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No Whey! Foods Signature Truffles 15 Piece Review

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I first tried these truffles back in 2023. I’d been eyeing them for a while, but couldn’t find an excuse to buy them until then. (They were a joint Valentine’s/birthday present)

They were definitely worth the wait! Not only did they exceed my expectations, they also made me feel fancy. Due to my allergies, I hadn’t had truffles in a long time, and I forgot how much I used to like them. Opening the box and trying the different flavours. Sure, it came with a flavour guide, but it was still exciting!

I’m going to break this review into 5 parts, so each truffle gets equal billing. Unfortunately I didn’t completely love every flavour, but I would still say over-all these truffles were a hit! They’re also going to be listed in box order, not my order of preference.

Before we get into that, though, I want to tell you a little over-all about the box. I tried the 15 piece box, so there was only 3 of each kind of flavour. Also, despite knowing it was only 15 pieces total, when the box showed up, I was surprised at how small it was! I thought it was going to be bigger for whatever reason.

I also bought the box directly from NoWhey! which is unfortunately, a US based company. So, at the time I purchased the truffles (February 2023), this box was $29.50 USD and shipping to Canada was another $23.23 USD. Which means total Canadian, I paid $75.61.

Now, I don’t go around buying truffles very often, so maybe this is on par with other truffles, but to me, this seemed like a lot to pay for 1 box. They were delicious, as you’ll see below, but the shipping costing almost the same amount as the truffles isn’t something I loved.

Luckily though, I’ve since found these truffles at a few different Canadian vegan grocery stores, so when I buy them next, I’ll be sure to get them from there!

 

Milk Fudge

This truffle was definitely the ‘plainest’ one I tried, but that doesn’t mean it was bad!

This truffle, like all the others had a solid chocolate shell on the outside and a creamier/softer chocolate on the inside. Similar to the Lindt chocolates, but it’s been such a long time since I’ve had them, I’m not sure if that’s entirely a fair comparison.

It also just tasted like chocolate. No gimmicks, no tricks, nothing overly complicated. I hadn’t tried it at the time, but this Milk Fudge truffle reminds me of the Milkless bar they have for Halloween. I don’t know if it’s actually the same recipe, but if I had to guess, I’d say it is.

I would recommend this truffle to the less adventurous eaters out there. If you’re worried about liking the other flavours in the box, take solace in knowing there’s at least one you’ll enjoy!

 

Raspberry

This raspberry flavoured truffle had the smoothest inside out of all the truffles. I don’t know why it was the smoothest – it didn’t have jam inside, it was still solid chocolate – but it was a nice change of texture.

I’ll admit, I’m not the biggest fan of fruit in chocolate, but this one worked surprisingly well for me! I think because of the lack of jam, the raspberry flavour was a lot more subtle than I was expecting. I had tried the Strawberry Ganache Hearts at the same time and let’s just say I’d happily take these over those.

I also don’t remember what I meant, but in my original notes on the flavours, for this one, I wrote down, ‘no overtly raspberry flavour, more cooling’. So… take from that what you will.

 

Salted Caramel

This truffle was hands down my favourite, but I assumed that going in.

If you’ve been here a while, you’ll know salted caramel is one of my favourite flavourings, and this truffle did not disappoint!

It was salty, it was caramel-y… what more could you ask for?

The only thing I would say I didn’t like about this one – and this is just if I had to be nit-picky – was the salted flakes on the top. I don’t know if the ones we got were representative of all of them (the box I got only had 3) or if we got a couple less-than-perfect ones, but I felt there was a little bit too much salt on the outside. It reminded me of the salt flakes on that Sno Crunchy Salted Caramel Ice Cream Cone I tried. (Well technically, I since I tried the ice cream after the truffles, those salt flakes reminded me of these)

 

Grand Marnier

Do you know what ‘grand marniermeans? Because I sure as hell didn’t. But it sounded fancy, so I thought it was going to be something like wine, or some other Grown Up Flavour… apparently it just means it’s orange.

Okay, technically it means it’s orange liqueur, but still. I was not expecting an orange flavour when I bit into the first truffle I tried out of the box – yes I tried it first because it sounded fanciest – and maybe I just didn’t eat enough of them, but it also didn’t get me buzzed. (I know that’s not necessarily a thing that happens with all liquor, especially in food)

The flavour was what you’d expect knowing it’s orange and chocolate. If you’ve ever had those chocolate oranges that are usually around at Christmas, it tasted like that, but a tad less orange-y.

