
Kite Hill is challenging perceptions of dairy-free cheese (forget those blocks of vegetable oil and starch) and appealing to a far wider customer base. But just as importantly, it also reflects the company’s mission to appeal to a broader base of consumers, as well as removing any stigma around ‘vegan cheese’, which can conjure up unpleasant images of gummy blocks of vegetable oil and starch. The fact that the products sit in Whole Foods’ dairy case rather than in a standalone vegan cheese section reflects the retailer’s confidence that Kite Hill products are every bit as good as top quality dairy cheeses, he said. Artisan cheese will be a very small part of what this company will become in the next couple of years.”

“ We want to change the entire dairy landscape, and we’re building a whole platform of plant-based products that will completely change how people view categories from entrees to cheesecake. More importantly, however, Sade – who most recently headed up marketing for meat-alternative firm Impossible Foods - did not join Kite Hill to head up a niche vegan cheese business. We’re building a whole platform of products Matthew Sade: "Artisan cheese will be a very small part of what this company will become in the next couple of years.”
#Kite hill cream cheese product plus#
Its products (almond milk cheeses, cream-cheese-style cheeses, chilled ravioli, and shortly, cheesecakes) are in Whole Foods stores nationwide, plus several restaurants, and set to roll out to a wider customer base next year as Kite Hill ramps up its capacity to meet surging demand, Sade told FoodNavigator-USA. Until now, that is, says Sade, who runs a business often cited as part of a new wave of artisanal nut-based vegan cheese firms such as Miyoko’s Kitchen (California) and Treeline (New York), but is not, he claims, really competing with them, as Kite Hill is utilizing a completely novel – and patented - production process, and has bigger, bolder, cross-category ambitions.įounded by vegan celebrity chef Tal Ronnen, cheesemaker Monte Casino and acclaimed Stanford biochemist Dr Pat Brown, Lyrical Foods also has some heavyweight VC backing in the form of Khosla Ventures (which has also invested in Hampton Creek and Instacart). The answer, according to Matthew Sade, CEO of Hayward, CA-based Lyrical Foods (d.b.a.

Chocolate and confectionery ingredients.Carbohydrates and fibers (sugar, starches).Plant-based, alt proteins, precision fermentation.It’s a close call-you really can’t go wrong here with either of these two brands. I think I’d go with Tofutti over Kite Hill, but I am enjoying Kite Hill to apply to baked goods such as muffins in addition to bagels. They are sort of opposites that both excel in this category. Tofutti is smoother in flavor and firmer, while Kite Hill has a very light/smooth texture and sharper flavor. It is hard to decide, despite the fact they are easily comparable: they are both vegan cream cheeses. Now…you may ask, do I prefer this to Tofutti? Hmm. A great vegan alternative to cream cheese that I enthusiastically recommend for that purpose and more. Light, tangy, smooth, and yet, actually creamy. So…I would say that the Kite Hill Almond Milk based Cream Cheese is an excellent imitation of cream cheese. It was more muted when spread onto a bagel with strong flavor of its own, say pumpernickel, but it still came through a bit. It was a little sweet, but the tang was what really stayed with me. Its flavor texture was on the coarser side, sort of chalky (it had…some grit). It really had the more intense tangy flavor character of cream cheese, even more so than Tofutti had. The taste was definitely sweeter/tangy than I had expected. And I did like this plain vegan cream cheese. So the variety of the Kite Hill Cream Cheese alternative line I tried was just the plain version as that’s the way I like my cream cheese. Texture is a big part of cream cheese, but it has to taste good too. It has a more ‘moist’ quality to it that works well to counter dry breads too…as in, you want to dip the dry edges into it so everything you eat is covered with this nice, luscious spread. It really looks and feels the part of cream cheese, though, in my mind, I’ve been comparing it more with frosting. I was so surprised at how smooth it was to spread. The Kite Hill Almond Milk Cream Cheese spreads so easily and gracefully. This almond milk based cream cheese is no exception to that. Almond milk is light-in calories and body.

The base for Kite Hill’s vegan cream ‘cheese’ is almond milk rather than tofu as with Tofutti. Kite Hill Cream Cheese is another brand of vegan alternative cream cheese, like my previously reviewed Tofutti cream cheese.
