by Danny Cohen and Marc Bernstein

Sure, there are plenty of people who have been vegan longer than we have, and then there are plenty of people who are older than we are and have not been vegan for as long or as much a percentage of their lives. At the time of the writing of this article, I, Danny, have been vegan now for 41% of my life. And, I, Marc, have been vegan for 27% of my life. We are just kids, but are active and committed leaders of Veg Kids. We are both totally vegan and have been for the last number of years. We met each other at Vegan Camp and have been good friends ever since.

The newest thing we have done together is start the Vegan Cheese group on Facebook. We wanted a place where we could share with each other and others about the bountiful new vegan cheese options. While our lives have not been that long yet, we both have been so excited about all of the new vegan cheeses that have recently been coming out. When we first went vegan, we had thought that we were just going to do without anything like the cheeses we had loved. We were willing to give them up, because it was the right thing to do. Now, though, we are just so excited about all of the new vegan cheese choices. Yum!

On the Vegan Cheese group, we have listed the following as the variety of companies making and selling vegan cheeses and we are sorry if there are any that we have missed (but please message us and we will be glad to add them): Avellana, Beyond Better, Blode Kuh, Chao, Cheezly, Daiya, Dr. Cow, Earth Balance, Follow Your Heart, Free and Easy, Galaxy, Go Veggie, Heidi Ho, Johanna’s, Kite Hill, Leahey, Miyoko’s Kitchen, Nacheez, Nacho Mom’s, Nary Dairy, Parma, Parma Zaan, Parmela, Punk Rawk Labs, Road’s End Organics, Sheeze, St. Martaen, Sun Artisan, Teese, Tofutti, Trader Joe’s, Treeline, Veeta, Veg Chefs, Veg Cuisine, Vio Life, Virgin Cheese, Vromage, Vtopian, Wayfare, and Wilmersburger. That’s over forty different vegan cheese companies so far. That’s amazing.

Now, we unfortunately can not claim to have tried every one of them. But, on the vegan cheese group people can talk about all of them. People can share enthusiastically what they like and respectfully what they don’t. They can also share recipes for making their own vegan cheeses.

Some of these companies are actually not even totally unique. Some of them use the same or almost the same cheeses. We don’t know for sure but it seems to us that some of them may have bought Miyoko’s book, Artisan Vegan Cheese,” and copied or modified her recipes. How wonderful that she wrote her book and put it out there for others to learn from. We have been told that she is the “Queen of Vegan Cheese.” Her cheeses are pretty amazing. We’ve found that her cheeses are kind of more sophisticated and more to the liking of adults who want wine and cheese kind of parties.

Our favorites are cheeses like those from Chao, Daiya, Follow Your Heart (their newer ones), and Vio Life. But, did you know that Chao, Follow Your Heart, and Vio Life are pretty much all the same as each other? Vio Life is a company from Greece and Chao and Follow Your Heart are getting their new cheese slices from them. They may be using some different flavors and a little different formulas, but they are basically the same and made by Vio Life. It is kind of funny to watch people comment about how they like one and not the other when they are so much the same. We really like all of these cheeses. Their texture and consistency is really good. We do like the flavor of Daiya’s cheddar and provolone better than the others, but their consistency and texture are not as good. We also love that Daiya makes a Swiss which none of the other have yet, but we want more holes!

The whole variety makes us happy in cheese heaven. Our favorite for melting for pizza and other Italian dishes is Daiya. Our favorite for sandwiches is Chao, Follow Your Heart, and Vio Life. Our favorites for crackers are St. Martaen and Daiya. Our favorite macaroni and cheese are the new ones from Daiya. Our favorite cheesecake is from No Udder Desserts vegan bakery in Los Angeles who uses Tofutti cream cheese. Our favorite for nachos is definitely Teese.

And we are not teasing. We are so excited that there are so so many vegan cheeses now. That’s why we started the Vegan Cheese group on Facebook. Anyone on Facebook can join the group and share their vegan cheese favorites, recipes, experiences, etc. We hope we are not being too cheesey, but we want you all to smile and say “cheese” and enjoy these many vegan cheeses.

Danny and Marc are 12 and 11 years old respectively and are active participants and leaders of Veg Kids based in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles.