A Flowery Song

Background: Mayonnaise substitute from Follow Your Heart® in California. Available in four (soon to be five) varieties, with the main difference being the type of oil used as the base: Original (canola oil), Expeller Pressed (higher-grade canola oil), Grapeseed Oil, Organic (organic soybean oil), and the upcoming Reduced Fat (a blend of safflower, olive, and flaxseed oils). Other ingredients include brown rice syrup, cider vinegar, soy protein, salt, mustard flour, and concentrated lemon juice. The result is an egg- and gluten-free vegan product.

Appearance: Good texture, looks just like mayonnaise.

Nose: The cider vinegar, lemon, and mustard make themselves apparent.

Taste: Tangy and creamy; a bit more mustard than I remember commercial mayonnaise having. I wonder if this was a deliberate flavour profile choice or a result of needing the emulsifiers in the mustard. Either way, I like it.

Overall: Clean, fresh flavours and an excellent texture make this an ideal mayonnaise substitute for anyone avoiding eggs or looking for a slightly healthier sandwich spread.

Background: Rye-based artisan vodka from northern Michigan that’s won gold medals from the Beverage Testing Institute and the San Francisco World Spirits Competition.  In addition to this plain offering, they also have one flavoured with (hopefully Michigan) cherries.

Nose: Ooh, that’s spicy.  Some floral and melon notes as well.

Taste: Smooth and creamy, spicy hints of citrus and an oily finish with some flinty minerality.

Overall: Okay, time for me to stop being so dismissive of vodka.  While I still maintain there’s much less room for variability than in most spirits, the difference in character between this vodka and, say, this other one is actually quite large.  This smooth, spicy, and sweet product is an excellent introduction from an up and coming distillery.  I’m looking forward to any future offerings, though I have to say that “less of the
juniper and more botanicals” rather misses the mark in what I want from a gin.

Background: Organic rosé wine made from 100% Moschofilero. This varietal is more normally used for white wines, but some producers use extended contact with the pinkish skins to add colour and deepen flavour.

Nose: Floral rose and ripe watermelon.

Taste: Dry, with a medium-light acidity and some strawberry notes join the rose and watermelon.

Overall: A light, versatile wine that matches well to a wide range of food.

Background: From Vegan Dream in California comes this meatless jerky substitute.

Three flavours are available, bu all use the same base of wheat gluten and defatted soy with psyllium husk, soy sauce, and spices. You may ask yourself, “Paul, why are they using soy sauce?” Well, a major flavour component of storebought jerky is monosodium glutamate, also called MSG. MSG is in the way of being an unmentionable word among certain circles of health fanatics (that happens to overlap with vegans), so listing it in the ingredients is a quick way to turn them off. As it happens, glutamates give soy sauce a lot of its flavour, so dimwitted vegans might not notice that they're being fed those nasty chemicals.

Ahem.

My personal experience may be colouring the above paragraph.

Appearance: The product vaguely resembles jerky made from processed (ground) meat, but has a certain disquieting sheen.

Nose/Taste:
Original Hickory Pepper
Smells of smoke and pepper. An encouraging sign for something called Hickory Pepper. Tastes like spices, salt, and umami.

Cowgirl
Smells sweet. Some tomato, some vinegar. Evidently based on “an old cowboy ketchup recipe”, and is definitely reminiscent of that omnipresent condiment. Actually quite sweet, has a wee bit of heat but mainly tastes of tomato.

Hot Chili Pepper
Not much aroma. Has some good chipotle flavour and a nice kick of heat.

Mouthfeel: Here's where it starts to fall apart. As decent as the flavours are (the MSG and spice combination of jerky isn't difficult to replicate), the texture is all wrong. Rather than the clean stringiness of whole muscle jerky or the denser chewiness of processed, what we're presented with is a vague gumminess and an impression of cardboard.

Overall: Not at all a substitute for real jerky, but if you're avoiding meat for religious, ethical, or health reasons, it's not a bad snack. Given an actual choice, though, going with the meat version is a no-brainer.