Road’s End makes 3 different kinds of gravy: Savoury Herb, Shiitake Mushroom, and Delicious Golden.
While my favourite will always be their Savoury Herb, I figured I should still review the other two. And what better time to review a gravy than in the middle of the last month before winter officially starts?
I’ll be honest, I don’t know exactly why they decided to go with blue for their mushroom packaging, but don’t let the weird colour throw you. This gravy is definitely delicious!
Well, okay, that will actually depend on how big a fan you are of mushrooms. This gravy stays true to it’s name and has a very strong mushroom flavour. It actually reminded me of the mushroom flavoured Mr. Noodles.
While this gravy’s primary flavour is indeed the mushrooms, there’s also a definite herb taste in there. It’s like their Savoury Herb gravy, but they added mushrooms to it. The mushroom flavour definitely hits you first, though. So if you don’t like mushrooms, you might want to plug your nose while it’s in your mouth, then release when you swallow.
Now, I’m not too sure if this is the gravy specifically, or if it was me, but it also has a very good consistency. It wasn’t too runny, or too thick. Perfect, thick gravy. I say I don’t know if that’s on the packet or me, because these gravies come in powder form, then you stir them together with water in a pot on the stove. So I’m not sure if it was my stirring/measuring water ability or the gravy itself.
And obviously, if you don’t like thick gravy, you can thin it out by adding a little extra water, or vice versa, if you prefer it extra thick.
Since you just mix them together with water, they also come together extremely quickly. Which is great for a lot of reasons. Not just for the upcoming holiday season, but if you ever have a craving for gravy and don’t want to go through the hassle of making it from scratch, you can just grab one of these bad boys and go to town.
I recommend this one specifically for poutine – the mushroom flavour adds a great layer of depth – but I’ll leave the dish up to you.
These packs are also pretty cheap, $2.79 at Good Rebel. And considering one pack is enough to cover a full bowl of poutine, I’d say that’s a pretty good deal.
All in all, while this gravy isn’t my personal favourite of the three, I definitely still reach for it – and think you should, too!
I first discovered this brand in 2019, when I was pleasantly surprised by finding their Nacho chips in a No Frills.
As I explained in that article, I was having trouble at the time finding the chips at my favourite grocery stores. Even No Frills seemed to stop carrying the brand after the day I’d discovered them.
After perusing their website, I discovered they had thankfully not only didn’t discontinue the Nacho flavour, but had others as well! And, perhaps the best news, is that all their flavours are vegan!
Being cautiously excited at discovering a new vegan company, I set my sights on trying some of their other flavours. The next flavour I was interested in trying was their Sweet and Spicy Ranch chips. But just like the Nacho flavour, I couldn’t find the Ranch anywhere.
Not content on giving up, I discovered VeganSupply sells a variety of Que Pasa’s chip flavours, but as my luck would have it, they were sold out when I tried getting a bag. This irritation brought me to March of this year (2022), when I decided to try a new-ish wellness website called Well.ca.
I discovered that not only did Well carry supplements, personal products and other wellness products, but they also had quite an array of vegan foods available! In this order, I decided to get a few other products I wasn’t able to find elsewhere that I was planning on using in future reviews. This included Watermelon La Croix, Dandelion Tea, these Ranch chips, and a few other items.
To my great pleasure, I received 0 notices about the Que Pasa chips being out of stock, and actually (finally) got my hands on them when the order arrived.
Now, I’ll be honest, I was so excited to see a chip bag that said Vegan Ranch on it, that I completely missed the Sweet and Spicy part of the name.
Luckily for me, I spotted the full name before digging in, so I was able to ration my taste test appropriately. The bag I bought was the same size as the Nacho ones had been, and while they were slightly more expensive (Well had them listed for $4.79, but No Frills had them for $3.49), I was more than happy to pay the difference considering I was having so much trouble finding them.
These chips were also more sweet than spicy for me. Being the detail oriented flavour taster that I am, the first chip I tried, I licked some of the flavouring off to get a more complete profile.
Keeping in mind I haven’t had actual ranch flavoured anything in… probably close to 15-ish years, I personally didn’t think these chips tasted ‘ranch-y’. They at least didn’t taste like the vegan Ranch dips/salad dressings I’ve gotten used to. The flavouring actually reminded me of being closer to maple syrup than ranch.