This was my least favourite flavour out of the box, even after knowing what to expect. I wasn’t surprised by this though, because as I said above, I’m not that big a fan of fruit mixed with chocolate.

 

Coffee

And that brings us to the last but not least truffle of the box: coffee! This one was probably my second favourite flavour out of the box.

I know what you’re thinking, and I have the answer! I actually Live Chatted with an agent from No Whey! so that I would know whether or not they used decaf or regular coffee for the flavour. The agent told me they used regular coffee, but only used ‘a little bit’ and it was baked into the truffle directly, not added after or anything, so it shouldn’t have any coffee-like affects.

Which I was very glad to hear, because as you know if you’ve been around a while, my body is very sensitive to things like caffeine.

And I’m happy to report: I did not have any trouble with the caffeine from these truffles! So if you’re similarly affected, you can rest easy. Also I was glad to discover the agent didn’t lie about how much was used. (Which I’ve unfortunately experienced in the past)

The truffles tasted how you’d expect if you mixed coffee with chocolate. You could definitely taste the coffee, so if you’re not a fan of that, you’ll probably want to skip this one. The inside of this truffle was also more brownie consistency than the rest of them.

That’s not a complaint though, just an observation!

Overall, I would definitely recommend trying this box of truffles.  Especially if you live in the US or find a place to buy them directly that’s less than $75.

The 15 piece box was also a great sample size box to write a review for. Since each flavour had only 3 truffles, there was one initial tester, a second to really think about the flavour and then the last was to be enjoyed like a regular person/non-food blogger. (Or given away to a friend if you didn’t like it)

If you’re not sure if you would seriously enjoy all the flavours, No Whey! also sells each of these flavours in alone, smaller boxes (I believe the single flavours come in a box of 6?), or they have a bigger box if you’re having a party, or know you’ll love them.

So, No Whey! Signature Truffles. Have you tried them? If you have, which flavour is your favourite? If you haven’t, which flavour do you think you’ll like most? Let me know in the comments below!


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Prana No Mylk’n Hazelnuts & Crispy Rice Chocolate Bark Review

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Important: This is the 4th last article of 2024! I’ll be taking the last half of December and first half of January off from posting. I’ll be back January 20th, 2025 with the first article of the new year!


Chocolate bark is one of the best snacks you can reach for and this Prana chocolate bark is no exception!

This bark is incredible. It’s the perfect ratio of chocolate to hazelnuts and rice, isn’t too thick and comes in a convenient resealable pouch, just in case you have enough self control to leave some of this delicious snack for later.

As the name suggests, they use a faux milk chocolate instead of dark chocolate, which is great for not getting that drying-out-your-mouth feeling that dark chocolate tends to give.

This bark actually reminds me of those rice chocolate bunnies they used to sell for Easter. I don’t know how region specific that product is, but if you know what I’m talking about, and enjoyed those bunnies, you’ll definitely enjoy this bark!

I also found this chocolate bark at Shopper’s Drug Mart, so it’s definitely not even one of those specialty vegan-grocer-only snacks, either. Speaking of where to find it, it’s also got a competitive price ($5.79) and wasn’t even tucked into some dark back corner of the shop with other vegan-only products. I found it right there on the shelf next to the Reeces!

There is one bad thing about this product, and it’s a complaint you’ve heard from me before: there is not enough bark in the bag! I don’t know if I got a dud, but the bag I got was less than half full of bark. The rest was air, or that not-air stuff they seal in to help keep products fresh.

This is how much bark was in the bag as soon as I opened it

It was sad, because I love this product, and the bag isn’t even that big to begin with!

So while I recommend going out to try this product for yourself, be aware you’ll probably want to buy them in two’s.


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Farm Boy Chocolate Truffle Hot Cocoa Mix Review

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Funny story about my discovery of this hot chocolate, I actually came onto the brand when I was looking for vegan cheese.

While the brand isn’t 100% vegan, they do have a line of vegan cheeses available – including some cheese cubes specifically for making poutine – and, as I was pleasantly surprised to find out, hot chocolate!

As far as I know, they only have the one kind of hot chocolate, but that’s really all you need!

This hot chocolate mix is pretty standard, in my opinion. It doesn’t have a specific flavour like the Castle Kitchen Caramel Hot Chocolate, or peppermint or anything crazy, it’s just… chocolate. And sugar.

And some Silk Chocolate Almond, but that’s me adding flavour, not what comes in the container. It also doesn’t have any of those dehydrated marshmallows that some other hit chocolate mixes have.

I would count that as a win though, because from what I remember, those marshmallows were always sort of rubbery or dusty tasting, and definitely didn’t replace plopping in your own fresh ones.

The container tells you to add 2 Tbsp of mix to a cup of hot water, but I’ve found that that’s way too much! I usually do 1 tsp or sometimes 1 1/2 tsp, but even sometimes that leaves bits of muddy, not-fully-dissolved mix in the bottom of my mug.

I don’t know if I happen to just have a smaller than average mug, or if someone misprinted those instructions, but I’d recommend starting out with a smaller amount, and upping the mix level each time, instead of starting with too much. Unless you actually like drinking that muddy leftover mix in the bottom of a cup.

The brand Farm Boy is also Canadian, and since they make ‘real’ food too, their products aren’t only found in specialty vegan stores! This means you have many more chances to get your hands on the product when doing your regular grocery shopping!

Another great thing about it, is that it’s a comparable price to ‘regular’ hot chocolate mixes. It’s listed as only $5.99 at Sobey’s, while the Compliments Hot Chocolate Mix is the same price, and the Tim Horton’s Hot Chocolate Smooth & Creamy is a dollar more.

This hot chocolate mix is enjoyable, and definitely gets the job done, and while I wouldn’t suggest you have to immediately run out and buy some, I would recommend checking it out this season.


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Sol Cuisine Mushroom and Wild Rice Burger Review

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If you’ve been around for a while – or even if you just happened to catch my Beyond Burger review – you’ll know I’m not that big of a fan of vegan burgers that taste overtly meaty.

Maybe it’s because I wasn’t that big a fan of beef before going vegan, maybe it’s a psychological thing – I don’t know. All I do know, is that given the choice between a meaty burger or one that tastes like vegetables, I’m more likely to grab the veggie burger.

And these Sol Cuisine burgers are a great one to reach for!

There’s actually not much to be said about these burgers that you can’t figure out based on the name. Their taste is a great blend of mushrooms and rice and they have a great texture. They’re not too soft but aren’t too hard, either. You could pull them apart with your fingers if you so desired, but also definitely need to use your teeth to bite through them.

Four burgers come in one box and one thing I like that the company actually changed was before, the burgers used to come individually wrapped in plastic bags inside the box. The upside of this was obvious – you wouldn’t need to open all the burgers to just get one – but the downside was, of course, it meant they were using more plastic.

I’m not sure exactly when they changed, but I’m so glad they did! Less plastic is obviously always a win. That said, I do hope the company isn’t calling this a one and done deal – there’s still other steps they could take to reduce or even eliminate the plastic in their products! I’ve seen great things from other companies that use things like plant-based faux plastics, having products just be loose in cardboard, or even recycled plastic bags.

Another great thing about these burgers is that they aren’t one of those exclusive specialty vegan products, which means most ‘normal’ stores carry them! I’ve found these bad boys all over the place: Loblaws, Wal-Mart, Metro, Sobey’s – hell, one time I even found them at a No Frills!

Their price also makes them a great addition to your shopping list. At the time of writing (24.07.11) these burgers are listed at $6.99 and $7.29 at Wal-Mart and Metro, respectively.

These burgers are definitely a staple in my home, and I hope you take the time to try them out! I’ve never actually cooked them on a BBQ, but I bet they’d make a great addition to your summer meals!


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I post new product reviews on the 13th of EVERY month!

Gardein Minestrone & Saus’ge Soup Review

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I first tried this new Gardein soup back in November of 2020. Yes, I’m that organized.

Since I only do 12 product reviews a year (one each month), it’s actually not hard to try more new foods than reviews to post. So instead of trying new foods and not reviewing them, I just write down what I think every time I try something new, and then I always have content. And, since I write the full review from my notes, it’s almost like not even doing work, since I’ve already done the hard part. (Thanks past me!) So yes, just like story WIP’s I also have a lot of vegan food reviews piled up/backlogged.

But, not to worry because you guys will get to see them all! Eventually.

Actually, one hard thing about keeping reviews for future years is the product I was planning on posting the review about is no longer around. Sometimes it’s been pulled from certain markets and is only available in specific countries or a few times, it had been discontinued all together.

Anyway, let’s get to the part you actually came here to read.

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If you’ve been around for a while – or read some of my other Product Reviews – you’ll know I’m not that big on soup – but this one was actually pretty good!

