We taste tested 7 different vegan bacon brands! We’re dishing out all the details on which is the best in our vegan bacon review and taste test!
Vegan Bacon! It’s a review that we have wanted to do for a long time and it finally has happened! This vegan bacon review and taste test was probably the most expensive taste test we’ve done to date.
Honestly, that’s why we waited so long in order to do this video. We were hoping that of these brands would hit mainstream stores; however, it seems like it’s one product that hasn’t really had an influx of products coming to the market to try.
For example – there are 25 vegan nugget brands that you can find across a handful of stores, but yet we can only find 3 brands locally.
So we did the next best thing and ordered as many as we could find. The shipping at some of these places honestly made the cost prohibitive and in all honesty, even with our favorite ones at the end of the video, we are unlikely to keep purchasing because of the shipping cost. Hopefully, the prices continue to drop or the products become available at more mainstream places.
We tried 8 vegan bacons from 7 different brands.
There were some that we had already tried prior to this video; however, many we hadn’t tried at all.
If you haven’t seen our other taste tests, we hope you’ll check those out as well.
- vegan shredded cheese taste test
- EPIC 30+ Brands vegan yogurt taste test
- vegan cream cheese taste test
- vegan sour cream taste test
- and even more vegan taste tests
Watch our vegan bacon taste test:
PSA:
We know that everyone has different taste buds. What we may think is the best, may completely vary from what you actually like.
You may ultimately think our best is the worst and that’s okay. We created this video as hopefully a starting point for people and we can only go off our opinion.
Never miss another post! Sign up for our weekly newsletter and get them all delivered easily! Plus, 15 easy recipes delivered immediately!
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP!
What vegan frozen bacon did we try?
While we did try out 7 different brands, we know that there are even more out there. The brands that we did find and try are:
- Lightlife
- Hooray
- Be Leaf
- All Vegetarian
- Thrilling Foods
- Soy Boy
- Uptons Naturals
If we didn’t feature your favorite, let us know so we can in a future video!
*Please note, that while Sweet Earth is readily available it is a Nestle brand and we choose not to purchase from Nestle brands.
How did we do the vegan bacon taste test?
It was really quite simple.
We cooked each vegan bacon according to the packaged instructions and then ate them as close to the finishing time as possible for the most accuracy.
We were looking for mostly taste and texture.
Lightlife Vegan Bacon Review
Thoughts: Lightlife Smart Bacon was the only one we had tried before. We like their smart bacon – it cooks easily, gets crispy; however, it does lack some of that traditional bacon flavor. With the Smoky Bacon Tempeh, the flavor was so much more there, but we don’t seem to like tempeh personally. We wish the flavor oh the tempeh could be infused into the smart bacon. In that case, we think it would be one of the top contenders of vegan bacon on the market.
The Smart Bacon is the mostly easily available vegan bacon that we have found.
Where to Buy : Lightlife Store Locator
Ingredients:
-Smart Bacon – Water, Wheat Gluten, Soy Protein Isolate, Soybean Oil, Salt, Sugar, Natural Smoke Flavors, Spice Extractives, Contains 2% Or Less Of The Following: Soy Protein Concentrate, Carrageenan, Yeast Extract, Vegetable Oil, Natural Flavor, Red Rice Flour, Smoked Sugar, Oleoresin Paprika (Color).
–Smoky Bacon Tempeh – Water, Cultured Organic Soybeans (Organic Soybeans, Lactic Acid From Plant Sources), Organic Tamari Soy Sauce (Water, Organic Soybeans, Salt, Organic Alcohol), Organic Cider Vinegar, Organic Cande Surgar, Natural Smoke Flavor, Sea Salt, Less Than 2% Of Organic Onion Powder, Brown Rice, Beet Powder (Color), Organic Spices, Xanthan Gum.
Top 9 Allergens: Both contain soy. The smart bacon also contains wheat.
Price: $4.99 each
Hooray Foods Vegan Bacon Review
Thoughts: The one has a great look. Very similar to traditional bacon; however, it appeared gummy/doughy when cooking. That transferred over to the taste/texture once we tried it as well. The flavor wasn’t horrible (Andrew didn’t like it). While not in the video, we did try to have our kids try it after we finished shooting that segment and it was inedible. You literally couldn’t bite into it. This was only about 20 minutes after we had cooked it to start.