The heat also didn’t come until swallowing, but luckily it wasn’t too overpowering. There was a little tingle in the back of my throat, but I was able to eat a few at a time without feeling the need to reach for water. There was also no sweating happening, unlike when I eat Sweet Chili Heat Doritos.
I’m not usually a big fan of contrasting flavour profiles in the same dish/food. I just got used to chocolate covered pretzels not too long ago. That said, I really thought the sweetness of the chip when chewing really helped to balance out the heat experienced when swallowing.
They complimented each other nicely, and while I would’ve loved these chips more if they didn’t have that kick at the end, I also can’t say they weren’t good. I will say that even though the Nacho ones were spicier, if given a choice, I’d probably pick the Nacho flavour over these ones.
Have you tried these Que Pasa Sweet and Spicy Ranch chips? How’d you like them? Let me know in the comments!
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I first tried these bad boys in May 2018, and I’ve gotta say, unlike some other vegan offerings, my opinion of these hasn’t really changed.
Like the name suggests, the batter surrounding these mini dogs is corn bread. While it doesn’t have an overtly corny taste, you can definitely tell it’s not a ‘normal’ breading. The mini notdog on the inside also has a good flavour. It’s not exactly how I remember real hotdogs tasting (and it’s definitely a different flavour than the Yves Notdogs), but they’re still good. They have more of a smoky, savoury taste to them.
I know Field Roast also makes a few different sausage flavours. To date (22.08.09) I’ve only tried their Apple Wood Smoked Sausage. I don’t believe this is the dog they use in this product, as when I tried the Apple Wood Smoked ones, I didn’t like their flavour all that much. I just found something weird about the hint of apple in the faux meat.
The dogs used in this product are a lot tastier in my book. They also have a great texture to them. They’re not too mushy, but they’re also not 100% simulated meat like Beyond Meat’s Sausages.
One thing I don’t like about this product is something you’ve seen me complain about in a lot of these reviews: there’s not nearly enough of these guys in a bag! There was less than 20 the last time I bought them, and at $10.99 a bag, that’s kind of expensive. It’s practically $1/dog!
You could easily fit 20 (at least) in the size of bag they use. I’m sure they have their reasons for keeping half the bag air, but then that begs the question: is that really the best way to package them?
Why not use a cardboard box, instead? That would not only preserve the freshness and allow you to add more per item, but would also eliminate the need for using what appears to be a plastic bag with a foil lining.
That said, I’m not trying to bash Field Roast or this product. I think it’s very tasty, and I recommend you go out and try it if you haven’t already. Just be aware if you wanted to buy a few bags of these for a party, you might want to give yourself a little extra budgeting space.
This ice cream is one of my all time favourites, though I have to be careful about how much of it I eat.
I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this in another post, but my body is very sensitive to certain things. Spiciness, alcohol, and caffeine, specifically. (Though I’m sure there’s more)
There was actually one time after I went vegan when I discovered Starbucks had a drink called a Mocha, which is essentially hot chocolate mixed with coffee. But not just any type of coffee, it has espresso in it. Now, for those who don’t know, espresso is basically a highly concentrated shot of caffeine. This is why they typically serve espresso in tiny cups, because that’s all you need.
Apparently, Starbuck’s Mocha, has 2 shots of espresso in a Grande (Large) size. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t know that the first time I ordered it. Also unfortunately for me, I really liked the taste of the drink. By the time I had reached my house (about 10 minutes away) I had already finished more than half of the drink.
The good news, is that I made it home before my body started to react to the caffeine. I was trying to type up an article, and I noticed my fingers were having trouble hitting the keys I wanted them to. They kept over-extending, and jerking out of position, much to my confusion.
Now, me being the rational person I am, I assumed this shaking/jittering was because I hadn’t eaten yet that day. (It was maybe 11am at this point, and I had only woken up around 10am, so not eating wasn’t unusual) After breaking my concentration, I also noticed my heart was thumping very hard. Like, cartoon levels of wanting to leap out of my chest thumping.
Doing my best to quell my quickly mounting worry, I ventured into the kitchen to get myself some food, hoping that would fix whatever was happening. When I entered the kitchen, my brother (I was living at my parent’s home at this time), asked if I was feeling okay. I told him about my thumping heart, and shaking hands, to which he told me I looked very pale, and seemed to literally be vibrating where I stood.
