This article was written 23.03.08, I’ve since learned these sausages have undergone a name change! They’re now called Field Roast Italian Garlic and Fennel Sausage. They’ve also got a new look.
Out of Field Roast’s limited sausage flavours, these Italian sausages were my favourite.
I’m not exactly sure when it happened, but at some point ‘Italian’ started to mean ‘spicy’, so I’m less eager to try Italian flavoured foods now.
That said, these sausages are pretty good! They actually remind me of the Tofurky Italian sausages (which are now also spicy?), though if you can definitely tell the difference between them.
For starters, these sausages are definitely spicier than Tofurky’s. That’s not to say they’re overtly spicy – someone with a higher spice tolerance might not even be able to taste it – but with the Tofurky ones, you don’t get the spiciness until you go to swallow. These ones, you can tell they’re spicy while you’re chewing.
If you were to stab these with a fork and hold them up, they’d definitely sag, but they wouldn’t break like the Tofurky ones. Their firmness is somewhere between the Tofurky and Beyond Meat sausages. This also means they’re fairly soft to bite through. Their firmness is about on par with firm tofu.
They also don’t have a ‘skin’ you need to break through, so if realness is something you’re looking to avoid, you’ll want to grab these over the Beyond Meat ones.
These Field Roast sausages are also pretty light colour. Similar to their Smoked Apple and Sage flavour, they’re more grey-brown than dark ‘meat’ brown.
With only 4 to a pack, their $8.99 price (Good Rebel) is a tad on the expensive side, but if you wait until they go on sale, or buy them as a special occasion instead of a staple, that shouldn’t be a problem.
All in all, these sausages get the job done and are sure to satisfy your craving, even if they won’t fool a meat eater.
When a product comes in a package that has Buzz Lightyear on it, you know you’re in for a treat.
For this one, I let my non-vegan friend try some, to see how it compared to ‘real’ bacon, and let’s just say he was less than impressed. He said it “wasn’t even close” to the real thing, and that he didn’t like it at all. Said something akin to it tasting like wet cardboard.
But don’t fret fellow vegans – I liked it! This one tasted very similar to the Yves Veggie Bacon. It came with a comparable amount of slices (I didn’t count, but it was definitely more than 5) and had that familiar subtle smoky taste with that soft veggie deli slice texture.
If you cooked it in oil then patted it dry with a paper towel, it even got crispy! I wasn’t able to get a full piece crispy – part or half stayed floppy – but I’m chalking that up more to user error than a structural integrity problem.
This bacon also didn’t have an overtly bacon-y smell. You know the one I mean – it’s the one that the Beyond Meat products have. The one that’s a taaad too close to the real thing for comfort?
You definitely won’t fool any non-vegans into believing this came from an animal, but it should definitely satisfy your vegan craving without issue!
The vegan movement has gained enough traction that even Babybel is getting on board! They’re one of the biggest snack cheese brands so this is a huge win.
Whether you think they’re doing it just for clout, or you believe they’re genuinely turning over a new leaf, there is no denying that this new vegan Babybel cheese is great. Not only is it a win for the vegan movement, but it also tastes pretty good!
Babybel says the vegan wheels are supposed to be mozzarella, and I’d say it’s true. Or at least, they taste like the other vegan brands mozzarella. Didn’t have that overpowering cheddar flavour, but you could also tell it wasn’t as ‘plain’ as Monterey Jack.
The cheese also had a good consistency – it wasn’t too hard or too soft – the texture actually reminded me of firm, uncooked tofu. I think it was a little weird the cheese itself had dimples in it. But I’m not sure if that’s something the non-vegan Babybels have as well.
I don’t think the dimples affected the taste, mostly just the look. I wasn’t expecting the wheel to be dimpled, so it threw me for a minute. They were deep enough you could feel them with your finger, but not super deep.
The vegan Babybels also come in a paper bag that isn’t resealable. I didn’t have a problem with not being able to reseal the bag, I just folded the top over like a chip bag and left it in my fridge. Each wheel was also wrapped in plastic, and the iconic Babybel wax. Though since these ones are vegan, instead of the classic red, the wax was green!
The Babybel website’s FAQ section unfortunately couldn’t tell me what type of wax the cheese was wrapped in – just that it was food safe. (Though they don’t recommend eating it)
Them calling the product Plant-Based even though they’re certified vegan set off a little alarm bell in my head, so I ended up reaching out to the company directly. Lucky the company got back to me (23.01.27) and told me “the green wax that wraps Babybel Plant-Based is the same as the one used on our other Babybel products and is certified vegan. The wax is made from a blend of paraffin and microcrystalline waxes and colouring, which specifically contains no Bisphenol A.”
