Q: What’s better than people trying vegan cheese for the first time and loving it?
A: People trying vegan cheese for the first time and haaaaating it.
And making a video of the whole thing.
This week, Buzzfeed gave us a video gem that pits non-vegans against one of the biggest fears omnivores wrestle with: non-dairy cheese. Here at culture, we recently wrote about the turn for the better that vegan cheese has taken. Brands like Kite Hill and Miyoko’s Kitchen as well as pioneer vegan cheese shop Vromage are going nuts (see what we did there?) over making vegan cheese taste more like the real thing. But there are still some brands out there that leave much to be desired in terms of taste, texture, and overall aesthetics.
Photo Credit: Pop Sugar
The tasters in the Buzzfeed video make no qualms about telling us how they really feel. One cheese sample “looks like a candle” or, maybe more accurately, like “all the earwax in the world.” Another smells “diabolical.” One horrified taster picks up on hints of “blue cheese and… and… mucus??” Another taster compares the taste and texture of one of the samples to taking a bite out of a trampoline. Granted, the culture crew sometimes comes up with some pretty creative cheese tasting notes, but I’m not sure we’ve ever experienced these flavors with such intensity. Some of the samples show promise, though. “It feels like cheese,” encourages one taster of a vacuum-sealed, markedly-orange block. “Yeah, it got that bounce,” agrees another.
The video delivers a lot of lols. Some of our favorites include when one sweet-looking brave soul says in a sing-songy voice full of anticipation, “It already smells funnyyyyyy.” Or the face of the guy at 0:35. And if the closest thing to a compliment that these real-dairy enthusiasts can muster about a non-vegan cheese sample is that it’s “pretty inoffensive,” that’s not bad. But one sample took the (cheese)cake, though, and was met with lots of “I like it,” and “I could do this,” and even an “I could put this on everything.” Watch the video below to see which vegan cheese won over even the most adamant of real cheese lovers.
Photo Credit: BuzzfeedVideo via Youtube
Michelina DelGizzi
Michelina DelGizzi, MS, MPH, is a writer and caseophile based in Boston and Lafayette, La.