Concerned, he asked me what I had done that day, so I told him about my trip to Starbucks, and trying the Mocha. And then he proceeded to double over with laughter. I had to wait until his laughter died down for him to explain that there was espresso in the drink – and what that meant in coffee terms – and then told me to drink some water, and eat something and I would be good in a few hours.
Suffice it to say, I felt pretty dumb at that moment. Considering I never drank coffee before that – with the exception of 1 instant black coffee I had drank on that year’s Christmas – that was kind of a lot of caffeine for my body to try to process.
I still don’t drink coffee regularly by any means – and I definitely stay away from espresso – but I do enjoy the taste of it. I had just discovered different flavours (other than black) such as hazelnut or vanilla lattes, and I was pretty bummed to learn my body reacted so intensely.
I thought I was doomed to a coffee free existence!
Then I discovered decaf coffee, which I learned was basically all the coffee flavour, but none of the caffeine. This decaf stuff was like uncovering a secret. See, growing up, the only thing I had ever heard about people who drank coffee, was that they drank it for the caffeine, so I didn’t know anything else existed!
Needless to say, I was excited I could have my maybe twice-a-year coffee fix without blowing out my heart.
I was equally excited to learn about this coffee caramel ice cream. I mean, coffee flavoured ice cream with caramel swirls? That was like a new dream of mine!
So I went out and bought my first pint. (Can you see where this is going)
I take full responsibility for this, as I apparently hadn’t read the description for the ice cream closely enough. Apparently, it wasn’t coffee flavoured ice cream, it was straight coffee ice cream.
And that meant it has caffeine.
Luckily, I don’t eat ice cream in large quantities when I eat it, so I didn’t have as intense of a reaction as I did back when I had my first Mocha, but I definitely felt the affects of the caffeine.
Aside from the caffeine reaction, I loved the taste of this ice cream!
It definitely tastes like a coffee – not black coffee, mind you, it’s closer to a latte flavour – and I absolutely love the caramel swirls! The ice cream itself is also very smooth when it’s in your mouth.
It’s a little hard to explain, but you know when you’re drinking something, and the liquid almost wants to slide down your throat? Unlike when you have solid food in your mouth, and it sort of gets ‘stuck’ on your tongue, and you have the urge to chew?
This ice cream is definitely closer to a liquid mouth feel. If you let it melt and then drank it, it’d probably be the same texture and mouth feel – the only difference would be it wouldn’t be quite as cold.
The least smooth thing about this ice cream is the fudge chunks that are sprinkled throughout. They are very hard bits of chocolate that I definitely recommend not trying to bite through. The fudge bits are dark chocolate, I believe, and the bitter of the chocolate provides a nice contrast to the sweetness of the caramel.
I highly recommend you go test this ice cream for yourself. If you like coffee, or caramel, you definitely won’t be disappointed.
Just be aware if you’re caffeine sensitive: you probably won’t want to eat it too late in the day, unless you want to be up till 4am.
If you’ve been around here before, you’ll know I can not handle spicy foods. I have a very low spicy tolerance, and very, very rarely eat spicy foods willingly.
That said, when the Beyond Meat Hot Italian Sausages came to Canada, I knew I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to review them.
I first tried these sausages back in March of last year (2021), and I have to say, I was actually pleasantly surprised!
Similar to the Beyond Meat Burgers, these sausages had a very similar texture to meat sausages (or at least, from what I remember) and even seemed to have a ‘skin’ or casing on them.
These sausages are very meaty tasting, and smelling. Which is great, if that’s your thing! If you’re looking for a plant-based alternative to replace meat products without compromising on taste or texture, these are definitely the sausages for you!
As I’ve said in previous reviews, I’m a fan of plants that taste like plants. Give me a mushroom burger that tastes like mushrooms, and I won’t complain. These sausages, as well as the Beyond Meat burgers… honestly, I think it’s amazing that we can make plants taste that close to meat products, but it’s just not really my thing.
I don’t know quite what it is, but even just smelling the ‘meat’ smell makes me mildly nauseous. Like my body is screaming no, don’t eat that! at me, even though I know it’s made out of plants, and is not a dead body.
For me personally, it’s too close to meat for me to be a big fan of them, or to add them to my regular shopping list. Once in a while is fine, but I really can’t handle them more than that. I just don’t crave that meaty taste – even back before I went vegan, I stayed away from pretty much every meat that wasn’t chicken/turkey, because I just didn’t like the taste – so it’s actually not surprising that I still don’t really dig that flavour.