So there’s no need to worry – the cheese and wax is certified vegan! (Though I do think it’s a little weird the wax on the non-vegan cheese is also vegan)
Another good thing about the vegan pack is they’re comparable in price! A non-vegan pack of 6 Babybels are $4.77. By comparison, the vegan one came with 5 wheels and was $4.47.
It sucks we get one less, but since they’re still pretty new, who knows? If there’s enough demand for them, Babybel might decide to eventually add a bigger pack to their line up!
Go Max Go’s chocolates are closer to replicas of those famous big box, non-vegan bars. Mars, Snickers, Twix, etc. While Go Max Go doesn’t have too much variety – they only sell 9 different products – the ones that they do sell are great.
If you were around in 2018, you would know I’ve already done a Go Max Go review, so you may be confused.
That first review I did was only for 4 of their products, and I thought it was finally time to finish the line.
Truthfully, I’d been putting off trying their other chocolates, because, well… I’m not great at trying new things, especially if it’s something I don’t think I’ll like. But after receiving a free box of goodies after e-mailing their customer service, I knew the time had come to bite the bullet (pun intended) and finish the review.
While some of these new ones I liked about as much as I expected, there were also a few I was pleasantly surprised by!
Mahalo
This bar was a coconut flaked mash topped with whole almonds and wrapped in chocolate. Based on the description, I didn’t think I was going to like this one, but it was actually pretty good!
It had a nice light flavour, and though the entire inside was coconut flakes, strangely didn’t have an overly strong coconut flavour. The almonds were good, they tasted just as you’d expect an almond would. I don’t think they were roasted or anything, just a plain raw almond.
The chocolate coating wasn’t too thick, which was great because it didn’t overpower the rest of the flavours. This bar also wasn’t overtly sweet like the Twilight or Jokerz bar. While this bar isn’t my favourite out of the entire line (I’m partial to the Twilight, Jokerz and Cleo’s), it was pretty good! I’d definitely get it again if I wanted a nice, light chocolate.
A word of caution though: because of the flakes, this bar can get pretty messy, so if you choose to try it, make sure you have a napkin nearby!
Thumbs Up
This one I wouldn’t exactly call a ‘bar’ – it’s tube-shaped and consists of crunchy peanut butter wrapped in rice milk chocolate.
Even though the wrapper said it was crunchy, I was definitely not prepared for how crunchy it was! It was very hard to bite through – like the same amount of force it takes to bite through a raw carrot hard – and unfortunately, the flavour didn’t make up for that fact.
I’m not sure what type of peanut butter is used, but the middle of this thing did not taste like peanut butter to me. It tasted closer to a toffee or salted caramel or something than peanut butter. It was just sort of… crunchy sugar in chocolate.
This was one of the ones I thought I’d like, since I already enjoy their Cleo’s (which are peanut butter cups) I figured how bad could it be?
Turns out, worse than I was expecting.
I think using softer peanut butter would be better. Unless some people like working out their jaw when eating chocolate?
Major
This bar is one I knew I wasn’t going to like after reading the wrapper. The Major has “crisp, English toffee in a chocolatey coating”. While I don’t think it helped I tried this one right after the Thumbs Up, I wasn’t surprised that I didn’t like this one.
The toffee in this tasted exactly the same as the peanut butter in the Thumbs Up, and while the chocolate was good, it couldn’t save it.
Luckily, this bar was pretty thin – thinner than the Twilight, Jokerz and Mahalo – so it wasn’t so bad having to finish it.
2*Fer
Don’t let the name fool you, there’s only one bar in the wrapper. The name refers to the fact that this bar is a cookie topped with caramel in a chocolatey coating.
Because what’s better than just a straight up chocolate bar? A chocolate bar with a cookie in it!
This bar was also thinner than their other products, but I think if it was thicker, this bar wouldn’t work.
The cookie is semi-crunchy – not nearly as crunchy as the toffee or peanut butter from the last two products – and though it’s pretty plain tasting, it works well with the rest of the bar!
The caramel tastes the same as the one they use in the Twilight bar, not overly sweet, but stretchy and just the right amount of stick-to-your-teeth, and the chocolate tastes the same as well.
This one, I had my non-vegan friend try, and they said to them, this bar tasted like a dark chocolate version of Twix. I can’t deny nor confirm that as the last time I had a Twix I was still in grade school (dairy allergy), so take from that what you will.
All in all, I liked this bar and would definitely recommend you try it. However, like the Mahalo, make sure you have a napkin handy. The cookie on this puppy isn’t overly crunchy, but it’s still crumbly!
Snap!
