- Honesty Tasty wants to prove ‘mouth-watering plant-based cheese is possible’
- MailOnline tries three of its ‘cheeses’ including Shamembert and Pretenslydale
For millions of Brits, no Christmas Day feast would be complete without a festive board of delicious cheeses.
But as it gets harder to ignore the carbon footprint of animal products like meat and dairy, many are trying to give eco-friendly alternatives a go.
There are numerous food start-ups with plant-based products that attempt to mimic the real thing.
One example is London-based firm Honestly Tasty, which wants to prove to ‘vegans and non-vegans alike’ that ‘mouth-watering plant-based cheese is possible’.
Three of its products are named in honour of the animal equivalents – Shamembert, Pretenslydale and Good-A – but are they any good? MailOnline finds out.
Honestly Tasty’s ‘cheeses’ are made out of a variety of vegan ingredients including water, salt, coconut oil, potato starch and lecithin (fats found in plant tissue).
They range in price from £4.29 to £8, but customers can also buy festive hampers containing multiple cheeses starting from £45.
MailOnline started with the Pretenslydale, which is loosely modelled on Wallace and Gromit’s favourite – the light and crumbly Wensleydale that hails from North Yorkshire.
Although it looks a bit like a bar of soap you get from the Body Shop, Pretenslydale is stuffed with cranberries which gives it a pale pink colour and a pleasant fruity scent.
Rather than crumbling like Wensleydale, its consistency is more similar to a pate – although this did make it easier to spread it on a cracker.
Taste wise, it reminded me of those pink Mini Milk ice lollies I used to have as a kid, but with an added sour tang that likely comes from the added ‘citrus fibre’.
The overall effect was not unpleasant, but I can’t imagine Wallace travelling to the moon to get his hands on some.
Next up, a small wheel of Shamembert, Honestly Tasty’s version of the creamy French cheese Camembert – and certainly a staple of my Christmas cheese board every year.
Shamembert has a really impressive ‘rind’ around it, complete with lines of wrinkles, which to the touch even felt remarkably like Camembert – like a damp sock.
Based on this, I think many discerning cheese connoisseurs would be unable to tell it apart from the real thing – until, that is, they were to cut into it.
Rather than the nice gooey yellow inside that Camembert is known and loved for, to me Shamembert’s innards looked a bit sad and grey – almost like paste.
Biting into it, all I could taste was a big burst of salt, which may be in part due to the presence of carrageenan – a natural additive from red seaweed – in the ingredients.
Perhaps I’d fare better with Smoked Good-A, the company’s tribute to Gouda, the creamy hard cheese from the Netherlands.
Smoked gouda has to be one of the tastiest food experiences known to man, so it would take something special to match it.
Giving the ghostly-white block a big sniff, the smokey aroma was unmistakable so I had high hopes as it went into my mouth.
Good-A was easily the best of the three, largely because the smoke flavour carried through, and its consistency matched that of a genuine hard cheese.
Surely for any vegan, I think this would grate well onto a Boxing Day cheese toastie with any leftover fake turkey.
But, will Honestly Tasty’s products take up space on my festive cheese board this year? The honest answer is probably not.
I’m well aware that livestock – namely cows, sheep and goats that need to be milked for cheese production – release huge amounts of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, contributing to global warming.
I know that cheese and meat have the highest carbon footprints, along with other animal products such as eggs and yoghurt.
But I’m also a die hard cheese lover – and if any time of the year is time to indulge, it’s Christmas.
Herein lies the problem – until we get to the point where the low-emission imitators like this are as good as the real thing, we’re fuelling a climate crisis.
To offset my emissions, I’d rather substitute any other part of the Christmas feast for a vegan option, whether it be the turkey or even the pigs in blankets.
Just please don’t take my Camembert away from me.
Sarah Carter is a health and wellness expert residing in the UK. With a background in healthcare, she offers evidence-based advice on fitness, nutrition, and mental well-being, promoting healthier living for readers.
