This is a review of the Violife Epic Mature Cheddar vegan cheese. .
This cheese is made from Water, Coconut Oil, Modified Starch, Starch, Sea Salt, Sunflower Kernel Grounded, mature Cheddar Flavour, Acidity Regulator: Lactic Acid, Olive Extract, Colour: B- Carotene, Vitamin B12.
This is a review of the Violife Epic Mature Cheddar vegan cheese. .
This cheese is made from Water, Coconut Oil, Modified Starch, Starch, Sea Salt, Sunflower Kernel Grounded, mature Cheddar Flavour, Acidity Regulator: Lactic Acid, Olive Extract, Colour: B- Carotene, Vitamin B12.
Appearance
The Violife Extra Mature vegan cheese appears very similar to a dairy cheddar cheese. You can really see that a lot of thought has gone into making this appeal to the mass market of people looking for a cheddar alternative.
This is a semi-hard block of vegan cheese.
It has the classic yellow-white tone of a mature cheddar cheese, yet it's vegan, amazing!
Here you can see it being grated, it grates just like dairy cheddar cheese as you can see below.
Aroma
The smell of the Violife Extra mature is that of a cheddar like aroma, subtle.
It is quite strange really for it to seem that way yet not have any dairy what so ever in it.
Apart from that there are no other aromas that burst out at you, considering it's called EPIC, you'd expect it to be a bit more pungent.
Flavour
This vegan cheese tastes particularly mourish and this is where it begins to get epic.
It is a little salty and a little creamy with that cheddar taste to it, that melt in your mouth creamy cheddar goodness.
We absolute love it's taste and it's one of the best tasting vegan cheddar cheeses we have ever had.
There is no coconut taste, no nutty taste, just mourish cheddar.
and here we added it to a simple ciabatta pizza with olives, peppers and mushrooms. It pairs well with this combination and you can still get that cheddar creamyness come through after the pizza was cooked.
Texture
The Extra Mature from Violife has a solid texture that is slightly rubbery but if you rub it between your fingers you'll feel chalkyness and the rubber feeling will melt between your fingers leaving a paste.
This is a vegan cheese that grates really well and you can see the cheese reform as it melts.
Longevity
Comes in a sealed wrapper that if unbroken can be kept in the fridge for a few months. Once opened will last a few days. We managed to get through it in less than 24 hours, so we had no issues there.
The cheese can be frozen, but we didn't test this out, as soon as we had it, we were putting it through its paces for this review.
Ease of Purchase
The Violife extra mature cheddar vegan cheese was purchased from our local vegan health food store. It can be bought in your local supermarket in the UK and a handful of vegan food stores on the internet.
We've added a link to the bottom of this review showing where you can find it.
Environmental Credentials
Violife is not an entirely vegan company, as they are owned by Unilever who are not vegan.
The packaging is also single use and non-recyclable in our country which is a shame, there are other vegan cheeses out there that have better packaging for the environment, violife is not one of them.
Summary
This is a vegan cheese that can easily become a family stape in a household.
Its similarity to what many people know as 'cheese' means this Extra Mature from Violife ticks all those boxes.
And if you're looking at going vegan and want to find a vegan cheese to replace your cheddar staple, this could be the one.