The last of the Go Max Go chocolates I tried, the Snap! bar is a crisped rice in rice-milk chocolate bar. This bar surprisingly had a ‘light’ taste to it, and the rice was crispy, but not in a bad way.
It tasted like what I remember the Rice Krispies cereal tasting like, though I haven’t had that in over 8 years, so again, take from that what you will.
It also reminded me of these chocolate rabbits my mom used to get during Easter. I don’t know the brand, but I believe they were just called rice chocolate bunnies.
The rice in this bar is hard to explain, but I’m going to try. When you bit the rice, it would crunch, but then it would basically dissipate in your mouth, so it only took 1 bite to chew it.
The chocolate in this bar was definitely darker than the other ones in this list, but I think if they had used their not-dark chocolate it wouldn’t have worked as well as it does.
Because of the light, magically disappearing rice in this bar, it’s easy to eat it quickly. So if you want to savour the flavour, I’d recommend you consciously attempt to eat it slow, or just do yourself a favour and buy two of them.
I hope you enjoyed the second half of the Go Max Go chocolates review, and decide to try some this coming Valentine’s Day! (Or Halloween)
Have you tried any of the Go Max Go Food’s chocolates? Let me know your favourites below in the comments!
Hope you all had an amazing, relaxing holiday and are ready to get back into it. First article this year is this product review!
I’ve never heard of this brand before, but decided to go out on a limb and try their product. After all, I like pizza, so how bad could a calzone be?
I first tried these mini calzones on 22.12.14, and I was immediately surprised by how big they were. Considering they were supposed to be ‘mini’ they were a lot bigger than I thought they’d be. One calzone was roughly the same length as my hand (tip of middle finger to palm).
The box itself was relatively small, and 1 box also only came with six. This surprised me, because they were listed under the Appetizers section, and I naively assumed it would come with more, since when I hear ‘appetizer’ I immediately think of a party.
Don’t get me wrong, these would absolutely still work for a party, but you’d need more than one box. Or, you could cut the calzones into bite-sized pieces, but that might defeat the purpose of eating a calzone.
They also cooked a lot faster than the box recommended. Though my oven burns hotter than most, I was still surprised at just how fast these cooked. The boxes instructions say to cook them at 425 for 12-15min, or until golden. (And to flip halfway through)
I cooked them at 400 for 6min, then had to turn the oven down to 350 for the last 6min because the outsides were starting to look burnt. After the second 6min cooking time, I took them out and they were done! So if your oven tends to burn hotter like mine, I’d recommend doing 350 for the entire cooking time, unless you like calzones extra crispy.
Once they were cool enough to bite without burning my tongue, I went ahead and divided them between me and my non-vegan friend. (He agreed to help me out with product reviews when he was able to)
My first impression of the calzones was that they didn’t smell very ‘deep’ like regular pizza. It’s hard to explain, but if you’ve ever had pizza, it’s almost like you can smell every layer: the dough, sauce, cheese (or lack thereof) and toppings. These smelled more like… nothing.
I’m not sure if it’s because the dough was made out of cauliflower, or if it was a lacking of spice in the sauce, but when I held it up to my nose, it was almost like there was nothing there.
Which is very weird considering how many things were in it!
These calzones had: cauliflower crust, Beyond Meat Italian crumbles, vegan cheese, potatoes, bell pepper, peas, mushrooms, onions and more! Which is great for a food to have that many veggies in it.
But not so great for the taste.
Not that the taste was bad, but I definitely wouldn’t have said they were calzones. Calzones are supposed to taste like pizza, right? Just in a not-quite-pocket shape. These… didn’t. These calzones tasted closer to samosas, Perogies, or even a veggie Jamaican Patty.
They tasted like veggie soup in a wrapper, essentially. And speaking of the wrapper, neither me nor my friend could tell it was cauliflower dough. Even though the box proudly exclaimed it was made with a cauliflower crust, we couldn’t tell at all. In fact, if the box didn’t tell us it was cauliflower, we wouldn’t of guessed. It was that close to ‘real’ dough.
Though it’s clearly listed in the ingredients, you also couldn’t really taste nor see the vegan cheese. There were maybe 3 dots of white mozzarella. The inside of the calzones even looked more dry and crumbly than a calzone is supposed to.
And sure, you could argue that maybe that’s my oven’s fault for almost overcooking, but even if it did dry them out, the pizza flavour was still missing. My friend agreed. They were great! But neither of us would’ve labelled them as ‘calzones’.
So, the big question: should you try them?
If you like the taste of samosas, Perogies or veggie Jamaican patties, then yeah, absolutely!
But if you’re craving something pizza flavoured? I’d skip this one.
Like this review? Check out my Product Review page for more!
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!
Like this review? Check out more here! I post new reviews on the 13th of every month.
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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