So, I’ve always been hesitant about vegan cream cheeses. I don’t actually like cream cheese on it’s own spread on bagels and such, but it is the main component of cheesecake, and cheesecake is awesome. And Cream Cheese Frosting too!

I wanted to make cream cheese frosting for my friend’s birthday carrot cake but I was really worried about consistency and flavor, and now that there are so many different brands of vegan cream cheese, I figured the best place to start was to buy one of each and do a taste test. The results were pretty interesting. The flavors and consistencies covered a wide range and I was really happy I had tried them before attempting to use them in my frosting.

The five brands I tried are: Daiya, Trader Joe’s, Follow Your Heart, Tofutti, and Go Veggie.

Daiya: I am surprised that this can be considered cream cheese at all. It was really sweet and had the consistency of yogurt. I’m not sure what this could be used for, maybe as a yogurt substitute, but there are many soy and coconut yogurts that taste better. A very weird product.

Trader Joe’s: The consistency of this cream cheese was almost right. I could tell right away it wasn’t going to be correct because there was a separation of the solid and liquid when I opened the package [fyi, they have this same issue with their regular cream cheese – at least they did a number of years ago, I haven’t had it in a long time! :)]. After mixing it, it was grainy and soft, but it tasted just like cream cheese. I think this would be good on it’s own to put on bagels, but using it in a recipe would be difficult and you’d have to adjust the liquid ratios and also not mind a little graininess.

Follow Your Heart (Vegan Gourmet): This cream cheese had an overwhelmingly powerful flavor, similar to that of nutritional yeast. It didn’t taste bad, but I expect cream cheese to have a more neutral flavor and there is no way I’d add this to a dessert. The consistency was spot on though, smooth and creamy, and I think it would be good in savory recipes, like dips and sauces.

Tofutti: This was by far the best cream cheese option. The consistency was perfect. It was thick, smooth and creamy and it had virtually no taste which is perfect for frosting and cheesecakes. This is what I used to make the Orange Cream Cheese Frosting and it came out perfectly. I have to say, I was impressed.

Go Veggie: I was really torn on this one. The consistency was almost perfect, and I thought I could make the cream cheese frosting with it, but the liquid ratio was off and it got a little grainy. Very sad. The flavor was perfectly mild and I was actually kind of rooting for this one, because they are GMO-Free verified, and that means a lot to me. I don’t know if this cream cheese could work in a cheesecake but it would be great as a spread for bagels and toast.

In the end, Tofutti was the only viable dairy-free replacement for cream cheese. As I said before, it had the perfect cream cheese consistency which is so important when making frosting and cheesecake, and it had a neutral flavor that wouldn’t intrude on the other flavors of your dessert. I contacted them to find out about their GMO policy, and was sent this statement. Even though they are not GMO-Free Verified, they claim to never use genetically modified soybeans and they test their products regularly.

If you have any other brands you’ve tried, please share your experiences in the comments. I only got the ones I could find locally, and have no idea what other ones are out there. I’d love to hear people’s success stories [and failures :)] using the different cream cheeses in recipes!