Getting Cheezy
I spent an alarmingly large portion of my recent gift from Uncle SAM (a.k.a. the stimulus refund) ordering new vegan products to taste-test. I was particularly excited about a couple of vegan cheeses, mozzarella-flavored Teese from the Chicago Soydairy and mature white Cheddar-flavor Cheezly from Redwood Foods.
Teese has some fine qualities – good texture; a nice, mild flavor and an amazing ability to melt at normal oven temperatures. But .…
Many vegan cheeses have an unpleasant undertone – a faint taste and/or smell—which I think of it as “plastic-y.” A friend says he thinks it’s more like varnish; and I’ve also seen it described as being like “melted crayons.” Unfortunately, I detected a whiff of this in Teese. So despite its other good qualities, I wasn’t enthusiastic enough to order it by mail again. It wasn’t better than vegan cheeses available locally, such as Follow Your Heart.
Cheezly, though, is the best vegan cheese I’ve tasted so far. I can imagine eating it on its own, just “a slab or slice or chunk-a” Cheezly for a snack. And it made very good cheese toast one morning, melting and even bubbling a bit under the broiler. I will definitely order this again, and will be eager to try other flavors as they become available in the U.S.
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