i have been anticipating the release of daiya vegan cheese ever since the product made a splash at the natural products expo back in march. local vegan blogger jennshaggy was lucky enough to go, and she couldn’t stop raving about how wonderful/tasty/stretchy/perfect this new vegan cheese was. imagine how stoked i was to see daiya vegan cheese shreds for sale on pangea at just $5.49 per bag!
grilled cheese sandwich with daiya vegan cheese!
i ordered some up, invited over some friends, and put daiya vegan cheese to the test. i provided the cheddar flavor, fellow blogger vegyogini was kind enough to provide the mozzarella, and vegan blogger foodeater was also on hand to do some, well, foodeatin’! as you can see from the picture of the grilled cheese sandwich above, people are not lying when they say daiya stretches and melts. the cheddar cheese flavor was so FUCKING FANTASTIC…i shit you not, it actually tastes like cheese. did you hear that?!?!?! we have a vegan product that MELTS and STRETCHES and TASTES like actual CHEESE. is this a dream? everyone present agreed that this stuff was insane; we would send it back if we ever got this at a restaurant, it tasted too damn real. that’s all i gotta say. it tasted like cheese. what more description do you want?
pizza with daiya vegan cheese
we also tested out the vegan mozzarella shreds, which were great…but not quite as good as the cheddar. as you can see from the picture above, the daiya got kinda oily and the shape of the little shreds stayed intact. i’m actually beginning to think that the problem with the mozzarella is the way it was shredded. i am convinced this mozz would be damn near perfect if it was shred a little thicker.
the mozzarella still melted though, unlike a lot of vegan cheeses, and the texture was pretty convincing. i am gonna order it again for sure, and maybe make a mozzarella/cheddar grilled cheese combo. for more daiya bloggage, check out vegyogini’s two posts.
i can’t wait for daiya to be readily available. seriously, the vegan world is about to get flipped upside down. for now you can only order the stuff at pangea, but hopefully other places will have it soon as well. my advice is to buy more than one bag, unless you don’t mind paying shipping fees that cost 3x as much as the product. yikes. i suggest you get together with some friends and order a ton of it to save money.
DAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIYA. that shit melts.
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7:47 am on May 19th, 2009
OH. MY. GOD. I’ve been waiting so long for a melty vegan cheese!! I hope they start stocking it in the uk!
8:00 am on May 19th, 2009
I’m crying tears of joy. That grilled cheese. OMG. Grilled cheese is as good as a Valium and I’ve missed them so much. I’ve tried with a slice of Tofutti but fuck that. Your grilled cheese looks amazing. I must order some now.
10:34 am on May 19th, 2009
SOFUCKINGEXCITED!
i ordered two bags of each!
11:06 am on May 19th, 2009
Sweet. Just ordered some!
11:12 am on May 19th, 2009
Wow, sounds very cool.
I looked at the Pangea web site and it sounds like they are buying the food service (restaurant) packages and dividing it up into smaller bags. They also list the ingredients which daiyafoods.com doesn’t have.
3:49 pm on May 19th, 2009
Mmmm…Daiya grilled cheese!
11:39 pm on May 19th, 2009
Yeah, it’s all that. The cheddar could not taste any more like real cheese even if it was real cheese. Vegans… grilled cheese is back.
7:03 am on May 21st, 2009
OH-M-FUCKING-G! Damn I wish I could try it.
7:41 am on May 21st, 2009
very nice
10:51 pm on May 21st, 2009
I think I’m going to try the cheddar! Grilled cheese, y’all!
11:09 am on May 22nd, 2009
I’ve had three grilled cheeses since my cheese arrived. It is indeed the bomb. It melts and tastes absolutely divine. And I HATE all vegan cheeses. Daiya is a gift from the heavens.
7:52 pm on May 22nd, 2009
i like how chemicals and industry have made a business off of veganism, to where we will pay for substitutions of things, rather than simply omitting them. We are essentially wannabes…we want to eat cheese, but feel good about our choices.
All that to say, this new stuff is a heaven sent, and I’ll gladly be a poser.
7:59 pm on May 22nd, 2009
its probably full of chemicals and all sorts of processing.
Seriously, just go vegetarian if you absolutely NEED your fake cheeses. Go omni if you need your fake meats.
8:55 pm on May 22nd, 2009
[...] [From daiya vegan cheese on pizza and in a grilled cheese sandwich | vegan food and living in Los Angeles] [...]
