18. Applewood Vegan Block
Applewood has recently updated its vegan cheese recipe, making small changes to the ingredients. I’d been hoarding a pack of the old recipe cheese, so I felt the time was right to crack it out and compare the two.
The new recipe is formulated with less fat, but also offers less protein and contains more carbohydrate, from a higher amount of starch in the recipe.
The new recipe also offers significantly less calcium, with 74 mg per 100 g of the new cheese compared with 282 mg per 100 g in the old Applewood recipe.
I thought the old recipe offered a perfect smoky flavour and aroma. I was always impressed with how much like ‘real’ Applewood it tasted – especially the first iteration of this product with the paprika coating.
When melted, the new recipe tastes salty, with a slight chemical aftertaste. Cold, it seems very bland, and what flavour there is is falling more on the side of salty than smoky.
The new recipe does smell smoky. It’s a fainter aroma than the old recipe, but very similar. This aroma just doesn’t come through on the palate at all.
Despite the line on pack stating it’s ‘worth the wait’, I actually found Applewood’s new recipe cheese melted surprisingly quickly.
Once melted, it became an oily, liquid-like substance that was nothing like the glossy, thick, stretchy Vegan Applewood I’d tried before. It looked in danger of sliding off the toast at any moment!
When eaten, the melted Applewood was much more sticky and claggy than the old recipe was, and I had to work to unstick it from my teeth after every mouthful.
When it’s not melted, the new recipe is softer and more crumbly. This might be more ‘authentic’ to cow’s cheese, but I tend to prefer a denser, more obviously ‘not dairy’ texture to my cheddar-style cheese.
The new texture may be a result of Applewood’s removal of the thickening agent carrageenan from the recipe, which is a positive move for those who avoid carrageenan for digestive health purposes.
The new Applewood recipe isn’t a bad vegan cheese. In truth, it’s pretty good when the price is right, especially if it’s to be eaten alongside stronger flavours in burgers, pasta dishes, or similar.
And it’s easily available in most UK supermarkets, so it’s a convenient, accessible option for many.
But I’ll certainly be savouring every morsel of the half a block of old Applewood cheese I have left, and hoping it one day makes its return.
Taste: 2/10 | Aroma: 5/10 | Texture: 4/10 | Overall score: 4/10 | Taste tester: Helen
Applewood Vegan is available from most major supermarkets, RRP £2.40