Botanical Cuisine ‘Lemon & Dill Cream Cheese’
Raw cashew cream cheese in a jar
Type: Cream Cheese
Pros: Sustainable, Australian-made, organic, raw-vegan friendly, soy-free, low-GI, beautiful presentation.
Cons: Pricey, debatable nutritional value.
Organic, hand-made and cultured with bacteria, Botanical Cuisine is to cheese what Christian Louboutin is to shoes. The beautifully presented complex cream cheeses in their range are decadent to the point of overwhelming, meaning they’re a guilty pleasure.
Created in Melbourne, they’re likely not to everyone’s taste, with a strong truffle flavour, however this version, the lemon and dill, is an absolute favourite combination of mine and I could happily snack away at any time.
They’ve put attention into the way it looks and the mouth-feel, being creamy but textured and not too oily. They haven’t neglected the packaging either, with the glass jar stuck with a label that’s made from stone, and therefore tree-free. It’s also beautifully printed in a way that makes it obvious it’s from Melbourne, or from some hipster-style paper-loving alternative health group. Or just straight from the pages of Frankie magazine.
The flavour is slightly sharp due to the lemon, and gamey from the truffle. The after taste is all about the truffle. It’s best on crackers, or mixed into a salad dressing, but I wouldn’t be cooking with it in a hurry — despite recipes on the Botanical Cuisine website. I’d rather use their plainer cheeses for cooking, or look to another product. It’s also difficult to cook with as it’s an off-white colour and speckled with dill, and perhaps truffle, making it a difficult addition for a clean white sauce.
It’s a beautiful product to serve or to gift to someone, and they last for a long time in the fridge (they need to be refridgerated when unopened too). It’s also not bad on sandwiches, and I love the little feeling of luxury I have when eating it.
The price
According to the online site, it comes to $11.95, but I’m pretty sure I’ve seen it priced for more (and happily paid a higher price). It can be bought in a number of places (Go Vita- Southern Cross, The Cruelty Free Shop and Habib Wholefoods- Flinders Street) and is growing in popularity — every time I buy it I end up in a conversation about it with the salesperson or another customer hovering around the shelves about how much they love the cheese.
Either way, for around $12 per 185 gram jar, it’s pretty expensive regardless of how yum it is. It contains 9.3 serves per pack, for those following the 20 gram serving size instruction, but if you get overexcited and spread it on a couple of pieces of toast then you’re already over that per-person limit. It does last well in the fridge, and retains its consistency and flavour after opening, not drying out like many other vegan cheese products.
For sustainable businesses, many of us do expect to pay a bit more — and the fact that it comes in sustainable packaging does make this a slightly more justifiable price.
The ingredients
Raw cashews 75%, spring water, grampian, cold pressed extra virgin olive oil, garlic, onion, preserve lemon 5%, dill 3%, black truffle oil, truffle salt and black pepper, acidophilus.
There are very few vegan cheeses that are soy-free, so this is a great option for those looking for a cream cheese.
The nutritional value
This is where I get a little suspicious. The fact that certain things are left out is fantastic for those on a strict vegan diet. However, despite good protein from the cashews, it’s debatable what else is substantially beneficial. Their website seems to claim that lemons and dill are high in a bunch of different nutrients as well as “many antioxidant compounds” in the dill. However, with 3% dill in the entire jar (185 grams) equating to 2.56 grams, divided into the portion size… we’re sitting at around 0.275 grams of dill per serve (or, far less than a pinch). I’m not a nutritionist, but I am highly doubtful that this has much of an antioxidant effect. A quick Google notes that half a cup of dill provides 5% of your required daily vitamin C, but that dill is pretty amazing regardless. The jury is out on this one.
It’s all raw (a diet which some claim is better for you), gluten free, low GI and sugar free, although — alike to most cheeses and nut-based products — it contains a hefty amount of fat at 29.5%.
A great cheese, but one for special occasions or a fancy picnic.
You can order it online.
