Last Saturday saw the second annual Great Yorkshire Vegan Festival held at Leeds Town Hall. The event is run entirely by volunteers with proceeds going to support various animal welfare charities. On the day there was 150 stalls offering from cakes, takeaway food, cruelty-free cosmetics, plenty of chocolate and lots lots more.
I couldn’t make last year’s event so made sure to keep this date free and headed down along with my sister, who whilst she isn’t vegan or vegetarian, she is a big fan of healthy clean eating so it was a great chance for us both to grab some tasty bites and discover new brands too.
Leeds Town Hall was positively heaving and I was amazed to see such a strong turnout! It did make navigating the different rooms and taking everything in quite a challenge (my lens took a few knocks along the way!), but its safe to say, I discovered some new brands that I can’t wait to try more from. Here are my highlights…
t plus green teas: these teas hit the perfect spot between fruity and mellow. They’re billed as green tea for people who don’t like green tea, but they suited me as fruity tea for people who don’t like (sweet) fruit tea! As a bonus, they’re full of extra vitamins and have real fruit in them. t plus only launched two months ago and look to be off to a promising start.
Tyne Chease: this is vegan “cheese” gone gourmet. It’s a creamy nut-based, organic cheese heaven with fantastic flavours: smoked paprika, ale and mustard, macadamia cheese and more. Oh yes, gone are the days of weird, slightly plastic-y flavoured vegans cheeses I first tried over a decade ago.
Go Kombucha: this brand of kombucha ferments their teas in small batches for four to six weeks so they can develop to full strength. The varieties range from a Champagne-esque white tea kombucha to one which could easily have passed for cider (minus the alcohol, of course) and are full of tummy-loving bacteria.
Veganuary: it was great to stop off for a quick chat at the Veganuary stall and even better to swap some spare change for a bag of amazing wasabi popcorn from their sponsors Ten Acre (Ten Acre also do vegan cheese and onion crisps – well worth a taste!).
Ayni Chocolates: these were a firm favorite of mine! They had samples of their vegan chocolates ranging all the way from 90% cocoa sea salt chocolate to creamy white chocolate. I also picked up a couple of their dreamy salted caramel truffle pots to take home for dessert.
Trishul Raw Chocolate: as you might have guessed from the name, Trishul make raw vegan chocolate treats such as brownies, cheesecake, truffles and more. Deciding which cake to plump for here was a real challenge so we split two between us. Genius, right? I tried half a Brazilian raw fudge and half a raspberry coconut bar. Both were amazing, though the fudge might have won out for me (the coconut was delicious too, but not strong on the raspberry).
We wrapped up the event with a portion of noodles and barbecued mock duck.
The next Great Yorkshire Vegan Festival will be happening in November. Are you heading to any vegan-friendly events this year?
