Are dairy-free cheeses as good as the real thing?

We put eight dairy-free cheeses (six oil-based and two nut products) to the taste test. Each cheese was blind tasted by 11 people and rated for appearance, taste and texture. We also included two dairy cheeses for comparison.

The taste test results

The dairy cheeses were clear favourites. All panellists (except the one vegan who didn’t taste these) said they’d buy again.

Of the rest, Sheese Vegan Strong Cheddar Style and Zenzo Dairy Free Vegan Cheddar got the most thumbs ups – although only four tasters said they’d buy again. The texture of Sheese was “almost like cheese” and it had a creamy mouthfeel. But our volunteers didn’t like its aftertaste and one thought it too sweet. Zenzo was “pleasant and smooth”, but was “a bit powdery in the mouth”.

The Alternative Dairy Co Cheddar Style Block didn’t get any likes. It was the cheapest in our tasting and our panel thought it was fake food – “a bit like an eraser” and it “breaks like perished rubber”. Green Vie didn’t fare much better – its highlighter-orange colour put people off and it was described as “bland”.

The Savour and Terra nut-based cheeses also didn’t tickle tastebuds – both only got two thumbs up. Nut cheeses have a different texture and can be easily spread.

The dairy-free options provoked strong reactions from some panellists. Comments included “get me out of this hell” and “the worst thing I’ve eaten in weeks” from two meat-eating males. On the other hand, our vegan panellist said “yummo, now I’ve got two new cheeses to add to the shopping list”. A regular consumer of these cheeses, she commented, “while the flavour of some vegan cheeses on their own isn’t ideal, in cooking the melt or texture may be what you’re after. Plus the flavour is disguised by other ingredients”.

GUIDE TO THE TABLE PRICE is based on what we paid in August 2019. RATING Thumbs up the number of tasters who would buy this cheese again. Thumbs down the number of tasters who would not buy this cheese again.

What’s in them?

Most dairy-free cheeses are oil-based (usually coconut oil) combined with a starch, such as potato or maize. Some also have lengthy ingredients lists. For example, Vegusto No-Muh Mild Aromatic contains water, potato starch, coconut and sunflower oil, fruit juice, potato starch, rice flour … the list goes on. Dairy cheese, on the other hand, just contains milk, salt cultures and enzymes. The nut cheeses we tasted had fewer ingredients. Savour contained 95% cashews, Terra had 79%.

Like dairy cheese, most oil and nut cheeses are high in saturated fat and sodium. Nut cheeses have comparable protein to dairy but oil-based ones are low in this nutrient. Dairy cheese also contains calcium, which you won’t find in oil-based options.

Price and origin

Dairy-free cheese hits you in the pocket – the products we tasted ranged from $3.50 to $12.50 per 100g. In comparison, we paid $1.50 per 100g for the Mainland product in our tasting.

Only four products we tasted were made in New Zealand. The others came from Brazil, Greece, Scotland and Switzerland.