I am not vegan, but I’m open minded and in favor of reduced consumption. I’ve tried several meat substitutes and enjoyed some. I keep a package of Beyond Beef burger patties in my freezer and eat them regularly. I’m looking forward to trying the lab-grown salmon when it reaches my area. I eat meat-free meals at least three times per week (I know that’s not a lot, but my background is meat with every meal, so… one step at a time). I’m saying all of this because I feel the need to preemptively defend the following: Every version of vegan “cheese” I’ve ever tried was bloody awful and in no way an acceptable substitute for actual cheese. The best you could say about it was that it was vaguely the consistency and similar in mass to an equivalent amount of cheese. The flavor, smell, texture, and behavior (e.g. capacity to melt or be thinly sliced, shredded or grated) were all wrong. I have a distinct memory of eating a bagel with vegan cream cheese, which both tasted and felt like glue paste. It had as much in common with actual cream cheese as did the paper the bagel was wrapped in.