I don’t really like tofu all that much.

Sure, it can be okay if you do it nicely, and it can go with some things. But usually? It suffers from blandular fever, and before I know it, I’ve got two slices of bread with one big slab of moderately tasteless blah in the middle.

I’m sure you can imagine: not nice!

When I was out getting the old grocerios the other day, I noticed in the vegan/vegetarian section of my local supermarket that they had this new type of tofu from my favourite EVER tofu-product makers, Taifun!

This new tofu product? Their wonderful ‘smoked sesame and almond tofu‘, pictured to the right.

Obviously, I just had to try it out. And I’ll be honest here, I had my reservations. I’ve tried tofu products like these before, and really? They usually suck. Big time.

So, with trepidation, I put Taifun’s magic tofu to the test and tried a basic ‘fry and sandwich’. I was impressed. Here’s what I found:

Pros

• The flavour was perfect, and didn’t overpower (or randomly disappear mid-chew) me whatsoever, unlike a lot of other meat analogue products.
• It’s organic, so I feel a lot better for putting it into my belly.
• The company is independent, so buying it from them also made me feel pretty good about myself.
• Even though it’s made of tofu, I couldn’t detect much of the usual ‘tofu’ consistency, which was nice.
• As it’s smoked, there’s a certain ‘meat’ sense about the whole thing, which makes it great for a heartier sandwich
• Their smoked sesame and almond tofu only has 8 ingredients, discounting water. And I can find all but one in a supermarket if I wanted to.
• Per 100g there are only 185 calories (and 18.8g of protein)! For something with sesame seeds and almonds in, I’m very much impressed. Albeit the fat content is a little high (10.7g of fat per 100g), I know that this fat is NOT trans or saturated fat.

Cons

• Albeit the product was nice, but getting it out felt a bit nasty as some liquid ‘residue’ is left in the packet. A couple of times (because I had to, uhm, retest it… ;D ) this liquid spilled on the floor and needed quick cleaning up.
• Because of this water content, frying it can become a nightmare. I mean, when did you last put oil and water in a pan and enjoy it? Trust me. Not fun for a perhaps more inexperienced-with-spitting-fat cook.
• I can’t remember the exact price, but I remember that it was easily above a couple of pounds. The one listed here (my favourite online wholefood retailer) sells it at £2.99. That’s not exactly cheap for 200 grams of tofu.

Ultimately, I really, really enjoyed Taifun’s delicious tofu product, and I’ll easily be going back for more. Though the price is a little steep, I think it’s well deserved as the product itself is high quality, tastes delicous and works perfectly in a sandwich on a crisp winter’s day.