Beyond Sausage close up
Not only were these sausages super meaty, but they also definitely lived up to their Hot name. They were spicy. Like, take three bites and burn the back of my throat spicy. Now, as said above, I have a very low spice tolerance, so you may not find them that spicy, but honestly, these messed up my digestion I imagine the same way eating hot wings messes with other people. It was not pretty, nor fun.
Even just thinking back to eating them is making me want to chug a bunch of water. I definitely am a bigger fan of the Mild sausages, though I also found those spicy. Not as bad, but they definitely still had a kick.
I did notice however, that if I chopped up the sausages and mixed them into something else, it did significantly reduce the spicy effects. So, that’s also an option, if you’re worried about how spicy they are.
Beyond Sausage cut up in a Mr. Noodle stir fry
One thing I definitely don’t like about these sausages, is the packaging. They come in a cardboard container, that’s wrapped in plastic. Also, they only come 4 to a package. I’ve complained about this in other reviews, but seriously, if you want to offer that little in a package, at least have a bigger packaging option. Why not make them available in an 8, or hell, even a 6 pack would be better.
Beyond Meat now makes Breakfast Sausages that come in an 8 pack, so I don’t understand why these big ones can’t also. I’m not for sure on this, but the breakfast links also appear to come in a cardboard box, instead of plastic, which again begs the question: why can’t the big sausages come the same?
I know this review may seem like it’s negative, so I want to be clear: I’m in no way trying to trash this product. I think it’s amazing and crazy that Beyond Meat has figured out a way to make plants taste that close to meat products. It’s truly an incredible achievement, and said above, if you’re someone who’s looking to quell your meat cravings without eating the real thing, you would be hard pressed to find a better sausage than these.
These sausages aren’t something I personally will be buying very often, but I’m still definitely recommending them!
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I’ve been very excited to try other products from Kelly’s ever since I tried their Salted Caramel Pretzel Cupcake during one of the Vegandale Festivals. I thought for sure I’d be out of luck after learning they were located in Burlington, but fortunately, they deliver to Toronto!
Wanting to try something new last year (2021) for Valentine’s Day, I decided to go ahead and place an order. Now, I’m not sure if it was just me, or the way their shop operates, but their website didn’t have too many offerings at the time I placed my order. Wanting to not go crazy, as well as remain practical (as I was planning on sharing some of the baked goods with friends and family), I decided to go with their Triple Fudge Brownie. Since it was flat, I figured it would be the safest to carry for travel.
Small brownie tray
I ended up choosing the Small Tray size of their brownie to share, as well as two loose brownies to try beforehand – this way, I could test them myself before giving out possibly bad-tasting baked goods.
Luckily though, their brownie was amazing, and even my non-vegan friend enjoyed it!
Kelly’s Triple Fudge Brownies were firstly a lot bigger in size than I thought they’d be. The ones I got loose were roughly the size of my palm, and were also very sturdy.
The loose brownies came in this cute pink box!
I don’t know if I’ve just had suck-y brownies before, but other brownies I’ve tried were closer in consistency to a cupcake than this was. This one felt a lot denser than ones I’ve previously tried – but not in a bad way!
I was also surprised that it was very soft to bite into, and reminded me of eating ice cream. Soft, yet firm. That said, the brownie was also not overly sweet like some other desserts. You know how sometimes you eat a cupcake and the second it goes into your mouth, your tongue almost recoils because it’s so sweet? That didn’t happen with this brownie.
Brownie cut in half – like this, you can clearly see where the ganache ends and the brownie begins.
The website also said that the brownie had a chocolate ganache on top, which you can tell by looking at the brownie – the top of it is more of a lighter brown than the rest of it. The ganache also kind of flaked off the top when eating it. This worked out though, because the brownie was the type of dark chocolate that makes you thirsty, so picking up the ganache piece after eating it and letting it melt in your mouth helped with the dryness.
It was actually quite weird, now that I think about it. The brownie was dry, but not dry. I thought at first this may have been because the loose brownies were most likely made during the morning, but I didn’t receive the order until later in the day. You know that sort of dryness baked goods get if you leave them out on the counter? It was similar to that. (Though of course, I can’t say for sure whether or not the brownies were sitting around, and I’m in no way accusing Kelly’s of doing this)
How the two loose brownies looked in the pink box.