Where to Buy : Hooray Foods Store Locator
Ingredients: Coconut oil, rice flour, tapioca starch, liquid smoke, umami seasoning (shiitake mushrooms, salt, mushroom extract, calcium carbonate), maple syrup, salt, beet juice concentrate.
Top 9 Allergens: Coconut
Price: $8.79-9.99
Upton’s Naturals Bacon Seitan
Thoughts: It didn’t get super crispy. Larisha said it tasted like chewy, doughy ham. Andrew said that it was rubbery. Overall, we would not recommend on buy again. Andrew compared it to a flavored basketball.
Where to Buy : Upton’s Natural Store Locator
Ingredients: Water, vital wheat gluten, soy sauce (water, wheat, soybeans, salt), whole wheat flour, natural hickory smoke concentrate, paprika, sea salt, onion.
Top 9 Allergens: Wheat, Soy.
Price: $4.89-5.79
Soy Boy Organic Veggie Bacon Review
Thoughts: Absolutely not. It taste like straight liquid smoke. It’s so overpowering and completely inedible.
Where to Buy : We bought this at Wegmans
Ingredient List: Organic tempeh (soybeans*, water, vinegar*, tempeh culture), soy sauce* (water, soybeans*, salt), vinegar*, evaporated cane sugar*, natural smoke flavor, natural flavors, onion powder*, garlic powder*. [*Organic]
Top 9 Allergens: Soy
Price: $8.79
Thrilling Foods Plant Craft Bakon Strips Review
Thoughts: This was extremely difficult to get apart and cook. It easily fell apart. However, the taste was absolutely delicious. The price and shipping is difficult for us to get past, however, if it because available in mainstream stores, it would be our go to.
Where to Buy : Their website does not list any locations; however, you can purchase at Vegan Essentials or GTFO It’s Vegan.
Ingredient List: Non-GMO soy milk (water, soybeans), sustainably sourced non-hydrogenated palm oil, natural vegan flavor, natural vegetable color, maple syrup, sea salt, allulose, black pepper, citric acid
Top 9 Allergens: Soy
Price: $12.99-13.49
All Vegetarian Inc Vegan Bacon Slices Review
Thoughts: These are vegan thick and there were no cooking instructions. Larisha first said it smells like doctor’s gloves and there were weird looking hair/fibers on it; however – We recommend cooking in oil for a few minutes on each side and then slicing the wide strips in half. They are so crispy and one of the best options out there!
Where to Buy : All Vegetarian Inc Store (also available at GTFO It’s Vegan)
Ingredient List: Non-GMO textured soy protein, Non-GMO Soybean Protein (Powder), Non-GMO Wheat Protein Concentrate, White Pepper, Sea Salt, Brown Sugar, Non-GMO Sunflower Seed Oil, Vegan Seasoning, Konjac Powder, Vegetable Gum.
Top 9 Allergens: Soy, Wheat.
Price: $9.99
Be Leaf Vegan Bacon Review
Thoughts: There’s a very weird artificial taste here and it keeps getting worse the more you keep chewing. The texture also was much softer and it was pink before and after cooking. Overall, it’s a no for us.
Where to Buy : Be Leaf Store Locator
Ingredient List: Non-GMO textured soybean protein, Non-GMO wheat fiber, wheat protein concentrate, konjac powder, vegetable root starch, white pepper, sea salt, brown sugar, sunflower seed oil, plant based vegan seasoning.
Top 9 Allergens: Soy, Wheat.
Price: $9.99
Who was the winner?
All that waiting just to get here and see.
Here’s our top 3:
- Thrilling Foods
- All Vegetarian Inc
- Lightlife Smart Bacon
We wouldn’t recommend purchasing the others honestly. If you do like tempeh then the Lightlife Smoky Bacon Tempeh we’d recommend.
We do also love Herbivorous Butcher‘s Bacon that you can see us try in this video (14:20 is where we try the bacon).
Leave a Reply