Interview with Imber from Vtopian Artisan Cheeses

There's a new vegan cheese on the scene - and it's Vtopian Artisan Cheeses - hand-crafted, cultured cashew cheeses from Eugene, Oregon, in North America.

My good friend (since MySpace days!) Imber took some time out to answer some of my questions recently. 

I was on the search for delicious cheeses for a vegan cheese platter and there weren't many around, so I decided to make some for a potluck I was having. The owner of vegan cafe, Cornbread Cafe (where I worked) was at the potluck, enjoyed the cheeses, and asked me to make them for the cafe. The customers enjoyed the cheeses and encouraged me to start selling them! Since then I have been developing a wide range of vegan cheeses.

 

Aged White Cheddar, Spicy Cheddar, Raspberry Brie, Cranberry Brie, Dark Chocolate Strawberry Brie, Peppercorn Brie, Sundried Tomato Brie, Mediterranean Feta, Mapled Seitan Cheeseball, Creamy Basil Borealis and Roasted Red Pepper Surrise. We also have four new wedges coming out soon: Caramelized Onion Camembert, Camembert, Chive and Dill and Reserve Sharp Cheddar.

It took around 6 weeks to get labels, logos and license, etc. It is quite a process working out how we wanted the labels and logos to look. We also had to work with the Department of Agriculture on legal compliance. We were very lucky that we had help from an awesome graphic artist, Lloyd Kern, who has been doing all of the logos and labels.

Definitely! The world needs more vegan businesses. Every new vegan business helps the animals.

I hope to show people that vegan cheese can be delicious.

The response has been amazing, country-wide. We recently launched our Kickstarter and were funded 150%. We estimate that locally, 80% of our customers are not vegan.

Our cheeses are available from our website plus the following online and retail stores:

Vegan husband-and-wife team: Mark who is the newly-appointed General Manager, with cheesemaker Imber:

Find Vtopian online and on FaceBook