We have just announced this years vegan cheese awards for 2024 and what an amazing array of vegan cheeses on offer.
We have just announced this years vegan cheese awards for 2024 and what an amazing array of vegan cheeses on offer.
In this article we will look a bit deeper in to the category winner of the best aged vegan cheese for 2024 which was Muka Aged Porcini from Portugal.
Semi-aged cheese with a touch of porcini mushrooms. Aged for four weeks, it has a genuine and characterful cheesy aroma.
Perfect to combine with crackers, a good sourdough bread or added to salads and pastas.
This amazing looking cheese comes all the way from Portugal in Western Europe and is aged for over four weeks.
It has a simple ingredients profile, consisting of just Cashew nut*, filtered water, boletus mushroom, sea salt, vegan fermentation cultures* and thats it.
You can buy the Muka Aged Porcini here on the Muka website if you are in Europe.
Here you can see a closer look at this beautiful vegan cheese.
Like many other vegan cheeses around the world made by incredible artisanal vegan cheese makers, its a vegan cheese made from cashew nuts as it's base ingredient.
What is Aged Vegan Cheese
Just like the dairy equivalent, without the animal abuse, vegan cheeses are fermented and matured over a period of time, from a few weeks to many months which will help them develop more complex flavours and textures.
This action of leaving them in a controlled environment is the ageing process and Mukas Aged Porcini has been aged for around a month.
You can find aged vegan cheeses in our database of vegan cheese.
Portugeuse Vegan Cheese
Muka are a small brand that are from and based in Portugal, and if you are interested in seeing what other vegan cheeses are available in this beautiful country you can see all vegan cheeses available in Portugal here.
There are well over 100 vegan cheeses available to buy and try in Portugal at the time of writing and Muka have a total of 8 vegan cheeses available in their range, you can see the entire Muka vegan cheese range here.
Who Are Muka Vegan Cheese
A little bit about Muka:
I'm Teresa and I started Muka in the middle of the pandemic because I thought it was urgent to have quality vegetable cheese so that people could have a diet with less environmental impact and healthier.
After five years working on the lands of her majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, sitting in an office, I decided to make a different living. The decision took place on a rare day when the sun did not rise, to the surprise of those involved. I convinced Manel (my husband) that agap yearwasn't just for teenagers, we sold our belongings and prepared our bags, with the aim of crossing the entire American continent (since Patagonia to Alaska) by land and water, hitchhiking.
A year of adventures passed until a virus changed everything. We were still in Colombia, halfway through the journey, and we ended up deciding to return to our homeland for a few months, until the dust settled, and then return to the trip.
Confined at home, I got to work and created a small fermentation and experiment laboratory, from bread to beer and vegetable cheese.
MUKA stands for “green change”, a change we believe is essential to addressing the environmental and ethical challenges of today. Convinced that human beings, animals and nature can live in harmony, we decided to combine this conviction with our passion for cooking and the art of fermentation.
“Vegetable cheeses” were products made from oils, starches and aromas that, in addition to being harmful to our health, did not make reference to the affective memory we had of the “cheese” flavor, obtained through fermentation and time. .
We believed we could do better. Muka is the result of several homemade experiments that quickly became successful among family and friends. A simple and healthy vegetable alternative that aims to satisfy the palates of all those who wish to explore new flavors.
Tasty and healthy vegan alternatives
We find the best nuts, add water, salt and fermentation cultures (aka probiotics) and let them ferment and cure for several weeks or months. All of our cheeses are produced by hand, in small batches.
Inspired by traditional cheesemaking, we follow artisanal and ancient cheese production methods and use only organic ingredients.
What an absolutely fascinating intro to the brand Muka, like many other artisanals making incredible vegan cheese, they wanted to make the world a better place whilst improving upon the vegan cheeses already available in the early 2000's.
Commendable, ambitious and a worthwhile cause to try and make the world a little better through great tasting food.
And don't forget you can buy the Muka Aged Porcini here on the Muka website if you are in Europe.
Buy Muka In Stores In Portugal
If you are a resident of Portugal or thinking of heading there on holiday this winter or spring, you can head in to over 70 stores nationwide in Portugal and buy their amazing vegan cheeses.
Go here to find which stores sell Muka vegan cheese.
And here you can see the stockists on a map which the link above will send you to.
