Who makes the best vegan cream cheese?
Since I have been trying to minimize the amount of dairy I consume, I have been experimenting with different vegan dairy products to try and find the brands that I think most closely mimic dairy.
I tested the three brands of vegan cream cheese that I was able to find in my local stores:
- Daiya plain cream cheese style spread
- Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet Cream Cheese
- Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese
I asked my mom and my hubby to taste them with me and we agreed that the Tofutti brand tasted closest to real dairy cream cheese. Our least favorite was the Daiya, which surprised me because Daiya probably produces the best vegan cheese. To us, the Daiya cream cheese had an “off” taste and smell. The package was freshly opened and had a March 14, 2015 use by date, so I know that the product was not spoiled. I actually think that the off taste may be from the pea protein in the product.
Follow Your Heart had a much better flavor, and I like the fact that 76% of its ingredients are organic and all are non-GMO. However, its flavor paled by comparison to the Tofutti version. This disappointed me, because I love Follow Your Heart vegan sour cream.
However, despite my loyalty to Follow Your Heart, I had to pick Tofutti. Tofutti had a flavor that was very similar to a whipped cream cheese spread and a similar “mouth feel” to “real” dairy products. Since I’ve had some questions about the Tofutti product, I’m clarifying that we were sampling the version with no trans fat. Sorry for the incorrect image!
If you know of a better cream cheese product, please LMK and I’ll be pleased to test it. But for now, I’m going to reach for Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese whenever I need to replace dairy cream cheese in a recipe.
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