Jil is the ripened goat cheese type of vegan cheese made by Jay & Joy. This French vegan cheese maker is successfully producing tasty nut-based alternatives to dairy cheeses, inspired by traditional cheese-making techniques of fermentation and aging.
As we are used from Jay and Joy, the vegan alternative looks quite similar to the traditional dairy cheese it is the alternative of. In this case, a round log where it is easy to slice off the typical small wheels of goat cheese. This is of course nice when one wants to replace goat cheese with a vegan option but maintain the look and feel. Meltability of the cheese we found to be less than a dairy version, which is normally the cases for nut-based vegan cheeses.
The amount of ingredients in this cheese are limited: almond milk, cashew nuts, coconut milk, salt and ferments. All the nuts and milk ingredients are organic. In the pleasant, mild taste, we first noted sour then savoury in the base flavours, while in the complex flavours we first thought of earthy vegetables like onion and leek, next a mushroomy flavour. While we like this taste, it should be noted it does not have the characteristic tart goat cheese taste, which is imparted by the fatty acids in goat milk.1
Overall, a nice addition to any cheese platter or to use in a recipe looking for a mild tasting goat cheese alternative, as long as oozy meltability is not a requirement.