It was a tomato based soup that had thick ring-shaped pasta, green beans, black beans, chickpeas and of course, faux sausage pieces. The can that I got was mostly pasta. It seemed to be lacking in beans and there were only 3 pieces of the faux sausage. Granted they were pretty big pieces – about the size of one of their Meatballs (notballs), if you cut it in half – but still. Since they put the word ‘sausage’ in the name, I think there should’ve been more than three. At least do five.

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AterImber.com - The Veg Life - Product Reviews - Gardein Minestrone & Saus'ge Soup Review - Saus'ge Piece - vegan, vegan food, soup, vegan soup, food review, food reviewer, blogger, food bloggerThe piece of saus’ge, with a carefully placed ring-shaped pasta on top for size comparison

But, I know there’s not a worker sitting in the assembly line counting out pieces by hand (or at least, I hope that’s not happening), so maybe your can or if I buy another one, there’ll be a better mix of ingredients.

As I’ve said before, I have a pretty low spicy food tolerance, so I’m not sure if minestrone soup is supposed to be spicy, but mine was a little bit. It was enough to notice, but not enough to burn my throat/upset my stomach.

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It also wasn’t very filling. It was pretty tasty, but I wouldn’t call it ‘hearty’. Though I’m not sure if that’s a soup thing or a this soup’s thing. So, take that with a grain of salt if you wish. If you wanted to stock up for winter, I’d keep a few cans on hand, but don’t max out your budget on them.

Speaking of budget, they also weren’t that expensive. The 425g can was $5.49, which is comparable to other soups and even the Daiya cheese blocks. (At the time of buying)

I’m not entirely sure if Gardein still makes this soup, to be honest. I checked Vegan Supply as I was writing this review (24.01.11, hello from the past!) to compare the 2020 price, but it didn’t come up. I also checked Gardein’s own website with the Store Finder and it crossed out Toronto, Canada and the closest that came up on the map were a bunch of stores in Detroit, USA.

I usually like to end my reviews by telling you to go try the product yourself, so Detroitians (is that what people who live in Detroit are called?) and probably other USA residents, feel free to check out this soup! People in Canada and other countries, see if you can find it. Just, don’t look too hard.

It was good, but not scour-the-Earth good.


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Gardein Chick’N Teriyaki Style Bowl Review

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Gardein used to have a few kinds of ready-meal type products back when I first went vegan. There were pizza pockets, cans and even more faux meat selections available. They ended up having to cut a lot of their line in Canada for some reason, which sucks because I would gladly be eating their pizza pockets if they were still available.

It’s been a few years now and they’ve thankfully slowly begun expanding their product line again. Though I’m not sure how far off they are from bringing back their pizza pockets, I was excited to try this ready-meal bowl once they crossed the border.

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This Chick’N Teriyaki Style Bowl is the first of it’s kind I’ve tried. I’ve never had another ready-meal version of this, so keep in mind I don’t really have anything to compare this too.

Usually, not having anything to compare a new product to is great, because then you’re not sub-or-consciously keeping tabs on things it does different than the other product.

That said, even without anything to compare it to, this product wasn’t my favourite thing from Gardein.

For starters, it came in a black plastic container that I think was supposed to look like a faux takeout container. Not only have I been trying to stay away from plastic (and I believe the black takeout container plastic is one of the harder kinds to recycle), it was a lot smaller than I was expecting.

And I know I say that basically every time – you’d think for someone who’s tried as many vegan products as I have, I’d expect things to be on the smaller side by now. But for a product that’s supposed to be an entire meal, it was very small. This could maybe be an appetizer to tide you over before the main course – like having a light soup before the entrée at a fancy restaurant – but if you’re planning on eating just this for dinner? Prepare to stay hungry.

This product also said to microwave it, which I didn’t because I try to avoid using them as much as I can. It actually cooked in the same amount of time on the stove in a pan (about 5-6 minutes) as the cooking instructions said it would.

It was also a lot more apparent just how small this portion was once I had it in the pan and out of the container it came in. It was maybe a half bowl’s worth of rice.

The taste was also not that great. Now, I’m not sure if there’s different ways to make teriyaki sauce, but every food I’ve had that said it was “teriyaki” was some sort of soy sauce concoction. This product however, tasted more like plum sauce.

If you enjoy plum sauce, that’d be a plus, but unfortunately I don’t like it. This made the dish weirdly sweet and it somehow also had a kick to it? I guess it’s the definition of “sweet and spicy”, but I wasn’t expecting that (and wouldn’t have ordered it) from a product that was labelled “teriyaki”.

