‘Tis the season to brie VEGAN? MailOnline tests plant-based Christmas cheeses – so, do they stack up against their dairy counterparts?

• Honesty Tasty wants to prove ‘mouth-watering plant-based cheese is possible’ 
• MailOnline tries three of its ‘cheeses’ including Shamembert and Pretenslydale

For millions of Brits, no Christmas Day feast would be complete without a festive board of delicious cheeses. 

But as it gets harder to ignore the carbon footprint of animal products like meat and dairy, many are trying to give eco-friendly alternatives a go. 

There are numerous food start-ups with plant-based products that attempt to mimic the real thing. 

One example is London-based firm Honestly Tasty, which wants to prove to ‘vegans and non-vegans alike’ that ‘mouth-watering plant-based cheese is possible’. 

Three of its products are named in honour of the animal equivalents – Shamembert, Pretenslydale and Good-A – but are they any good? MailOnline finds out.  

Honestly Tasty is a London-based food company that wants to ‘redefine cheese for vegans and non-vegans alike’ 

MailOnline tried three cheeses from the company – Shamembert (top left), Pretenslydale (top right) and Smoked Good-A (bottom) 

READ MORE Becoming a ‘halfway vegan’ could curb climate change

You can do your bit for the planet by swapping half your meat and dairy products

Honestly Tasty’s ‘cheeses’ are made out of a variety of vegan ingredients including water, salt, coconut oil, potato starch and lecithin (fats found in plant tissue). 

They range in price from £4.29 to £8, but customers can also buy festive hampers containing multiple cheeses starting from £45. 

MailOnline started with the Pretenslydale, which is loosely modelled on Wallace and Gromit’s favourite – the light and crumbly Wensleydale that hails from North Yorkshire. 

Although it looks a bit like a bar of soap you get from the Body Shop, Pretenslydale is stuffed with cranberries which gives it a pale pink colour and a pleasant fruity scent. 

Rather than crumbling like Wensleydale, its consistency is more similar to a pate – although this did make it easier to spread it on a cracker. 

Taste wise, it reminded me of those pink Mini Milk ice lollies I used to have as a kid, but with an added sour tang that likely  comes from the added ‘citrus fibre’. 

The overall effect was not unpleasant, but I can’t imagine Wallace travelling to the moon to get his hands on some. 

Although it looks a bit like a bar of soap you get from the Body Shop, Pretenslydale is stuffed with cranberries which gives it a pale pink colour and a pleasant fruity scent

Honestly Tasty’s ‘cheeses’ are made out of a variety of vegan ingredients including water, salt, coconut oil, potato starch and lecithin (fats found in plant tissue)

READ MORE MailOnline tests soft plant-based ‘cheeses’

One is similar to a trendy Italian burrata

Next up, a small wheel of Shamembert, Honestly Tasty’s version of the creamy French cheese Camembert – and certainly a staple of my Christmas cheese board every year. 

Shamembert has a really impressive ‘rind’ around it, complete with lines of wrinkles, which to the touch even felt remarkably like Camembert – like a damp sock. 

Based on this, I think many discerning cheese connoisseurs would be unable to tell it apart from the real thing – until, that is, they were to cut into it. 

Rather than the nice gooey yellow inside that Camembert is known and loved for, to me Shamembert’s innards looked a bit sad and grey – almost like paste. 

Biting into it, all I could taste was a big burst of salt, which may be in part due to the presence of carrageenan – a natural additive from red seaweed – in the ingredients. 

Perhaps I’d fare better with Smoked Good-A, the company’s tribute to Gouda, the creamy hard cheese from the Netherlands. 

Shamembert certainly looked great – right down to the lines of wrinkles in the cheese ‘rind’ 

I think many discerning cheese connoisseurs would be unable to tell it apart from the real thing – until, that is, they were to cut into it

Rather than the nice gooey yellow inside that Camembert is known and loved for, Shamembert’s innards were slightly grey-tinted 

Smoked gouda has to be one of the tastiest food experiences known to man, so it would take something special to match it. 

Giving the ghostly-white block a big sniff, the smokey aroma was unmistakable so I had high hopes as it went into my mouth. 

Good-A was easily the best of the three, largely because the smoke flavour carried through, and its consistency matched that of a genuine hard cheese. 

Surely for any vegan, I think this would grate well onto a Boxing Day cheese toastie with any leftover fake turkey.  

But, will Honestly Tasty’s products take up space on my festive cheese board this year? The honest answer is probably not. 

Pictured: Smoked Good-A. Giving the ghostly-white block a big sniff, the smokey aroma was unmistakable

I’m well aware that livestock – namely cows, sheep and goats that need to be milked for cheese production – release huge amounts of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, contributing to global warming. 

I know that cheese and meat have the highest carbon footprints, along with other animal products such as eggs and yoghurt. 

But I’m also a die hard cheese lover – and if any time of the year is time to indulge, it’s Christmas. 

Herein lies the problem – until we get to the point where the low-emission imitators like this are as good as the real thing, we’re fuelling a climate crisis. 

To offset my emissions, I’d rather substitute any other part of the Christmas feast for a vegan option, whether it be the turkey or even the pigs in blankets.

Just please don’t take my Camembert away from me. 

Vegan cheese has ‘little nutritional value’ and eating too much may raise risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease, expert says 

For many people, the hardest things about going vegan is giving up cheese.

Food manufacturers have desperately tried to recreate the creamy taste and moist texture – without the dairy. 

But as well as not tasting like the real thing, vegan cheeses are also worse for your health, according to an expert.  

But nutritionist warned vegan versions of dairy products raise risk of heart disease and diabetes

Plant-based substitutes allegedly have ‘little nutritional value’ and contain far more bad fats than the original.

Those eating vegan cheese may also miss out on the nutritional benefits of dairy cheese, which naturally contains protein, calcium, iodine, vitamin B12 and vitamin D. 

Read more 

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