Kite Hill Soft Ripened Cheese

It had to be done. Since I live in Boulder -- a health-food eating, yoga-apparel-wearing, Prius-driving, new age community where gluten-free, vegan and organic foods were popular long before they became trends -- I felt compelled to sample and review some vegan cheese. Despite my thin, pale appearance, I'm not vegan, but I fit right in the Boulder "bubble" in that I am a self-proclaimed foodie who pays attention to labels. Even though I'm not vegan, I did give the lifestyle a try many years ago, and I even came up with a vegan truffle recipe that was surprisingly good. I admire vegans; I just can't seem to handle the diet. Kite Hill has made at least some vegan options more appealing, though.

Years ago, I was chatting with a friend who happens to be vegan, telling him that vegan cheeses weren't very appetizing. I told him someone needed to come up with a way to make vegan specialty cheeses and insisted it could be done, though I had no idea how. Little did I know that someone would actually figure out a way to do it less than a year after I had that conversation. Lo and behold, a vegan Brie-like cheese has been born!

Soft-ripened almond milk cheese.

I'm impressed. Looking at the company's history, it's no wonder why the cheese came out as well as it did. They had an outstanding team of some of the best culinary, cheese-making and scientific experts working on this project, and these wizards have done something extraordinary. Rubbery, bland vegan cheese this is not. It's surprisingly good and flavorful. It's also lower in fat and calories than most specialty cheeses. For anyone who has given up dairy and misses it, this is a must try. Even people who love and consume dairy regularly will be amazed.

The texture and appearance of the rind of Kite Hill semi-soft ripened cheese is very much like a standard brie, only not quite as tough. It has the same earthy, mushroomy flavors one would expect with a fluffy, bloomy white rind. Inside the soft rind is where things aren't quite as perfect. For a non-dairy cheese, this is probably as close to perfection as things can get, though. Imagine a wheel of Brie running off with a package of silken tofu and having tasty little babies. The result is a very soft and creamy product that lacks the slight firmness and more textured mouthfeel of true semi-soft cheeses. It feels a bit squishy in your mouth. The small wheel of non-dairy cheese isn't as tall as a regular Brie either. It looks sort of flattened in comparison, but the overall look is still pretty.

Wheel of Kite Hill ripened non-dairy cheese.

Wheel of Kite Hill cheese sliced in half.

The flavor could also be considered some kind of Brie-tofu hybrid, but it's more sophisticated than that. It's mild with definite almond notes. There's a little bit of pungency lurking in there somewhere, a slight tang to it, but it's not overly strong or sharp. The earthy and mushroomy flavors linger from start to finish. You won't get this cheese running with added ammonia flavors as it ages. Its flavor remains pretty consistent whether it's young or older. The entire time I was sampling this charming little cheese, I was thinking, "Well done, Kite Hill, well done!"

I would recommend serving this cheese not directly from the refrigerator as suggested on the Kite Hill website, but closer to room temperature. Somewhere between cold and room temperature is about right. The flavors are more pronounced if the cheese isn't eaten extra chilled, even if the texture isn't quite as firm. Serve the cheese as you would any other semi-soft cheese: on crackers or crusty French bread, in sandwiches or with fruit. Though it can be placed in a heated oven and technically baked, it won't come out like a true baked Brie. Instead, it will end up more like a baked custard. The flavor will be good, but don't expect much gooeyness when you dip into the end product.

The soft-ripened cheese comes in a traditional-looking wooden container with a brightly-colored Kite Hill label on the top.

Kite Hill vegan cheese.

Kite Hill products are available at Whole Foods Market. They are usually found in the refrigerated section along with other vegan products, not in the cheese section.

Liquor Mart in Boulder has an outstanding selection of wines, beer, champagne and more.

Kevin Downs, Assistant wine manager at Liquor Mart in Boulder, Colorado, suggests the following pairings for this cheese:

Since we are discussing a vegan cheese, we need to talk about vegan wines. Actually, there are very few vegan wines. In fact, most organic wines are not vegan. During the process of wine making, the wine is finely filtered, usually using animal products. The most commonly used materials are egg whites, casein (an animal protein) and isinglass, which is a very pure gelatin derived from fish. 

There some estates that are beginning to use other materials that are not animal derived such as carbon, bentonite clay, limestone and plant casein. Most of these estates don’t mention this on their labels, so you’ll need to ask your wine person if you are interested. 

This cheese, being brie-like, calls for a white wine. Since the flavor is not too strong I would go with a Sauvignon Blanc. Frey, an organic producer, does a good one for $12.99. Another wine that works well here is Viognier with a floral aromatic nose and a medium body that stands up to the mild funkiness of the cheese. Rosenblum, famous for their Zinfandels and a vegan producer, makes a great one called Kathy’s Cuvee for $18.99. Bubbles work beautifully with this cheese. Mumm Napa’s Brut would be perfect at $19.99 and allow you to stay vegan. There is a wine out there for everyone, including those who maintain a vegan lifestyle.

Cheers!

Award-winning Mumm Napa Brut pairs well with Kite Hill's vegan cheese.