The plus side of this dish, was that despite it being small, it came with about 10 pieces of chick’n strips. The strips I don’t think were anything special, though. They just tasted like their regular bagged ones.

If I remember correctly, this bowl was either more or about the same price as their chick’n strips bag. (I tried to find the price for this article, but Good Rebel, VeganSupply and Loblaws were either sold out or no longer carry the product)

Honestly, you could probably make a much better version of what this dish is supposed to be if you just bought their chick’n strips separately and combined everything yourself.

Again, if you enjoy plum sauce, spiciness and small portions, you might love this dish! But as for me, while I wouldn’t count this product as “bad” I definitely wouldn’t buy it again – unless it was my only option.


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Gardein Chick’n Noodl’ Soup Review

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This is the last post of 2022!

I’ll be taking the last half of this month and first half of January off from posting. I’ll be back Jan. 13th 2023, (9am, ET) with the first short story (and product review) of the new year!

Hope you all enjoy the upcoming holiday season, and get well rested for 2023!


Now that the winter weather is in full swing, I thought what better product to review than a soup?

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Now, I’m going to be honest, I’m not that big of a fan of soup. I hardly ever eat it (Mr. Noodles not included). I think it’s a little weird as a food. It’s practically just juice with chunks in it.

I’m a much bigger fan of stew. Food should be solid, or fork-able. If I wanted to drink something, I would just get myself a beverage.

That said, I decided to take a chance on this soup, because I’m a big fan of most of Gardein’s other products. And let me tell you, I’m very glad I took the chance!

This soup had big chunks of chick’n (the pieces were roughly the same size as their Meatballs), had pretty big pieces of carrot and celery, and there was a decent amount of noodles, too. My can only had 6 pieces of chick’n total, which I guess I could let slide since they were pretty big, but for a soup that is called Chick’N Noodle, you’d think there would be more. That could entirely vary by can, though, so don’t let that be a reason you write this soup off before even trying it.

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The can also made a full bowl, which I was admittedly impressed with – I was half expecting it to be a little under, if anything. The can itself is pretty small, it’s the same size as the Amy’s Kitchen soup cans.

Because I don’t eat soup all that often, I don’t really have much to say in terms of how good it is specifically as a soup, but compared to the Chunky Soup Hearty Chicken I used to eat before going vegan, it definitely stacks up!

One thing I didn’t like about this soup – or any soup that has noodles in it – is how soft the noodles are. I understand that’s what happens when noodles are left soaking in liquid for a long time, they get super soft. And I’m not sure if that’s something others would say is a plus in their soup, but as for me, I like my pasta to have a little bit of a bite to it.

This soup definitely gave me classic chicken noodle soup vibes, and even though I’m not that big a fan of soup in general, I could definitely see myself enjoying this during the cold winter months.

On occasion.


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So Delicious Vanilla Bean Coconutmilk Frozen Dessert Review

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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.

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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.


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Switching to a Zero Waste Toilet Paper (Who Gives a Crap Review)

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On my journey into living a more zero waste lifestyle, I discovered a pretty startling fact about toilet paper. Though I’ve said it a few times already in other posts, it really belongs at the start of this one: We cut down 27,000 trees everyday to make toilet paper.

This is such an outrageous stat, that even though I learned it last year, it still partially breaks my brain whenever I think about it.

Seriously, think about it: it takes a long time for a tree to fully grow. Sometimes it takes 40, 50 or hell, even 100 years – an entire lifetime for them to reach their peaks, and what do we do with them? Cut them down, only to use them in something we use 1 time, and then immediately discard.

Call me crazy, but if I worked 40 years (or longer) on something, and then had to watch someone tear it down just to turn it into something they immediately threw away, I’d be pretty upset.

So, what are we to do? The obvious answer would be to just stop making toilet paper. But then there’s the issue of what we use instead. Sure, bidets are a thing, but I don’t think they’re for everybody.

And what other solutions are there, if someone doesn’t want to try a bidet? They could shower after every time they use the bathroom, so that they’re clean, but that would be highly impractical, and, not to mention, a huge waste in water.

So, what else is there to do?

The other solution is to start making toilet paper out of something else.

Sounds crazy, right? Well, thankfully, it’s not! Some companies are already doing this. Like the company I’m going to be talking about today: Who Gives a Crap.

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Aptly named for a company who’s main focus is toilet paper, they have an amazing solution to our paper-y woes. Their toilet paper is made either out of bamboo, or recycled paper.

