We've gone (off) nuts! We're gradually removing them from all of our recipes whilst ensuring that the taste, texture and mouthfeel of our plant-based cheeses are improved - to bring you alternatives to dairy that are seriously (and honestly) tasty whilst kinder to the planet too.
Removing nuts reduces the cost of ingredients (a saving reflected by the price, it's our most affordable vegan cheese to date) and importantly, it lessens our impact on the planet by lowering our carbon emissions. Nuts are super carbon intensive, and after months of work with My Emissions we were able to easily recognise the impact that removing them would have. So we set to work!
When we created our Herbi we had a very well known and much-loved gournay style cheese in mind - our plant-based Garlic & Herb replaces that with many improvements and a further likeness achieved through employing new techniques and using different ingredients.
This marks our first step towards become allergen free, with an artisan nut free cheese (recipes for our other cheeses are currently in development, so nuts are still handled on site and in the supply chain - meaning that for the time being, none are suitable for those with a nut allergy) but it's the direction of travel we're heading in - to make more accessible, more affordable and more delicious cheese than ever. We've also improved the shelf life, and next week we should have certification to add a two month use-by date (we'll continue testing with the new product, to increase our understanding of it's shelf life too).
What makes it tastes so good?
The aromatics play a huge part - we all remember that garlicky, buttery lingering taste. And the way that we've managed to balance salt, fat and acid.... the way we've been able to marry these up during the creation process, plays a significant role . We trialled different cultures and compositions and after a lot of taste-testing we settled on something that helps achieve a delicious mouthfeel and taste! We're so excited for you to try it.
How did you achieve the texture?
If you're familiar with dairy cheese, you'll know about casein. It plays a huge part in making dairy cheese, and is largely responsible for the key characteristics that a lot of vegan cheeses find tricky to emulate... it's where a starch structure comes in. We wanted to recreate something hard to distinguish from the dairy cheese it's styled on... a little crumbly but deliciously smooth to taste - it really is all about the starch content! We worked hard to achieve the perfect ratio of starch against fats (key to finding the right balance, and making sure that the emulsification binds together in a way that makes it possible to achieve different textures and mouthfeel at different temperatures e.g. whether it's straight out of the fridge and squished on a cracker, swirled into a sauce or melted onto a pizza (shout out to Purezza for helping us find that out!)).
Can't wait to hear what you think!