Post Punk Kitchen Forum

I got an e-mail about this so I thought I'd start a thread so that people can add reviews when the stuff starts to appear. They are bringing out a BIG range of dairy free (all vegan) items. It includes lots of flavoured yoghurts, chilled desserts, a range of milks including hazelnut and almond, 2 different margarines, 2 hard cheeses and a range of flavoured soft cheese spreads. Available from 20th Feb.

Ooooooooooo!

And 2 flavours of jelly!

Exciting, please let the soft cheese not be like the Pure stuff!

Mat.

O.O

Ooooooooooooooooooh and double ooh! This is very exciting - I might be able to buy my fajita friday 'cheese' without making a mega bus journey :D

This sounds fantastic!

YAY this is awesome.

woah, hope the cheese is good! pizza all the time!

Agh. It's tesco. I hate them! Not bought anything from them for over 6 years now...

Awesome. I hope they carry it at the shops nearest me. They're big but not the massive ones that tend to have all the good stuff.

I'm not a fan of the big supermarkets and would rather continue to support my local HFS for such products. It's vegetarian/vegan, fair trade, and directly supports local producers.

Same! I wish the co-op would bring out a vegan range!

I'm no huge fan but despite me paying higher prices to support local health food shop for years it's just closed down. Not everyone has these great shops on their doorsteps.

Does your local shop sell local and fairtrade versions of all these products then?

Exactly. I have a very limited range of vegan food in my local holland and barrett and the nearest decent HFS is about 25 minutes drive from me. And even that isn't that great.

I'm no fan of Tesco either, but I'll buy vegan stuff from them as it's nearer.

I'm going to ask a dumb question here: does HFS just stand for (local, possible independant) health food store?

yes, health food store.

OK. I thought perhaps I was missing out on a chain store in the same vein as Holland and Barrett.

There's a well-stocked HFS near me but it's priced, for the most part, waaayy out of my budget. Tesco might suck for a number of reasons (like Superdrug), but I think it's great when vegan products are made more accessible to people who can't otherwise afford or access them (again, like Superdrug).

Tesco is the least convenient shop for me. Dumb.

Agreed on all of this.

I make my mate drive me to our big tesco every so often. I might be getting some samples so if I do I'll report back asap.

I live some 20 miles away from Tescos and the health food store that use. I appreciate that the perception is that Tescos are cheaper than health food stores, but its not always the case.
However, trying to fight the tide of supermarkets sometimes has a King Canute feel to it with a new one opening nearly everyday in the UK. There are only so many shoppers so this inevitably means shops on the High Street closing which unless we support them means our HFS
The only large store I support is the Co-op which carries limited vegan stock but at least every shopper is effectively a shareholder in the company and they are receptive to requests either through their stores or local committees.
Another worrying trend is that the big supermarkets are stocking fewer food items (more profit is other lines)
Sorry to be down on supermarkets for all you folk who like them - just my two euros on the issue :)

I'm not a huge fan, don't get me wrong. But they do so well because they cater for people's need. A small green grocer opened near me and I tried really hard to support it but it was only ever open while I was at work. We don't drive so trying to support the few independent shops that open outside normal working hours and are scattererd across the city is next to impossible - and even then I would have to go to supermarkets or similar for stuff like cat food which independent shops don't sell. So if I have to go a supermarket for that, it's far more an effective use of time to pick up a tub of Pure while I'm there than trail to a HFS. I feel just the same about independent bookshops v buying on Amazon etc.

But anyway, that's a debate for another day. Be interesting to see what the Tesco range is like, anyway, though I'm not holding my breath.

This sounds very exciting. I'm with Mat though, I hope it's not like the gross Pure attempt. (Annnd we never got the Dairylea style cheese that Pure promised, I was so looking forward to those.)

I don't live anywhere near a big Tesco, I think I'd have to venture out to Springburn or Pollok or some back-end of beyond type place to get within spitting distance of a store that might carry such items. Bum!

with any luck it might spark the other supermarkets following suit and increasing their vegan range and away from huge quorn displays :)

Although I pretty much hate Tesco, it's very encouraging to see a mainstream supermarket increasing their vegan range. I don't really use vegan cheeses to be honest, not because they're hard to get hold of - my local H&B sells them - but just because I don't really feel the need to use them. Hopefully it will encourage other supermarkets to expand their ranges too.