Field Roast Chao Cheese - Coconut Herb

The market for vegan cheeses has certainly exploded over the past few years! Back in the day, there were no commercially available vegan cheeses at all. I don't think any were available when I first went vegan in '99, in podunk Florida. Thankfully I had no issues ditching my cheese habit, but I understand that it can be difficult for others, and quality vegan cheeses are available to help!

I would love to go out and buy up all the fancy new vegan cheeses out now, but they are unfortunately rather expensive! Although to be fair, the prices of them do seem to be on par with gourmet dairy cheeses, but it's still cost prohibitive if you just want a cheap cheese craving fix.

Alas, is this cheezy offering from Field Roast worth it's price tag? Read on to find out!
Buying. Not gonna lie, this stuff isn't cheap, but at least it's cheaper than Miyoko's Creamery or Vtopia, so that's good, right? Luckily, I found these on sale at my local New Seasons for only $3.99. Normally, you can expect to pay $5-8 for these. Any store carrying a decent variety of vegan cheeses or Field Roast products should have them.

This is a perishable product, so I would be careful if buying online, and make sure to order it ice packed! I found a case of 12 on Amazon, or buy individual packs on Pangea or Vegan Essentials.

Closeup of unpackaged cheese.

Packaging. These come vacuum packed in clear plastic, with a little cardboard slip with the product information on it. No frills & pretty basic, and I do like getting to see the actual product I am buying. There's no paper in between the slices either, and thankfully they don't need it. Yay less waste!

ingredients

Nutrition Facts

Nutrition. Dairy cheese is not a health food, so why should vegan cheese be any different? The main caloric ingredient we have here is coconut oil, which is pretty bad despite all the hype about MCFAs. So no surprise that of the 4.5g of fat per slice, almost all of it is saturated at 4g.

After the oil, we find starch and then the product's namesake, chao tofu. I never heard of chao tofu before, and thought the name of the product was just a variation of 'ciao', but I've learned that it is a Vietnamese fermented tofu.

Fat aside, there is really no nutritional value to these slices at all. There's a bit of sodium, a tiny bit of carbohydrates, and then zeros across the board, no micronutrients even worth noting! These Chao slices are really just empty calories, purely junk food.

Tasting. It's junk food, so that means it should at least taste amazing, right? Well, they're really good, but I wouldn't call them amazing. I first tasted a slice straight from the package, and it was really tasty. The texture was spot-on to what I remember good deli cheeses being like, and the flavor was really close for me as well. The coconut and "herb" (read: oregano. why didn't they just say oregano? it's just oregano) flavors are nicely present, as well as a bit of black pepper.

I tentatively offered a small corner to my omnivore spouse to get his opinion as well, believing he wouldn't like it. On the contrary, he ended up liking it plenty and even finished off the slice! He states that it doesn't really taste like cheese, but it still tastes really good. It tastes close enough to what I remember cheese tasting like, so I digress.

Ugh. Yes, it does look like plastic, but thankfully did not taste like plastic.

Cooking with Chao cheese yielded entirely different results. First, I tried melting a slice over a bagel smeared with refried beans (weird combo, I know, don't ask why I did that). The results were not pretty. The beans really masked any flavor from the Chao cheese, so I decided to give cooked Chao another shot in a "purer" form - grilled cheeze!

It actually looked better than it tasted :(

Who doesn't love a grilled cheeze sammich? Crispy, buttery bread on the outside, gooey melty cheeze on the inside OMG SO GOOD! So decadent! I love grilled cheeze sammiches made with daiya shreds, but what about Chao? It certainly looks gorgeous, but I have to give it a solid "meh". The flavor of this cheeze just does not seem to translate well when heated. It took on a tangy-ness that reminded me of the Daiya alfredo cheezy mac. It wasn't bad per se, just not great. When it comes to grilled cheeze, I think I'll stick with the Daiya shreds. For Chao, I'd rather just eat it cold.

End Notes. Field Roast website. There are two other flavors of the Chao slices, tomato cayenne and creamy original. I do plan on reviewing the other flavors in the future. I'm on the fence as to whether I would buy this again or not. It was tasty enough when eating it the right way, but it's also a bit expensive. And unhealthy (not that any cheeze is actually healthy). I think for now, I'd rather save my money and try out the even fancier & more expensive vegan cheezes.