Frankie’s Organic Plant-Based Puffs – Vegan Cheddar

Frankie’s has a good track record in my mind, and they have been promoted to “try every flavour and product” level in my mind. Everything I’ve had has been consistently good, so let’s keep the good times rolling in.

Unlike the cloud shaped puffs I have tried so far, these opt for the more traditional and classic lengthwise puff. This hardly qualifies as a new thing for me, as I’ve had plenty of vegan cheddar snacks. The experience has been fairly positive so far, so I don’t imagine it will be any different with Frankie’s. What can I say, I like onion and garlic powder as stand ins.

They look just like a cheese puff, but look a little more mellowed out and not as angry in colour. It’s good a more mild look to it, and also don’t smell super cheesy. Going off smell alone you may doubt whether there’s actual dairy or not in these, which to me makes it a good proxy. They’ve at least passed the smell test.

Let’s start with texture first – it’s not as firm or densely packed as the puffed quinoa that Frankie’s clouds have, so these are more airy and melt easier on the tongue. These aren’t too dissimilar to the more common fried cheese puffs. The main different here is that these don’t feel as greasy when you finish them, and as a result they are also slightly grittier and not as airy or puffy. Honestly a good trade off if you ask me though. I definitely don’t feel as gross after finishing half the bag of these.

Flavour wise it’s fairly close to a cheddar flavour but it’s more on the blander side. As you try to take a more careful tasting you can sort of tell it’s doesn’t quite have the same cheesy, dairy quality to it but is a fairly good approximation. Something that becomes more evident the more you have is they use a combination of onion and garlic powder to help deliver the flavour. After a certain point they sort of reminded me more of sour cream and onion ring puffs than cheddar puffs. I happen to love those so I don’t mind, but if you don’t like onion flavour then these might be a bit of a turn off.

As I’ve said before, vegan cheese flavours are usually pretty distinct and you sort of have to squint to get there, but when you do it’s pretty solid. If however you dislike onion or garlic, you are out of luck most likely, and would be best to steer clear of these. I would say these are a pretty good execution on the formula, and worth at least one try for even the non-vegans.