Product Comparison: Daiya Mozzarella Shreds vs. Go Veggie! Vegan Mozzarella Shreds

I recently received a box of Go Veggie!’s entire vegan line of alterna-cheese products to test out (thank you Go Veggie!).  This is a brand my local grocery carries, but they only have the Lactose free line (it has been my experience that unlike gluten intolerance, the average person has never heard of casein intolerance and they assume that a dairy allergy is lactose intolerance–not the same thing, peeps), so I was eager to give these a try, as I feel like if Kroger carries one, they might be willing to start carrying the other.  Over the next few weeks, I’ll be trying all of them, but for now, we’re starting with the mozzarella shreds.

We had pizza for dinner tonight, which gives a great opportunity for a head to head comparison of my usual Daiya mozzarella shreds vs. these Go Veggie shreds vs. the real cheese at my hubby’s end of the pizza.  Here you can see what all three look like before going into the oven.  Straight out of the bag, you can see that the Go Veggie! looks a bit more like thick shredded mozzarella than the Daiya.

Now, let’s look at this OUT of the oven.  Right off the bat I was SHOCKED that the Go Veggie! shreds MELTED LIKE REAL CHEESE.  I mean, look at that!  It CONFORMED TO THE PIZZA TOPPINGS (chicken and bacon, in case you were wondering).  It even oozed off the side.  In fact, it melted a little bit more than regular cheese, but I can deal with that.  The Daiya, by contrast, still looks much as it did when it went in the oven.  Now one of the weird things about Daiya is that when it heats, the inside liquefies, so as soon as the surface tension of the outside of the cheese is broken, you get this glorious, creamy texture.  So when you EAT Daiya on pizza, it’s all melty in your mouth.  Just not for your eyes.

Now, finally, let’s talk about taste.  I really enjoyed both of these mozzarella shreds.  Taste wise, I don’t think they were too terribly different.  If blindfolded, I don’t know if I’d know which was which by taste alone–at least not in this dish where there are a lot of other flavors competing.  So, since at least part of eating is a visual experience, for pizza, I’m actually going to call the Go Veggie! Mozzarella shreds the winner.  I could have a pizza with this and looking at it never know I wasn’t eating real cheese.  Anything that makes me feel like less of a freak with this dairy allergy is a real winner for me.
 

This steel magnolia is the poster child for successfully Doing All the Things, smart phone in one hand, sword in the other. Author of action-packed PR/UF for adults and teens. You can catch up with her at Pots and Plots, her blog, Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads.