Nakd: Raw Fruit and Nut Bars

In this review I'll be covering all 7 editions of the nakd bar. All of them have a similar texture but the taste varies a lot even though the ingredients are fairly consistent with dates and cashews etc. These bars are cold pressed and despite the small size each one counts as 1 of the '5 a day'. Overall I'll give them a 5/5 but I like some of them a lot more than others.

Cocoa Delight - This bar is really nice, just a chocolate flavour with fruit? I managed to convince two people it was a brownie so it's worth trying even if you don't like dates or that dried fruit taste. 5/5

Ginger Bread - This one is quite nice, it's less chewy than the others, but the ginger doesn't overpower it luckily. The nuts go well with the flavour. 5/5

Berry Delight - Berry has a really fruity flavour, well like berries. It's a nice contrast the others which all have a non-fruit flavour. 5/5

Cashew Cookie - This one is ok but not my favourite, for me the other ones are just better. I'm not sure the flavour works as well or is as moreish. 3/5

Cocoa Orange - The Orange just as good as the cocoa one, and if you like an orange zing its even nicer. Just adds that extra dimension to it. 5/5

Pecan Pie - Pecan flavour is quite nice, it works well texture of the bar. But it's less moreish, and I'm not sure why (personal taste perhaps?) 4/5

Cocoa Mint - The Mint and the Orange are my favourites, the mint is different in that it takes the cocoa and tastes more healthy (even though that makes no sense). If you're not sure about chocolate and mint combo, I would still recommend it as its not a dark chocolate taste with strong mint, its toned down and quite sweet (in a non sugar way). 5/5

Provamel: Organic Soya Strawberry Flavour

Not much to say in this review. I had this the other day, and it was ok. The milk is thin like you would expect and as it's soya you can taste the soya. The strawberry flavour isn't that strong, it's there but not intensely sweet (which I'm not saying is a bad thing). So I would have given 3/5, but towards the end the straw sucked up some yoghurt material. I did shake it quite well beforehand, and it had 6 months left on the date. So it was an unpleasant surprise and I had to spit it out. It was a bit like a skin. So I would have to give it 2/5 now as I'm not sure I would buy it again.

Redwood: Super Melting Cheddar Slices

Also - I've finally tried to cheddar style slices from Redwood. So in response to my review of their mozzarella slices... yes these too taste like cheddar (when cooked - I'm not eating them raw they look wrong). But I didn't try them at the same time so I can't really tell the difference. Maybe these ones were a little more yellow? They might have been less mushy too but it's only marginal I think. Next time I make a pizza I will probably pick these ones now, but like I said I couldn't really tell them apart so I wouldn't mind. 5/5 again.

Le Sojami: Dairy Free Speciality' Garlic & Mixed Herbs

So, here's another cheese review. This time something new that I haven't eaten before. This soft cheese by Le Sojami comes in 3 flavours, 'basil', 'cumin and tarragon', and 'garlic and mixed herbs'. I decided to go for garlic incase the cheese part was bad thinking the garlic might overpower it. That's just me though, I'm wary of vegan cheese, all too often because of the cheese flavourings it's like a stink bomb trying to emulate a fart - really bad! But this isn't, as I was pleasantly surprised to find out. Always smell the cheese (So far, all the cheeses I've liked I've been able to smell without retching). This one smelt nice, so I had it on some bread (though you can use this for cooking too).

I really liked this one, quite a nice taste, tiny bitterness to it like vinegar, but overall it is quite creamy and garlicky. And very moreish. Texture is nice and consistent too, if a little too soft. I haven't tried many other vegan cream cheeses, the ones I did try like a sheeze one did smell like death, so I don't have a lot to compare it too. But it did remind a bit of 'roule' cheese back when i ate that stuff, must be the garlic.

I will be buying this again, I'm not sure if the other 2 sound appealing to me, I might try them if this one is sold out though. 4/5

*UPDATE* I bought this again, and this time was slightly different, mainly the texture was much firmer, it seemed to have less moiture in it. I'm not sure if this effected the flavour but it did seem stronger, in a vinegar way, perhaps not as nice as when I did my first review, but I will update again on next purchase.

Tofutti: Vanilla Ice Cream (Frozen Dessert)

Tofutti vanilla is a fairly basic ice cream. It's quite cheap in comparison to other brands and as such it has a more synthesised taste and texture. That said it isn't bad for the money. It's just quite one-dimensional, the texture isn't so much creamy as marshmallowy. But that does make it nice and soft. As for the flavour, it's quite mild and like I said before it tastes quite synthesised too.

I'd give it 3/5, quite nice, but not the best vegan vanilla out there.

Amisa: Egg Free Mayonaise

I've tried a few brands of vegan mayonaise now, so again I'm reviewing my favourite one. This one by Amisa is really good, I had to double check after eating it that it was vegan because I really thought it must have eggs in. But no! In comparison to other ones I've tried this one just tastes more like 'normal' mayo, and it doesn't have a weird taste. Some of the other ones out there are a bitter sour, like vinegar, or just don't taste like mayo. I've had this one in sandwiches, but the best thing to eat it with is chips. And mixing it up with garlic puree makes a really good garlic mayo. I could eat garlic mayo and chips all day.

The only thing I would mark it down for is that is a bit runnier than perhaps it should be. If your turn the jar for example it will begin to flow out rather than staying put. But other than that I would highly recommend it. 4/5

Against The Grain: Chocolate & Orange Cookies

A quick review now of Against The Grain's chocolate orange cookies. These cookies are more of the top end in terms of packaging and price, but there isn't a great deal to chose from in the vegan biscuit arena so I decided to buy them. And I'm glad I did. These are... amazing. The flavour is really packed in, a strong but not overpowering chocolate orange taste. Texture is hard and crispy, so not soft cookie type, that said next time I will try and microwave them and see what happens. Hard is the wrong word actually, they break very easily, brittle perhaps well I mean they're not soft.

The only bad thing is there's only 9 in a box :/

5/5

Suma: Nutty Crunch

Nutty crunch is a basic cereal from Suma, which mainly consists of oats and despite it's name isn't particulily crunchy. But it is ok, I think the reason I like it is because it's quite versitile. The flavour is, well, mild. There are some raisons in it, but overall you can add things to it and use it as a base. Which makes sense as this cereal is a little cheaper than some of its competitors.

I like to eat with banana's, chocolate spread and Rice Dream's hazelnut almond milk - that's the picture below. On it's own it's ok, maybe 3/5 tops, but mixed up with the other goodies its 5/5. Quite sweet and rich breakfast but it will give you loads of energy to start off a busy day.

Redwood: Super Melting Mozzarella Slices

I thought after that appalling review for Tesco's medium soya cheese I should try and recommend a good cheese alternative. So far the best one I've come across is Redwood's Super Melting Mozzarella Slices. I'm basing this review on a few uses when the slices have been cooked, and just making pizza or pizza bread. I say that because when it's raw from the fridge it's not very dense and its quite brittle. I also haven't tried it raw, but I did smell it and it didn't smell bad. In fact not really much odor at all.

Anyway, cooked slices on a pizza it's really good. They do melt, but I would recommend using an oven and not a microwave as it seems to respond better to that kind cooking. At first they'll start to glisten, like you can see moisture or fat coming out, then they melt and then it starts to golden. Taste wise, I think it taste's a bit more like mild cheddar than mozzarella. But unlike many vegan products that try to taste like some kind of animal product and fall short, I think on a blind taste taste this one might be able to fool people. The texture is also more like cheddar than mozzarella, because it's not stringy at all, you can cut right through it. Perhaps they should change the name, or maybe should try their cheddar version first.

4/5
*updated 30/08/14 - changing rating to a 4 because it's not stringy and has room for improvement.

Tesco: Free From Soya Medium Cheese

I tried this cheese melted into a nice pasta bake. Unfortunately it ruined the bake and I couldn't finish it. The problem I have with this cheese is the taste and the smell. It's awful. The smell alone makes me feel physically sick. I should say that before I was a vegan, I was quite fussy with cheese anyway, but so far I've not found many vegan cheese brands that taste... right. The taste wasn't quite as bad as the smell, and I'm sure some cheese lovers might enjoy or not mind the taste. Alas for me it even tasted a bit sicky.

I'm giving it 1/5, it gets 1 mark for texture, which was like cheddar and it did melt.

Tesco Free From: Almond Milk

A mini-review of the almond milk I had on my cereal. This milk is ok, I can't really compare it to other almond milks as I haven't had any. But as an alternative to say soy milk it's quite good. I'm not a massive fan of the taste of soy milk so I'm currently trying a lot of other brands to see what kind of milk I like the taste of. This almond is ok, you can certainly taste the almond, but its quite a mild taste. I'm going to try the hazlenut milk next time as I think it will be more enjoyable, but still it's nice to have a dairy free alternative to soy milk in a chain store like Tesco.

3/5

Essential: Apple & Cinnamon Muesli

Today's review is for Essential's Apple & Cinnamon Muesli. I've eaten this with Tesco's almond milk which I'll put a mini review up afterwards. I've pretty much finished this packet of muesli now, which is about 5+ bowls worth. It's quite a nice cereal, if you like the apple/cinnamon combination, you can certainly taste both flavours. The strength of the flavours is kind of lacking, I wouldn't say weak but just above weak. By that I mean it needs something else if you really want a flavour sensation. So it might be worth chopping some fresh apple into it or putting some hot apple and cinnamon drink in it with the milk of your choice (if you have milk). Maybe some apple puree would do it. The texture is ok, it gets soggy fairly quickly and to me it tastes better when its still crunchy so I tend to eat it quite fast.

I might buy it again in the future, but for now I'm still trying new brands, and I have a suspition that there is another apple and cinnamon cereal I prefer. 3/5