Simply V is a brand by E.V.A. GmbH from the Allgäu region in the far south of Germany. The main ingredients of the Mild slices are coconut oil and starch. As for the typical coconut oil and starch vegan cheese, the taste comes from the unidentified added flavouring, not from a fermentation and ripening process. We did place it in the ‘Ripened’ age classification however, for the style of cheese it resembles.
From the style perspective, we classified it as a Gouda-style. That classification should be seen mostly as the closest proxy we could find, for lack of being able to identify a better alternative. Similar to Gouda-style, the smell and taste have a pleasant, pronounced savouriness with hints of nuts. At the same time, compared to a typical Gouda-style, to us, it is less buttery, more salty and also has clearer notes of earthy vegetables like potatoes. So it may not be the greatest fit. If you have a suggestion what to compare the taste to or how to better classify it, please let us know in the comments .
On the website of Simply V there is a classification of ‘intensity’, where these mild slices get the lowest score of 1, while the Intense gourmet slices by the same brand rank 5, the highest score on the scale.1 From our tasting we did not distinguish these different levels of intensity. Primarily, we thought the tastes are simply different (no pun intended), where Intense appeared more like an Emmental-style cheese to us.
Overall, while we struggle to give a good taste description, we quite enjoyed the taste of these slices and think it could be used on a sandwich together with other toppings, both cold and melted. Yet, it is not a cheese we would put in blocks or slices on our cheese platter, as compared to quality dairy cheese equivalents we think it still misses some of the rich savouriness.