6:40 am on May 23rd, 2009
Oh! I’m so excited! My husband will be THRILLED to enjoy quesadillas again. I just wish it weren’t sold out. I love how people get all huffy when a vegan product comes out that is shaped like an animal-derived product. Listen – cheese doesn’t come out of a cow’s udders as cheese. It needs processing to make it into cheese. And this stuff needs processing to turn it’s natural, non-animal ingredients into cheese. People who make animal product foods do not have a monopoly on processing things into other things. It’s as ridiculous as someone saying it’s wrong veg people to shape their grains and spices into a patty shape or a cutlet. Lay off already! Jorge and Greg’s comment above makes me sad that someone can have such a horrible and bitter attitude. And for the record, these ingredients actually look better than some other vegan cheeses: Purified water, natural whole ground cassava and/or arrowroot flours, high oleic sunflower and/or safflower and/or identity-preserved high oleic canola oil, coconut oil and/or palm fruit oil, pea protein, salt, inactive yeast, vegetable glycerin, natural flavors (derived from plants), xanthan gum, sunflower lecithin, natural vegan enzymes, natural vegan bacterial cultures, citric acid, natural color.
7:59 am on May 23rd, 2009
I’d rather just eat real cheese.
6:32 am on May 24th, 2009
You know what other friggin awesome product tastes and acts exactly like cheese? Real cheese! Which people have been eating since the beginning of time with no negative repercussions besides the occasional constipation after overindulgence. What the hell would ever possess anyone in their right mind to give up cheese? It doesn’t hurt cows, and PS – who gives a crap because they are COWS! Not people! My woman follows this same line of thinking, where somehow you can give up all good tasting food and it will make your karma all sparkly clean because you aren’t hurting animals. Well guess who else didn’t eat meat. Adolph flipping Hitler, that’s who.
12:11 pm on May 24th, 2009
(sorry for my poor english)
If someone has no tolaerance for lactosa I understand. But if you really want to eat cheese just it cheese!!
And some of you are DYING to eat it. If you are a REAL vegan you just don´t think in terms of “replacements” you just enjoy your freen food.
2:37 pm on May 24th, 2009
Ooh… if there’s a convincing vegan cheese on the market that might just convince me to make the move from veggie to vegan.
Josh, real cheese does hurt cows in exactly the same way the entire milk industry does: forced lactation, the slaughter of ‘worthless’ male calves, poor conditions. And any human with a grain of morality ‘gives a crap’.
10:16 pm on May 24th, 2009
Josh: Adolf Hitler wasn’t a vegetarian. He claimed to be one, but he did it to appear to have a stronger will to his followers. He also claimed that he didn’t drink alcohol, but that was a lie as well. Your girl is so lucky to have an closed minded person such as yourself.
11:28 pm on May 24th, 2009
Um, real cheese is not “processed” it’s cultured and aged, a completely natural process used for centuries…way before people figured out how to make “food” out of plastic. Now, Kraft and the ilk contain so much unnatural crap and profit from tortured animals I consider it inedible, but so is this. I have noting against veganism, but please don’t poison yourself with this frankenfood. If you really miss cheese, find a reputable (preferably local) source to get real cheese.
And even if you are lactose intolerant, you may be able to eat aged cheese. The lovely bacteria digest most of the lactose for you.
9:06 pm on May 25th, 2009
This cheese is probably made of processed soy since most fake cheeses are made from soy. But the problem is, when you start eating a ton of soy everyday like vegans do, women can become more susceptible to getting breast cancer and people can start to develop an allergy to soy. Too bad, especially since soy products (soy oil) are used in many common foods.
Oh, but thank God this fake cheese tastes and acts so real! I can’t imagine what you would ever do without it…
8:06 am on May 26th, 2009
Dude, what happened that every misinformed know-it-all (my favorite kind!) decided to comment on this post?
One, dairy production hurts cows. Google it.
Two, there is no soy in Daiya’s cheese.
8:09 am on May 26th, 2009
Another thing, for all the anti-soy people who eat meat, what do you think the animals you eat are ingesting? They eat soy. And not the organic, least-processed or whole kinds, like edamame, tofu, and tempeh. Terrible, genetically-modified stuff. You eat what those animals eat. And soy is in almost all processed foods, vegan or not. So, unless you’re reading every single label and know exactly what the cow you’re eating was fed, you’re eating soy too.
Soy is a damn bean. NO ONE gets this nuts over chickpeas. Seriously.
2:23 pm on May 26th, 2009
For all the non-vegan comments here– I don’t think you’re going to convince the vegans to “eat real cheese.”
Most vegans have probably read Diet for a New America by John Robbins but I’ll post a quote:
“The industry points today with considerable pride to the fact that the average commercial cow now gives three or more times as much milk in a year as her bucolic ancestors. They don’t mention that her udder is so large that her calves would have a hard time suckling from it, and might easily damage it if they were allowed to try. Nor do they mention that under natural conditions Old Bessie would live 20 to 25 years. In the unbelievably stressful world of today’s dairy factories, however, she is so severely exploited that she will be lucky if she sees her fourth birthday.”
I’m sure all vegans are also aware that male baby calves from milk cows are “made” into veal, a horribly cruel process.
http://daiyafoods.com/ does not have a list of ingredients but http://www.veganstore.com/daiya-vegan-cheese-shreds/Page_1/209.html does. They both have nutritional information but it’s a bit different on each site. You will see that it does not contain any soy products. I don’t mind eating soy myself.
I buy vegan cheese from the store about once every few months or so. They’re usually still high in fat so it’s not something I would eat every day.
Josh got a laugh out of me for bringing up Hitler though. Look up Godwin’s Law if you you’re not familiar with it.
11:21 am on May 29th, 2009
This looks wonderful!! I recently went meat-free & dairy-free for health reasons. I’ve had extreme asthma for over 25 years and with all of the hospitals, doctors, meds, holistic therapies, allergy tests and what-not, I could never get relief. I’m not overweight, and I ate a relatively healthy diet of organic meats, grains, veggies, and limited processed foods…but I ate a lot of cheese, & dairy also. After a bunch of reading and research, I’ve since altered my diet and what a relief! It’s working and I’ve been breathing freely (better than I ever have in 25 years) and even exercising more. I’m using way less meds and my blood pressure has decreased. SUCCESS! I’m still craving cheese and this stuff looks terrific. I find no reason not to try it. Thanks for posting this!
Cheers!
4:20 pm on May 29th, 2009
[...] a completely revolutionary product that melts AND stretches just like real cheese, i’ve tried it before and was completely blown away by how much it tasted like the real thing. starting today, at cruzer pizza in los feliz, you can [...]
7:07 pm on May 29th, 2009
“You know what other friggin awesome product tastes and acts exactly like cheese? Real cheese! Which people have been eating since the beginning of time with no negative repercussions besides the occasional constipation after overindulgence. What the hell would ever possess anyone in their right mind to give up cheese?”
Well, Josh, I would LOVE to eat real cheese…I experience very painful repercussions…debilitating pain in my muscles and joints…so I am very happy about the possibility of being able to eat this and not be in pain!!!
3:52 am on May 31st, 2009
Great news! Our “meats” always tasted better than real meat. All they ever had on us was cheese. And now, nothing! I trust this will rapidly win us many vegetarian-to-vegan converts.
7:21 am on June 10th, 2009
If you live in Los Angeles, Tama Trading Company shows they carry the Daiya and some other Vegan items. I think they sell to restaurants but Im not sure
here the link:
http://www.tamatrading.com/home.php?cat=60&catexp=60
3:19 pm on June 11th, 2009
They do, Nature Boy. They only sell to restaurants or those quantities anyway. this is where I get Daiya from and most of my other things.
10:19 pm on June 16th, 2009
[...] UPDATED: since the time of this post, a new product has come along and has taken first place as the best vegan cheese. if you haven’t already, i implore you to check out daiya. it’s available to order online at the vegan store, and is popping up in more and more restaurants. it really melts and feels like real cheese, and you can read our review of it here. [...]
7:00 am on June 17th, 2009
[...] than brought a visitor briefly to quarrygirl.com recently), you will be aware that Daiya cheese is the most amazing vegan cheese substitute on the planet, and takes the whole experience of being a pizza-loving vegan up a notch or [...]
10:53 am on July 5th, 2009
Does Daiya read this blog? I hope so. I’m not very happy with their website. Not only do they not list ingredients but there is no way to contact them. All they have is a contact form and I tried to submit it a good half dozen times with two different anti-spam codes. Each time I got an error or a message saying the code I gave was wrong.
The cheese looks great. I go to Expo West every year for my (non-food) business but couldn’t make it this year. But I can’t find out anything about ingredients or availability since they don’t even give a phone number! Though I did dig and manage to find a foodservice-only email address. Guess I’ll try that. I hope they want people to actually BUY the cheese…
4:41 pm on July 6th, 2009
[...] quarrygirl.com has reviewed this favourably, including a version from Wholefoods Market: http://www.quarrygirl.com/2009/05/19…-vegan-cheese/ [...]
10:00 pm on July 7th, 2009
[...] it? daiya is a stretchy, tasty, melty vegan product that behaves almost exactly like real cheese. i’d go as far as to call it game changing. it hit the blogosphere first, then showed up at the vegan store available for personal order. just [...]
4:13 am on July 24th, 2009
I wish I could say I’m in love with this cheese as much as everybody else. I’m a vegetarian trying to convert to veganism, so maybe The taste of real cheese is to fresh in my taste buds memory? I just didn’t like it, tasted like really bad processed cheese slices. Oh well, next time I will try sheese and teese.
9:23 pm on July 24th, 2009
[...] daiya is a vegan cheese that has been taking los angeles (and the rest of the country) by storm. it stretches and melts almost exactly like real cheese, and it doesn’t contain soy. it has even gotten the attention of whole foods, who have [...]
9:02 am on July 27th, 2009
[...] mama’s. and really amazing versions of these foods as well. if you don’t already know how earth-shatteringly good daiya is, you should. mini vegan quesadilla with daiya cheese, spinach, mushroom and pico de gallo. [...]
9:14 pm on August 5th, 2009
Thanks thanks!! I actually tried daiya cheese at a new restaurant that makes a vegan pizza w/it & it was OKAY. (I actually like Native Foods pizza w/pesto AND marinara & FYH cheese much better) but I am SOOO jazzed to hear about the grilled cheese possibilities!! Hadn’t even THOUGHT of that! I’m having a vegan wedding soon & need to convince my mostly non-believing, carnivore guests how SATISFYING vegan cheese can be, so THANK YOU for this article!! We were talking mini-grilled cheese apps. for the cocktail hour, & now this cinches it!!
Candy
Thank you!!
6:49 am on August 26th, 2009
[...] not talking about Daiya-style melty cheese you’d put on a pizza or in a toasted sandwich, but a direct replacement for those expensive, [...]
10:17 am on August 26th, 2009
[...] article, this time covering a new line of gourmet vegan cheeses: We’re not talking about Daiya-style melty cheese that you’d put on a pizza or in a toasted sandwich, but a direct replacement for those expensive, [...]
9:00 am on December 11th, 2009
I have had it and it tastes great, but I can’t afford to pay $10 a pound plus cold pack shipping. Hopefully it will become more readily available and affordable. That would be a great thing for the vegan community.
12:04 am on January 3rd, 2010
I gave it a try and uh.. no thanx.. then I read the ingredients and almost threw up. This stuff is completely nutritionally empty. It’s basically canola oil and thickeners. Are vegans so desperate for real foods that they have to resort to some gooey frankenstein concoction? UGH. I feel so sorry for vegans now.
7:57 pm on January 5th, 2010
I tried daiya cheese for the first time today. I purchased both flavors, italian and cheddar. They melted like cheese, which was amazing. I liked the cheddar better because it had a stronger flavor. I’m sure if I didn’t eat real cheese for five years and then had daiya, I would think it tasted pretty darn close to real cheese. However, I am not a vegan and eat real cheese all of the time, so I was disappointed by how unlike cheese it tasted. But that doesn’t mean it tasted bad, it just tasted like “not cheese.” I’d eat it again, but I’d definitely have to tell myself that the quesodilla I’m eating is really a “something else dilla.” All in all, it wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t cheese.
1:05 pm on February 6th, 2010
[...] out this review from someone who sampled Daiya pizza at an expo, and this review from Quarry Girl. Now go try it for [...]
5:52 pm on February 9th, 2010
I believe it is possible to give a commentary without the filthy words. Try it some time.
8:25 pm on February 9th, 2010
You’re right, it is possible. But she has a choice and can write what the fuck she wants. You have one also, you could try not reading if you don’t like it.