Roast with Herb Gravy

Tofurky Roast with Herb Gravy

US faux turkey brand now widely available in the UK. The more expensive 'Celebration Roast' has been available for a couple of years, but this more economic roast will be more popular. It comes with stuffing and gravy, leaving you just to provide the roasties and veggies.

We gave it an early December dry run to see if it'll make the grade this Christmas:

Review: Le Conserve della Nonna Green Pesto

Le Conserve della Nonna - vegan green pesto

Yet another vegan pesto, but one of the better ones. This time it's the turn of another genuinely Italian brand Le Conserve della Nonna. The company is a 'free from' outfit offering pasta sauces and ragus, bread spreads and conserves, which appear to be all vegan as well as gluten free.

This green pesto is widely available in UK supermarkets so we thought we'd add it to our review list:

Review: BlueRisella 'Blue' Cheese

BlueRisella Vegan Blue Cheese

A vegan version of a creamy soft blue cheese, for hot or cold use. BlueRisella is a flavoured version of CreamyRisella, the vegan soft cheese from the makers of MozzaRisella. Rather than mould, it's flavoured with seaweed, in the form of nori and ulva. Does it taste anything like blue cheese?

Review: Tsubi Soup Instant Miso Soup

Tsubi Soup Instant Vegan Miso Soup

Vegan Super Powered Soup, with miso and no chemical additives. Tsubi Soup was started by Tsubasa Nishitani (Tsubi), who hails from Japan/Australia, after she couldn't find vegan miso soups that were free of MSG and other nasties. Tsubi got in touch with us and offered us some soup for review, and how could we resist?

Review: New Recipe Sheese Slices

Sheese - White Cheddar Style Slices (new recipe)

Sheese has been reformulated, for the better. We were never very fond of the old recipe, with the taste of vinegar and the texture of soap. This new stuff is completely different, and a lot more like Violife, which arrived in the UK last year and changed expectations for vegan cheese:

Review: Madécasse Festive Chocolate...

Madécasse Chocolate - Hazelnut, Orange & Cranberry


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

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

Vegetarian Caviar Club - Gourmet 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

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

Sacla 'Free From' (dairy-free vegan) Pesto

Dairy-free basil pesto from the big Italian food brand Sacla. Vegan pesto is no longer a rarity, and we know of half a dozen brands that omit the cheese. Our pesto taste test back in 2012 found four brands, and several more have arrived since. This Sacla one was a recent discovery we found in Waitrose:

UK Review: Vegenaise Mayo

Vegenaise Egg-free vegan mayo UK

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

The Reviews.com team at work
The Reviews.com team at work

Reviews.com reviewed 697 protein powders, and vegan powders won 2 of the top 3 places. This is great news for validating plant-based protein supplements. The powders were evaluated for taste, texture, nutritional quality and a strict set of criteria for additives:

Review: Madécasse Chocolate

Madécasse Vegan 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

Follow Your Heart - Vegan Gourmet - Cheese Shreds


Follow Your Heart's pre-grated vegan cheese has recently been more widely available in the UK, including in our home town of Nottingham. We grabbed a bag each of the Cheddar and Mozzarella flavours for our review. Is this another US import you should seek out?

UK Review: Tofurky Sausages

Tofurky Vegan 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

Tyne Chease vegan cheese

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

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

'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.