Grocery Outlet Ethical Bargains

I consider it a personal mission to seek out good vegan cheeses. I’ve been a vegetarian for a long time but now also try to minimize the amount of dairy I consume. Replacing milk is fairly easy these days, with several options that taste as good as milk and offer large social and environmental benefits. Check out WhatIf Bamnut milk, for example – made from an underutilized legume that could help revitalize soils and farming in West Africa. Much as I love good dairy butter, I think that there are now some tasty plant-based alternatives – check out these posts on vegan butters from Miyoko’s and Naturli’. Good vegan cheese has been harder to find – certainly at affordable prices – but there are a few out there. At the Grocery Outlet I’ve picked up a few that I thought were worth writing about, including a jalapeño Havarti from Daiya.

Wedges of chipotle cheddar from Nuts for Cheese are currently available at the Grocery Outlet – $5 instead of the normal price of around $10. Nuts for Cheese is best known for vegan, organic, soft cheeses, such as this chipotle cheddar, that come in distinctive triangular boxes. Other flavors include black garlic, artichoke & herb, and versions of brie and blue cheese. Ten bucks may seem like a lot to spend on vegan cheese (4.2 oz. or 120 g), but it’s in the same price range as many artisanal organic dairy cheeses. If you have a Grocery Outlet store near you then take advantage of being able to try out one of these cheeses at half-price. The question is, are they worth the price?

Nuts for Cheese chipotle cheddar review

I would probably rate Nuts for Cheese chipotle cheddar in the top ten vegan cheeses that I’ve tried so far. Some of these top-10 cheeses (e.g., brie from Rebel Cheese) are a bit more impressive but also a bit pricier than the Nuts for Cheese product.  The chipotle cheddar scores quite well on the two most important factors – texture and taste. It’s a creamy, spreadable cheese that works well on crispy toast or crackers, with none of the graininess that’s often problematic in vegan cheeses. Like the jalapeño Havarti from Daiya, the spice is subtle – there’s just enough chipotle to add a little heat and just a hint of smokiness. It’s more than a one-note cheese, with the yeast, miso, and turmeric adding complexity to the flavor.

I’d like to see a version with a bloomy rind (i.e., maturation with a surface mold, similar to brie and Camembert) which would add more depth of flavor and texture. This version could also be packed in wax paper rather than packaged in plastic, making it a bit more appealing. but even as they are, the Nuts for Cheese products are worth trying for their flavor and texture and also because they are nutritionally superior to many cheeses (vegan or conventional).

Nuts for Cheese – ingredients and nutrition facts

Ingredients: Cashews*, coconut oil*, quinoa rejuvelac (water, quinoa*), water, nutritional yeast, chickpea miso (rice*, chickpeas*, sea salt, water, koji spores), sea salt, paprika*, turmeric*, onion*, chipotle peppers*.
*organic

The main reason why this product works, of course, is the ingredients. As discussed before, vegan cheese made from just coconut oil and starch is often disappointing. Nuts for Cheese products incorporate some of the necessary factors for a good vegan cheese:

• An ingredient list that goes beyond just fat and starch.
• Ingredients that add umami (nutritional yeast, chickpea miso), spice (chipotle peppers), and/or other appealing flavors (turmeric).
• Some kind of fermentation (quinoa rejuvelac is used to culture cashew milk).

Another benefit of these, more diverse ingredients is that the cheese is roughly 10% protein. The nutritional yeast presumably delivers some B-vitamins (and this is mentioned as a benefit on the website) but the ingredient list isn’t comprehensive enough to feature them and tell us how much (mildly annoying and, unfortunately, not uncommon).

Overall, the ingredient list looks nutritionally beneficial, including well known superfoods such as quinoa, miso and turmeric.

Ethical rating for Nuts for Cheese

I’m rating Nuts for Cheese 4.5/5 Green Stars for social and environmental impact for these reasons:

• All Nuts for Cheese are vegan. Adopting a plant-based diet is the top thing you can do to mitigate climate change, deforestation, animal cruelty, and food scarcity.
• The ingredients are all organic and the two main ingredients, cashews and coconut, grow on trees. See this recent post over on the GSP for more on the importance of agroforestry.
• Of course, forestry products can also cause deforestation and habitat degradation (e.g., most palm oil) so it’s important to choose products that are responsibly soured. Some form of sustainable farming, such as certified organic, does help here. An equitable trade with suppliers also helps because, as pointed out in the GSP post on agroforestry, it’s unreasonable to expect people in the Global South to take care of forests if they are living in poverty. 
• In 2020, Nuts for Cheese became the first fair trade certified vegan cheese, but ingredients are no longer fair trade certified. I expect that the reason for this step backwards is due to either supply issues or cost. Hopefully this can be solved at some point.
• Packaging is a plastic wrap (LDPE) and an outer cardboard box. The company claims that this plastic wrap is recyclable but that’s really a stretch (we need to be realistic about recycling). Some HDPE and PET bottles are recycled but most of our other plastics are not, due to a lack of facilities and/or market. As mentioned above, the cheese could be wrapped in wax paper since it’s also housed in an outer cardboard box.  
• Nuts for Cheese is a woman-owned business with a strong diversity and inclusion ethic.
• More info on the company’s social and environmental impact could be provided on the website.

Summary scores (out of 5) for Nuts for Cheese:

• 4.5 gold stars for quality and value.
• 4.5 green stars for social and environmental impact

If you have a different opinion, please share your rating! Until next time, stay safe : )