My non-vegan friend said they liked the brownie as well. They said they weren’t sure if they would call it ‘fudge’ per se, but that it ‘definitely was a good chocolate brownie, was nice and flaky and surprisingly not crumbly’. (They ‘only made 4 crumbs’ when eating it)
Another thing I liked about this brownie, and the Kelly’s company in general, is the fact the order came in a paper bag, instead of a plastic one. Granted, the containers that the actual brownies were in were plastic, but I liked that they at least didn’t have unnecessary plastic.
One thing I didn’t like about this order, was the price. Now, I know Kelly’s is a small, family owned bakeshop, and I did make them deliver from Burlington to Toronto (around Victoria Park and Danforth), however, my order total was $48.39, not including the tip. Considering I only got 2 items, this just seemed like a lot to me.
Another thing I didn’t like was the way the website would time out if you were taking too long to complete the order. I understand this is probably for inventory purposes, but it was annoying when I had to keep restarting my order, even though I stayed on the website. (I was trying to find ingredient information)
That said, Kelly’s had amazing customer service, and was overall very pleasant to do business with, aside from those two things. I definitely recommend you check them out and place an order with them, if you’re within the delivery zone (or can go and do a pick-up), and I look forward to placing more orders with them in future!
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Vanilla gets a bad wrap as being a ‘boring’ flavour, but, without a solid foundation, you can’t build ice creams that are more complex. Also, sometimes you just want a ‘boring’ flavour, or maybe someone doesn’t like a weird combo of flavours – whatever your reasoning, vanilla is a great basic flavour to keep stocked in the freezer.
That said, this means the review of a plain-er flavour won’t be as long, because there’s not as much to talk about flavour-wise. But again, I don’t think that should influence someone’s decision to buy it!
Okay, that’s enough defending, let’s get down to the review.
I’m going to be honest, this ice cream didn’t actually taste like vanilla. It tasted like coconut, which is fine, since it’s a coconut-based ice cream. And it wasn’t an overpowering coconut flavour like some other things I’ve tried. It was actually a much more subtle flavour than I thought it’d be. I don’t know if they added vanilla, and that’s what muted the coconut, or if that’s just what plain coconut ice cream tastes like, but it was nice, even though it’s not the flavour that’s advertised on the label.
The ice cream was also very ‘light’ and refreshing, unlike some more complex flavours which feel ‘heavier’ when eating them. This ice cream was a perfect, light snack. It actually kind of reminded me of summer, in the same way that eating watermelon does.
It was also pretty soft. I don’t know if it’s because it was coconut based or not, but I actually loved how soft it was! I could take it right out of the freezer and eat it, unlike with (as an example) Ben and Jerry’s, where you have to leave it on the counter for 5-10 minutes just to get a spoon in it.
A downside to this, and so far all vegan ice cream, is unfortunately it still came in the small pint containers, like the Ben and Jerry’s ice creams. I don’t know why there’s no family sized vegan ice cream out there, but I wish someone would start making it! Sure, for one person, this size would last maybe a week (if you ate a little every day), but what should you do if you have a celebration, like a birthday? You could buy multiple pints, but the amount you’d need to feed everyone, coupled with the high price, makes it not worth the effort.
I’m going to try to restrain myself from launching into a whole rant about the sizing thing – if you’ve read any of my other reviews, you know how much the smaller size thing irks me.
That’s really everything I had to cover for this ice cream: nice, light, coconut-y flavour, and a small container. Not much else I can say about it, except tell you to buy it if you like mellow flavoured ice creams.
After my last venture of an egg replacement that was closer to a pancake than a scramble, my hopes of finding another good vegan egg replacement were slim. Don’t get me wrong, I love the VeganEgg, it’s amazing! But with it’s usual $12.99 price tag, I was on the hunt for something that was just as good, with a lower price. (If it existed)
Enter: Just Egg. I saw post after post on Instagram of how amazing this substitute was, and knew I’d have to get my hands on it to see if it really lived up to it’s hype. Unfortunately, at that time, it was only available in the US. So like any other pessimist, I resigned myself to only getting VeganEgg for ‘special occasions’ and temporarily halted my search for another egg scramble replacement, and focused my energy/time on the more urgent upcoming projects.
Then, in early 2021, the news dropped: Just Egg was coming to Canada!
I was re-bombarded with glowing Instagram posts, and decided to add it to my shopping list – for the end of the year.
