The Best Vegan Cheese for Beginners
Where to Start (and What to Try First)
If you've ever picked up a vegan cheese in a supermarket, taken it home, and felt quietly disappointed... you're not alone. Because not all vegan cheese is created equal, and where you start really matters. We're La Fauxmagerie, the UK's first plant-based cheesemonger, and helping people fall back in love with cheese is what we do. So here's our honest, experience-led guide to getting started.
First, a Word of Reassurance
Vegan cheese has a reputation problem, largely inherited from the early days when the options were, to be candid, not very good. Rubbery textures, odd aftertastes, an unsettling whiff of coconut. If that's your frame of reference, it's worth knowing that the category has moved on enormously.
Artisan plant-based cheese, made with quality ingredients, proper fermentation, and real craft, can be extraordinary. The trick is knowing what to reach for and what to pair it with.
Don't Start with a Like-for-Like Swap
The most common beginner mistake is picking up a vegan cheddar block and expecting it to taste exactly like dairy cheddar. It probably won't - but that's okay.
Plant-based cheese has its own flavour profiles, its own strengths, and its own pleasures. The sooner you approach it with curiosity rather than total comparison, the sooner you'll find things you genuinely love.
Start with Something Soft and Cultured
If you're new to vegan cheese, soft and spreadable is the most forgiving place to begin. Cashew-based cultured cheeses — fermented for tang, smooth in texture — are enormously satisfying on a good cracker or draped over warm sourdough.
Our Camden Cultured Classic is a brilliant starting point: savoury, sophisticated, and complex without being challenging. It belongs on any fine cheeseboard, and it pairs beautifully with a sweet onion chutney and a glass of fizz. If you want to ease yourself in gently, this is the one.
Ready for More Flavour? Try Something Smoky
Once you've got your bearings, smoky vegan cheeses are a wonderful next step. They tend to be bold without being polarising, and the smokiness gives you something to hold onto... a flavour anchor that makes the whole experience feel more familiar and satisfying.
Our Shoreditch Smoked is slowly matured with real applewood smoke, producing a rich, fireside warmth that lingers. Pair it with a sharp chutney and good crusty bread, and it becomes a genuinely special thing.
The Beginner's Guide to Vegan Blue
Blue cheese is the one beginners most often skip, and we'd gently argue it shouldn't be. A well-made vegan blue can be extraordinary: pungent, complex, and properly rewarding in a way that cheaper, milder options simply aren't.
The key is to serve it right. Room temperature and paired with something sweet to balance the funk: caperberries and a jammy apple preserve work beautifully. Our Brixton Blue is a proper, brooding blue, matured slowly for real character. It's not trying to win over the sceptical - it's confident enough not to need to.
If you'd prefer to start with something a little gentler, our Balham Blue offers the same piquancy but with a mellow, sweet depth from a sweet potato base. Lovely with walnuts and a drizzle of something sweet over warm sourdough.
What Makes a Good Vegan Cheese? What to Look For
When you're shopping, a few things are worth bearing in mind:
Ingredients: prioritise simple lists. Look for nut bases (cashews and almonds are ideal), live cultures, and minimal additives.
Fermentation: the tangy, complex flavour that makes cheese so satisfying comes from fermentation. Artisan cheeses that are cultured properly will always outperform those that aren't.
Age: like dairy cheese, time matters. A slowly matured vegan blue or aged cashew cheese develops layers of flavour that a fresh, un-aged product simply can't replicate.
Start with a Selection
The very best way to find your feet with vegan cheese is to try several styles at once - just as you would at a proper cheesemonger. A good selection lets you understand what you're drawn to: do you prefer something creamy and mild, or bold and pungent? Smoky or fresh? Spreadable or sliceable?
Our range is designed with exactly this in mind. Whether you're building your first plant-based cheeseboard or looking for the thing that will finally convert a sceptical friend, we'd love to help you find your starting point.
One Last Thing
Give it time. The best vegan cheeses reward a little patience... both in how they're made and in how you approach them. The people who say they'd never give up dairy cheese are often the same people who, six months later, can't imagine going back.
Fall in love with cheese all over again. We'll be here when you're ready.
