Honestly tasty: award-winning vegan cheese, made locally
I found out about Honestly Tasty from a friend on Twitter.
I didn’t know much about them but she’d sung their praises so much, I decided to order some of their range for the big cheeseboard I organised when my brother-in-law came over. It was awesome and I’ll definitely order from them again!
So with my lack of knowledge in mind, I reached out and asked for an interview-style article, so that we could all get to know them better.
What does Honestly Tasty specialise in selling?
Hello! We produce and sell a range of cultured plant-based cheeses that mature over time, and that mimic their dairy counterpart. We currently make five soft cheeses: Shamembert, Bree, Veganzola, Herbi (-voursin!) and Ched Spread.
Where is Honestly Tasty based?
We are based in Haringey, North London.
Do you exclusively serve those who are local to you or can others who are further away access your products too? If so, how?
We want everyone to be able to access delicious vegan cheese, so we work with lots of amazing stockists, all over the UK, and we have an online shop so you can order directly from us too
What inspired you to create a business that solely focuses on vegan cheese?
We started up shortly after our founder, Mike, adopted a fully vegan lifestyle. It became very clear that most vegan cheese options sucked (!) so he set about to prove that plant-based doesn’t equal compromise. He quit his city banking job, learnt how to make our award-winning Veganzola - and everything went from there…
How easy is it for you to source cruelty-free ingredients for your products and do these ingredients affect the outcome in comparison with non-vegan cheese?
We do everything we can to ensure that we use the best ingredients we can find, we ethically source and choose organic where possible - to make sure that everything going into the cheese is top quality and guilt-free. We do feel as though we’re up against it sometimes, as the dairy industry is so heavily subsidised - they’re able to produce at such a high scale that it makes it hard to compete on price and communicate that widely.
For new customers who don't know what to buy; is there a particularly popular item you can name?
It’s honestly so hard for us to pick a favourite, there's room for all of them! That said, if you’re dipping your toes in plant-based waters then we’d recommend trying our camembert alternative - Shamembert! It bakes just like the dairy version and goes all ooey and gooey and delicious. Our blue cheese won a great award last year too, so that’s definitely a favourite!
Is Honestly Tasty owned by, or in partnership with, another company that tests on animals or sells non-vegan products?
Nope!
Tell me a bit about yourself before you launched Honestly Tasty ?
We’re a small core team with family at the heart of the business. Mike went from spacecraft engineering to banking, to vegan cheese and Beth (Mike’s sister) started out training as a prison officer before joining the team!
What is your vision for the future of Honestly Tasty?
We’re so excited to keep developing delicious alternatives to dairy cheeses, and we want to continue proving that plant-based doesn’t mean missing out on your favourite foods.