Planting a Seed

An honest review from our resident Vegan

Sheese Vegan Cheese  

Sheese Vegan Cheese Review

Texture: 9/10

Appearance: 10/10

Taste: 9/10 (overall, varies on flavor)

Quality: 8.5/10

Cheddar Style with Jalapeño and Chili

Mature Cheddar Style

Greek Style

Wensleydale Style with Cranberries

English Style Blue 

Finding a vegan cheese is definitely never easy because something is always just off about it— the texture, the melty-ness (or lack thereof), the taste, you name it. Honestly, one of the reasons I decided to go vegan many years ago was the fact that I am lactose intolerant, and, way back in my day, there weren’t really any vegan cheeses on the market. Recently, we’ve seen a huge boom in vegan products and, with it, came cheese. That being said, which one is the “head cheese,” if you will? Sheese vegan cheese was pleasantly surprising and delicious!

I have tried, and dealt with, almost every brand and type of vegan cheese out there; I’ve even made my own cheese from scratch, so, when it comes to vegan cheese, I’m a bit of an expert at this point. I tried a numerous amount of flavors from the Sheese brand, and I’ll break down a review on each one.

Cheddar Style with Jalapeño and Chili: 

Easily, this was my favorite flavor. I’m a complete sucker for anything spicy and throw it in a vegan cheese, and you’ve got me hook, line, and sinker. I first tried it cold out of the package, and it was pretty tasty, but I was slightly disappointed in the fact that it was not spicy whatsoever. It was flavorful, yes, you could taste the jalapeño and chili, but it wasn’t spicy. I’m not sure if it was meant to just have the taste of the peppers without the bite, but I found that slightly disheartening. 

The texture of it cold was remarkably similar to that of “normal” cheese. It wasn’t gluey or tacky like some vegan cheeses can be, and it didn’t have that weird, almost rubbery texture that I’ve come to know. I wanted to see how it would do melted, so I threw it on a tortilla chip in the microwave and I was shocked to see that it actually did melt! Having found that out, I decided to make nachos with it, and it was perfect. When I say that it melts, yes, it does, but it doesn’t spread like real cheese does. It melts wherever you place it, so, for nachos, you kinda have areas of either cheese or no cheese.  

Tastewise 9.5/10 

Mature Cheddar Style:

This one was another favorite of mine— but, it’s cheddar, so how could it not be? Unlike the jalapeño cheddar, this one was much milder. It says “mature” on the label, so I assumed that maybe meant the same as calling it a “sharp cheddar,” but I definitely wouldn’t go as far as to say that. Again, it’s a mild taste, albeit good, but nothing that jumps out at you or makes you really surprised. The texture was the same as the jalapeño cheddar, so, overall, great texture and nice taste. 

Here’s a warning; if you plan on melting this, you need to realize that you cannot treat this like normal cheese! After I saw how nicely the jalapeño cheddar melted in a chunk in the microwave, I immediately decided to grate this cheddar onto a pizza I was making. I know what you’re thinking… cheddar on pizza? But I didn’t have mozzarella to try, ok? Anyway, I used a cheese grater and covered my pizza with cheese and stuck it in the oven. When it’s grated so fine like that, it does not melt! It basically turned into a hardened cheese shell on top of a pizza crust. I was pretty disappointed, and the taste basically disappeared at that point, so it wasn’t even worth it to have it on the pizza in the first place. That’s why, when I was making the nachos, I cut the cheese into big chunks and just plopped it onto the chips instead of trying to shred and spread it around.

Tastewise: 8.5/10

Greek Style:

This one fooled some of my friends! I was making “normal” and “not normal” cheese boards for a get-together, and I didn’t tell people which ones were vegan and which ones were not. I saw people continually going for the greek style cheese and not thinking anything of it. When I told them it was vegan, they then claimed they could tell that it wasn’t cheese. I’m not sure if I 100% believe that, but, just like the other kinds of Sheese, it’s extremely tame as far as taste goes.

When I think of “greek style” I think of feta— somewhat tangy, maybe citrusy, sharp— but that’s not what this cheese was. Again, I like the flavor, it’s good, but it wasn’t “Greek.” Basically, to me, it was just a nice semi-soft vegan cheese without any gusto. If you ate it on a salad, it would be a nice mild addition, but eating it on a flavored cracker and it falls by the wayside. It’s extremely hard for me to rate these, because I do think they taste good, but I don’t really have the real thing to compare it to— I don’t think I’ve ever really eaten “Greek” cheese, honestly. 

Tastewise: 8/10

Wensleydale Style with Cranberries:

Huh? Yeah, that’s what I thought too. I have to admit, anything with dried fruit, (especially something so stodgy as a raisin or cranberry) has me immediately “noping” the situation. I dislike dried fruits, and I really don’t care for cranberry anything. I’m not even sure what Wensleydale style is? Call me naive, but since I had zero clue as to what this cheese was attempting to be, I decided to just eat it straight up on a cracker and see how it goes.

Wow, was I wrong! I don’t like cranberries like I said before, but this was so good! I kept putting it off because I was nervous I’d hate it, but I really enjoyed it!

Tastewise: 9/10

English Style Blue:

Ok, back to something I know! This was the last flavor of Sheese cheese that I tried. Again, like most of the other flavors, it was pretty mild, but very tasty. There’s something about a Blue cheese that isn’t quite up my ally, so I would say this one was my least favorite, but I did really like it!

Tastewise: 8/10

Lindsay Zubay

Rest assured this is not only vegan cheese but a vegan burger.