This year my favourite craft show announced that they were doing a food show and I of course wondered if there were vegan vendors. Yes! Mad Faux Cheese. I was destined to meet Madison Conlin and her artisanal vegan cheeses but alas, timing and life made my meeting impossible. So in the meantime, I added Madison as an instagram friend and drooled over her amazing vegan recipe results and cheeses from afar.
I just had to try them. A nut cheese sounded awesome. This past week the lovely posted an offer for a trio of cheeses for thanksgiving. Here came my opportunity. I placed my order and drove into ottawa at 6 in the morning to arrive at vegan bakery extraordinaire, auntie loos to pick up this deliciousness.
Yesterday evening I set out all the "cheeses" with some plain old crackers and prepared to have my mind blown.
Little backstory regarding the taste testers. I use to love chèvre...until we became vegan and you find out how bad cheese is for your body and for les animeaux. My babes are picky eaters. Dips are usually a no go. It is terrible trying to get them to eat my homemade hummus and vegan cheese brands. My hubby cannot stand cheese and has not had cheese in a decade.
I put the board down and these guys just devoured it. My eldest babe avoids all vegan packaged products but she just went for it. The beautiful colours of the cheeses were so enticing. Cranberries in the lemon cranberry chèvre. Real basil and sundried tomats in a beautifully coloured cheese. A smoked Gouda. A creamy Brie. She dove in. The papa could not help himself and the taste reminded him of that real cheese taste but oh so cruelty free. There were not enough crackers to go around.
We were amazed. I vowed never to eat any other packaged faux cheese again. The papa agreed and a decision was made to make this a staple in our home.
Why is this faux cheese really so great?
1. You can pronounce every ingredient and it isn't soy based.
2. The presentation is awesome. I even cut out the labels and stuck them in the cheeses for a great display.
3. All picky eaters in my house jumped at the chance to eat this amazingness.
4. The cheese tastes similarly but better than real cheese... No joke.
As for the cheese favourites. We each had our own. We all loved all but I personally love the lemon cranberry for a bagel, as a dessert or on Melba toast. The eldest was all over the Brie. The papa loved the smoke Gouda, sharp but not overwhelming and the littlest big loved the sundried tomato.
Go on ahead and order this loveliness. Unfortunately only ottawans are lucky enough to taste this magic but please like Madison on Facebook at Mad Faux Cheese and on instagram with profile @madisonconlin. She had mega #veganfoodporn.
(Note: this is not a sponsored post. I have asked Madison about her cheeses and I paid for the amazingness and told her that I would do an honest review. I was lucky enough to get to sample all her choices as she added in one extra cheese as an added bonus, so not only does it taste amazing, she is a sweet mama too!)
