Monday, November 9, 2015

Food Review: Annie's Vegan Shells and Creamy Sauce


It's always great having another vegan option hit the market, especially when it's vegan mac and cheese! There have been so many vegan mac and cheese options hitting the market lately that I've been pretty overwhelmed with trying all the options. I have finally tried the majority of them over the past few months, and I'm dedicating this week to reviewing them all! If you want to see earlier examples of vegan mac and cheese, check out my Earth Balance review and Amy's review! Those are two solid standbys I pretty much judge all vegan mac and cheese by!

Anywho, first up in the newbies of vegan mac and cheeses is Annie's Homegrown Organic Vegan Shells and Creamy Sauce. Interesting to note that Annie's never calls it mac and cheese but I'm pretty sure anyone that looks at the box will assume it promises some mac and cheese-like flavors and textures.


I was excited to try this since it is made out of pumpkin and sweet potatoes, which sounds good, right?! Ugh, was I ever wrong...this was some seriously weird "mac and cheese" that I would not purchase again. The main thing wrong with this is the sauce, which turned out more in like a powdery, gritty goop than sauce and tastes weirdly sweet but oddly onion-y at the same time. It in no way resembles anything "cheesy" or edible. In this day in age with all the amazing vegan cheese out there, you think a decent vegan cheeze sauce for mac and cheese would exist...and it does, just not in this product!

I even tried to improve the taste by adding tons of hot sauce and peas (as seen in the photo above), but even after all that it was hard to swallow this meal. Even if you put aside mac and cheese expectations, the taste on this is too off and too weird to be enjoyed, I mean, I guess the pasta was alright (though it stuck together a lot and was a bit too mushy), but that is only so-so thing about this dish, everything else was awfully disappointing.

Annie's really missed the mark with their Vegan Shells and Creamy Sauce - it seriously tastes like one of those "old skool" vegan mac and cheeses that I tried when I first went vegan (and, ugh, never tried again!). Seriously don't bother wasting cash on this (though it is relatively inexpensive at less than $3 a box, though after tasting it I now think I was ripped off), save up for some awesome vegan mac and cheese, because I promise it exists! More on that later this week!

If you are still looking for more info on this product, visit Annie's website.

8 comments:

  1. i could not stomach the Annie's stuff. to me it had a odd chemical taste to it.

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  2. That's really disappointing. I had high hopes since before going vegan I felt good about eating their Mac and cheese Bc it didn't have the animal rennent.

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    1. Ya, it sucks, but the good news is there are so many more vegan mac and cheeses that are actually GOOD! Have you tried any of the other brands that make vegan mac and cheese? A few are mentioned above, and others I'll be reviewing later this week! We are lucky to have so many options now!

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  3. Ugh, this and the So Delicious are SO gross. It'd be better if they just didn't make anything at all than make this stuff. How did these pass the company's taste testers?!

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  4. i don't know why all of you expected it to taste like cheese! the box says "shells and creamy sauce" so in a way, i don't blame them for making it "Taste so bad" because i bet it tastes good, just not "cheesy" like every one is expecting it to taste like. Although i wish they would make those words bigger, and it shouldn't be sold in the boxed mac and cheese section,though.

    i think they know vegans will buy it because it is in the mac and cheese section AND it looks like that orange cheddary goodness, but they say "shells and creamy sauce" to save them selves when millions of vegan write to them complaining "This isn't cheesy!".

    personally it looks good, not cheesy, but good in a different way, by what i hear it in it (sweet potatoes and pumpkin, mmm!)
    so i'm gonna try it! and i don't have ANY cheesy expectations

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    Replies
    1. Even without cheese expectations, this just tasted gross. Good luck.

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    2. I agree with Sarah! I'm a pasta lover. All pasta, any pasta, any sauce. And this, mac and cheese or not, was just gross.

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