See, when it gets down to around November, I’ve (usually) got all my other projects for the year (books, website posts, etc.) done, so I have the free time I need to come up with the next year’s posts, project ideas, etc. including, trying products for the upcoming product reviews.
While other people are busy buying Christmas gifts, I swoop in to snag the otherwise-sold-out new foods. It’s a win-win!
That makes me a little later to the game than others, but I don’t mind. If it’s still a good product, everyone will still be talking about it months after it’s launch, right?
Right!
And that was just the case with Just Egg.
I tried Just Egg for the first time in the last week of November/early December, 2021. (21.11.29 was the first day I tried it, if you want to be more specific)
Very first impression? This bottle seems kinda small.
I don’t know why, but for some reason, the pictures I saw on social media and in online store selections, I thought the bottle would be bigger – closer to a skinny juice carton. It’s actually about as tall as my hand (roughly 6in from the tip of my middle finger to the base of my wrist), and not very wide. It says it’s 340g, but I wasn’t about to scale it.
After getting over the (mild) shock of how small the bottle was, I checked the bottle (as us vegans do), to scope out the ingredients and the instructions. The instructions were hard to find, as they weren’t clearly marked, and were on the bottom of the label, disguising themselves as being part of the copyright information.
Back of the bottle
Where the cooking instructions are
The ingredients also didn’t list black salt, which made me curious to see if it would taste ‘egg-y’ if I didn’t add any myself.
After that, I broke out my frying pan and got cooking up the very first test batch. I did as directed and shook, then poured out ‘my desired amount’ into an oiled pan and waited.
What the Just Egg looked like right after pouring into the pan
It didn’t take very long for the mixture to start solidifying. Using a spatula, I did the usual gentle mix and break to get those classic scrambled egg chunks. I also separated the mixture – part I was going to leave plain, to see what it’s flavour was on it’s own, and the other part I was going to add black salt, ground pepper and regular table salt to.
Separated scrambles – plain on the left, black-salted/peppered on the right
The plain scramble tasted pretty good, though it didn’t taste like an egg. It mostly just tasted like oil, since I didn’t add any other flavour. Think plain fried tofu. The spiced mixture tasted a lot more like eggs.
Both mixtures had a nice soft-ish texture that I vaguely remember ‘normal’ scrambled eggs having (it’s been 6 years, give me a break), and held their shape pretty well. The chunks were soft enough I could cut the bigger pieces with my fork, but were also firm enough they didn’t fall apart when you tried to stab them.
The only thing I didn’t like about this product, was that it was surprisingly hard to find. I don’t know if it was just sold out of a bunch of places, or if it’s only available in certain stores, but I checked the usual ‘normal’ grocery stores to find vegan goods (Loblaws, Real Canadian Superstore, Metro) and none of them had it. I ended up getting it from Wal-Mart.
It was also only $5.59, which was much cheaper than I was expecting!
Overall, I think this is a great vegan scrambled egg substitute, and if I manage to find it at one of my usual grocery stores – especially for that price – I’m definitely looking forward to adding it to my semi-regular grocery list.
These cute little sausage rounds are perfect for breakfast sandwiches!
Gardein makes 2 kinds of these breakfast sausage patties: original, or maple. And, with me being in Canada and all, I figured I should probably test out the maple ones first. I’ve seen tried both and love both flavours, but the maple beats out the original when talking strictly about breakfast.
There’s just something very pleasing about sliding one of these maple-y goodness rounds onto a freshly toasted English muffin, and topping with cheese. The flavour combo is amazing, and if you haven’t tried them, I definitely recommend doing so!
… Sorry, I just really love maple sausages.
Getting back on track: 5 patties come in one bag, and considering how small they are – and how big the bags Gardein uses – they could easily fit more than 5 in these bags. In fact, to save freezer space, I’ve actually done this. 8 patties comfortably fit, and if you really try, you can fit 10 in one bag. That said, considering they’re usually about $6.99 (Loblaws) and they’re often on sale, it makes them a pretty good deal, in terms of vegan food.
One down side of these patties is that since they’re loose in a bag, they freeze together, which usually wouldn’t be that much of a problem. Except, that because these are covered in maple syrup, it makes it harder to pull them apart when you want to use them. Also, because of the maple syrup coating, it will leave a sticky residue in your frying pan when cooking. This isn’t that much of a big deal, but if you’ve never cooked anything with maple syrup on it before, be warned: you’ll want to immediately soak the pan with some water. Dried maple syrup is very hard to get off of things.
