The Guardian Conducts Massive Vegan Taste Test

Prompted by a recent survey that revealed the vegan population of the United Kingdom has grown by 360 percent, staffers at media outlet The Guardian taste-tested a wide variety of British vegan products. According to writer Susan Smillie, “Having a plant-based diet isn’t as difficult—or joyless—as the old jokes imply.” Smillie tasked three staffers—20-year vegan Jill Wooster, six-month vegan Saoirse Christopherson, and one-week vegan Felicity Cloake—to taste a wide variety of vegan items from meat and cheese alternatives such as Linda McCartney’s burgers and Amy’s Kitchen Mac and Cheese to dairy-free sweets like Sainsbury’s ice cream and Coyo coconut milk yogurt. After sampling Vegenaise, new vegan Cloake said, “I can’t stand jarred mayonnaise, normally. I’d buy this, though. It’s nice and light and not too vinegary.” While some products fared better than others, Smillie noted that vegan products were once a “grim and limited sector [but are now] improving in range and quality, and some actually trumped the animal-derived originals.”

Photo courtesy of Jill Mead for The Guardian