But Ater, isn’t cutting down bamboo just as bad as cutting down a tree?” That’s a great question! It wouldn’t be much of a solution if we were just depleting something else, would it? Well, thankfully, bamboo is a type of grass, so it grows back quickly – much more quickly than a tree would, which makes it a great substitute to regular paper tp.

I know what you must be thinking, how in the heck would bamboo toilet paper even work? Isn’t bamboo just for aesthetic looking wood furniture? Nope, it’s not. It can be turned into paper, and other materials, too!

It does have a different feel than paper toilet paper, but it’s nothing too jarring, I promise!

Take a look here:

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Here is a roll of WGAC’s bamboo toilet paper (on the left), next to a roll of Charmin Extra Strong. (Charmin was the toilet paper I was using before switching)

As you can see, the bamboo roll is slightly bigger in size, and the cardboard roll it comes on is smaller, so you get more toilet paper per roll. You may also be able to tell, that the bamboo roll looks firmer/stiffer than the regular paper one.

AterImber.com - No. Mad. - Switching to a Zero Waste Toilet Paper (Who Gives a Crap Review) - Bamboo Roll Texture - toielt paper, product review, zero waste, sustainability, paperless, blogger, reviewer

This is a close-up of the bamboo’s texture. It is pretty comparable to a paper towel, one side is bumpy and slightly rough, and the other is softer, but still firm. The firmness makes it great at, erm… doing what toilet paper is meant to do, and it doesn’t disintegrate as you use it, unlike some other softer products.

This is actually something I noticed that happened with their recycled paper toilet paper. It still has one rough-ish side, and one softer side, but the softer side is way softer than the bamboo – it’s actually the same softness as the Charmin roll. Which makes sense, since the recycled one is still made out of paper. For me, personally, I value structural integrity over super softness, so I’ll be sticking with their bamboo paper from now on. (Once I finish the recycled rolls, of course)

If you’re still undecided, you can always get a box of both, and see which one you like better. They only sell their toilet paper in boxes of 24 or 48 rolls, so unfortunately if you end up not liking one of them, you’ll have a lot of them to get through.

But, you could always gift some of the rolls to people you know, or use them as emergency rolls if you run out of the other kind.

Switching was also super easy. Like, ridiculously so. I just placed my order online and waited for it to show up. Then, once it got here (and I sprayed it with isopropyl alcohol to sanitize), I found a spot to put the box, and used as normal.

If you’re thinking of switching (which I highly recommend), I would warn you to order before you’re in desperate need of replacement toilet paper. Both my orders (bamboo and recycled) arrived in 14 days. So, y’know, make sure you have enough toilet paper to cover that waiting period, or longer, depending on where you’re located.

My first order, which was the 24 box of the bamboo rolls, was $55.79 CAD ($42 USD) because I had to get it from the US site. (Their Canadian site didn’t exist then) When I placed my order for the recycled paper (another 24 box), it was only $47.46 CAD, because I was able to get it from the Canadian site.

That may seem like a pretty steep price to some people, but it’s definitely worth the bit of extra cost in my eyes. Not only are you buying a premium, non-tree-killing toilet paper, but 50% of their profits go to help build toilets for people in need.

How cool is that?

You’re helping make someone else’s life more hygienic and better, just by simply buying an essential!

Also, if you only need to buy toilet paper twice a year, the price is actually less all together than it would be if you were, say, buying it every month. It’s a bigger price at once, but over-all it should actually be cheaper.

Unless you’re getting your toilet paper from Dollarama or something, in which case I beg you to stop doing that to yourself and test out these guys. I promise you won’t be disappointed!

Not only is this company helping to save the planet, and help people in need, but they also individually wrap their rolls, so that they are also plastic free!

This is the wrapping on the bamboo rolls.

AterImber.com - No. Mad. - Switching to a Zero Waste Toilet Paper (Who Gives a Crap Review) - WGAC Recycled TP Wrappers - toielt paper, product review, zero waste, sustainability, paperless, blogger, reviewer

These are the wrappers on the recycled paper rolls.

Not only does the wrapping make the rolls pretty to look at, but you can also re-use it for crafts, projects, or even to wrap presents!

Who Gives a Crap is hands down one of the best companies I’ve ever found, and I seriously cannot recommend them enough!

If your toilet paper situation is fine, or you still have reservations about going paperless, they do sell a few other paperless replacements, like tissues or paper towels. You could always try testing those out first, and then move on to the more ‘intimate’ product later.


Like this article? Check out more zero waste posts here!

Main Vegan Deli Smoked Applewood Cheese Wedge Review

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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.

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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.

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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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