Don’t let that discourage you, though! The maple flavour is more than worth the little bit of extra effort!
Now, it’s been a long time since I last had ‘real’ maple breakfast sausages, but from my (6 year) memory of them, these patties taste the same. The only difference being, they’re in a patty form, instead of cylinders. The texture is nice and not overly chewy, and if you wait long enough not to burn your tongue, the maple syrup adds a nice sweet flavour to whatever breakfast sandwich you’re eating.
Your house will also smell amazingly maple-y after cooking them, so you get breakfast, and a bonus! Who needs candles?
There’s not really much else I can say about these, other than that you definitely need to try them, and the Original flavour, too. (Though those ones will be getting their own review in the future)
Gardein Maple Breakfast Sausages: have you tried them? What’s your favourite way to eat them? Let me know in the comments below!
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Usually, I like sticking to cheese that has a pretty mild/tame flavour. I’ve seen some cheeses that have blueberries, and other odd things in them. While I’m not quite at that stage of trying new things, I did want to try branching out from my usual Daiya (and now Violife) cheese and see if I could be satisfied with a wilder flavour.
Enter: Main Vegan Deli’s Smoked Applewood Cheese Wedge.
I decided to go with Main Vegan Deli because I remembered liking their cheese sample at one of the Vegandale festivals I went to, so I thought they would be a safer choice. (Instead of picking a completely new company) Also, their cheese is made out of cashews, and I haven’t tried very many cashew based cheeses, so I figured two birds.
Now, this cheese definitely has a… let’s say ‘bold’ flavour. Upon first taste test (done cold, right out of the fridge), it had the texture of soft tofu, and didn’t really have much of a taste, until you got to the red dust that was along one side. Once you got there, that’s when the flavour became apparent. It’s kind of hard to describe the flavour, but one thing I can say for sure, is that it made the back of my throat tingle after swallowing it.
I found out later, that it apparently has whisky in it, so I’m not sure if that would’ve been that flavour (I’m pretty sensitive to alcohol’s), or if it was something else, but it definitely didn’t make it fun to swallow.
That said, I had my (non-vegan) friend try it as well, and they absolutely loved it! They said, and I quote, “It’s as close as you can get without dairy. It melted the same and tasted great on burgers and sandwiches.”
I also tried it in a cold sandwich, and it was definitely better when not eating alone, although I couldn’t tell if that was because it was disguised with other flavours or not. And, it still tingled my throat. I didn’t get a chance to try it melted, although I did smell it melted, and similar to a few other things, the flavour just seemed to intensify when it was heated.
I figured since I didn’t really like the flavour, I probably wasn’t gonna like it with an intensified flavour.
While this cheese wasn’t my cup of tea, I would still say it was good, and if you’re someone who looks for bold flavoured cheeses, I’d definitely recommend you try it out!
Another good thing about this wedge, is that it was a lot bigger than I thought it’d be! It’s actually the size I thought the Violife Parm Wedge was going to be. Since I tried the Violife wedge first, I had lowered my expectations on size when I bought this one, but I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised! Especially because it was listed at $15.
If I had ended up liking the flavour, I would’ve been over the moon at how big of a wedge it came with. I ended up giving it to my friend, who was really happy with it’s size. Though they did agree with me that $15 still seemed a bit too steep. We both thought if it was closer to $10-12 it would’ve been better.
Now, I don’t want you to get the wrong idea here, when I say ‘big’, I don’t mean it was ‘big’, I mean it was bigger than the Violife wedge, but was still relatively small. The whole wedge was roughly the size of my hand.
The wedge went from the tip of my middle finger, to my wrist, making it about 6 inches long. It was also about 2 inches wide (pointer to ring finger).
Definitely not big enough to be $15 in my eyes. But! I want to say thank-you to Main Vegan Deli for not making it ridiculously small.
If their other cheeses are the same size, I definitely can’t wait to try one of their tamer flavours!
Have you tried Main Vegan Deli’s Applewood Smoked Wedge? Let me know what you think about it in the comments below!
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Back of the bottle
Where the cooking instructions are
What the Just Egg looked like right after pouring into the pan
Separated scrambles – plain on the left, black-salted/peppered on the right
