Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Oh my, I thought I was craaaazy because I can smell and taste this in my EB (I've gone through a tub of original, soy-free, and the sticks with this issue), and I've basically switched over to olive oil for all my breads because I can't take it. I'm trying to get a family of omnis to see how yummy vegan butter is, and EB seems to be failing me in the past year. :( Is the whipped version still okay? I'm a little hesitant on the saturated fats in the coconut spread, but does it work well for the baking? I thought the soy-free (without the flax) would be fine, but I've had the issue there, too.

I've been buying the whipped version, and it's been fine. I would like my omni friends and family to use EB instead of butter though, and they are not driving a half hour to buy the whipped one at Whole Foods. Get your act together, EB!

I have MAJORLY experienced this problem recently. I've always loved the buttery sticks for making perfect vegan buttercream. But ever since early this year, I've noticed that weird plastic/fishy taste and smell. It is so bad, it's completely inedible. I've thrown away entire batches of cream filled cookies and cupcakes. And it turns my stomach. It's definitely the flax. Smells and tastes rancid. Sadly, it completely turned off my parents from vegan butter and frosting. =(

I e-mailed Earth Balance, but other than a standard reply and a few free coupons, they didn't seem too worried about it. I really really hope they go back to their basic recipe. It was so perfect the way it was. Why add flax? Who cares about flax in margarine that's going to be used for junk food?

The coconut spread and the whipped varieties are delicious, but don't work for frosting. The coconut one completely melts back to coconut liquid oil at room temp, and the whipped one will separate badly when whipped because of the extra air and moisture in it.

So now, it seems my only option for buttercream is their soy-free spread or their soy garden? Has anyone made frosting with these? Does it work as good as the buttery sticks taste and consistency wise?

As a relatively new vegan I find this very interesting, I did skim over the first few pages and then hopped over to this last page ;)

I have EB organic whipped buttery spread (no flax seed in the ingredients). (stamp on package is May 07 13 X 43 01:17) I opened my tub on 8-20 (I'm weird and I write down the dates I open things on their containers!) and honestly, I have not detected any off or fishy taste. I mentioned this discussion thread to hubby and he also concurs that he has noticed no off taste. We primary use the whipped spread for spreading on toast and for very lightly coating steamed veggies in before sprinkling nooch on top.

I did recently go through a 4-pack of EB vegan buttery sticks and did not notice any off tastes. Surprisingly, I don't think any of the sticks made it into any baked goods (the choc chip cookie recipe we swoon for comes form Vegan Diner and it uses canola oil instaed), but somehow we did go through a whole pack and did not notice any off-putting tastes when I used it when "frying" up pancakes and other things. I don't know the stamp from my old package but this one has 'best by may0113 L47 2 14:11) This also has no flax seed in it.

Such a bummer that some of y'all experienced yucky EB :( I hope they get this quality control issue handled and I hope my EB sticks, once opened, are a-okay to use!

i just took my last 45 oz tub (expiration date 11/2011) from out of the freezer. :-( i am not looking forward to having to spend so much on small organic whipped tubs.

aaaanyway. here's a $1/1 coupon to ease the pain expires 12/31 (sorry non-facebookers)
https://www.facebook.com/sambazon/app_283462455018742

oh, cool. thanks! as long as i can use it on soy garden then i am happy!

I'm still pretty annoyed that this issue is still going on. I had original earth balance at a B&B last weekend, and it was awful. Why doesn't the company seem to care that their main product tastes gross.



I only buy Soy Garden now, and I bake with it frequently. Seems to work exactly the same as original tubs and buttery sticks.

I just wrote to them again to tell them how bummed out I am. I don't think it'll do any good, but it just sucks that they don't really care about this issue.

Maybe they're just confused? I haven't experienced any bad tasting EB, even though I was kind of anticipating it since this thread started.

It seems to be hit or miss for me. Most of the time it is fine, but then I recently had to throw out an entire batch of shortbread because the smell/taste was SO gross. If it was really cheap, I could probably deal with the occasional bad batch, but it is definitely not cheap. None of the supermarkets near me carry dairy-free margarine, so it's the only commercially available choice. It really peas me off that they seem to be ignoring their customers, though, and that makes me want to boycott it on principle.

so i'm coming back to the US next month and i will be baking. is there a sniff/taste test you can do beforehand, or do you generally not notice the grossness until it's too late?

you can definitely taste it right outta the carton, so do that before using it in a recipe for sure and then I guess you could potentially return it to the store.

I won't buy the regular earth balance either because of this problem. Fishy flax is not appetizing at all and I don't understand why they even put flax in it in the first place. Luckily the store I go to just started carrying the soy garden spread. what the fizzle earth balance????

I have been buying the whipped tub kind, and it's been fine, but I need to buy some sticks for Thanksgiving baking and I'm all nervous!

I had a vegan cupcake locally the other week, and I could taste that signature fishy taint in the frosting. I hate Earth Balance so bad. forking ruining everything.

This is so bizarre. I haven't tasted anything odd, but I guess I don't use Earth Balance on its on very often. I have a large tub at home right now, one of the giant ones, and had some on a toasted bagel with nooch recently, so maybe that masked it?

Lucky! Nooch wouldn't mask it, I don't think. I can taste it in anything. It must just vary batch to batch, but affect a lot of batches? I dunno.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who tastes it though. Sometimes I have a really sensitive sense of taste and smell, so I think I'm going crazy.

this is weird but still disconcerting, my tub of organic whipped EB spread is just fine, and so are the sticks i've been using. i just picked up another pack of sticks, hopefully they will be just fine. i wonder if we should share lot numbers??? mine is reference above in my september post.....

we've already established that the organic whipped is fine.

Yup, it's the original earth balance that has flax oil as an ingredient.

I was hesitant to believe it too as I had never had this problem but now that I have (twice) I can't go back. It's so disgusting and if you have working taste buds I don't know how you wouldn't notice it. Rancid flax oil is no good, hell I'm not the biggest fan of non-rancid flax oil but thought it was fine in original Earth Balance until it wasn't. I don't think it happens with every batch though and that's why some of us have had this problem and some haven't.

well my 1st and 2nd pack of sticks have been fine so far, i'm still using my 2nd pack.... i did buy a 3rd pack but i have yet to open them.... fingers crossed.....

such a bummer

I was planning on buying two boxes of the sticks for baking pie crusts, but this is making me nervous. Can you smell it through the foil? (So I can check it in the parking lot.) Are there any good replacements for it in pie crusts? I'm using the VPITS recipes which use a combo of shortening and margarine.

I use the EB whipped organic spread, but not in baking. It doesn't have the suspect flax oil in it. Not 100% sure if you can sub that for the regular EB.....

Surely there must be something you can use besides EB sticks or spread in your pie crusts. Hasn't some type of hardened coconut oil been popular lately in vegan baking recipes? What about shortening in your pie crusts? I recently bought some plain organic shortening by the Spectrum brand to make some biscuits with and I was impressed with its quality.
http://www.spectrumorganics.com/?id=87

Maybe you could just use butter flavored shortening to take the place of the butter & shortening in your recipe....

i do half shortening and half Soy Garden tub in my pie crusts. you can still buy the EB shortening sticks.

I bought sticks yesterday to make pumpkin bread, and I think it's ok. I did test some when it hadn't really cooled yet, but I was really really looking for something to be off, so I don't know if it tasted normal or maybe a little different. Definitely nothing strong or fishy though. Phew!