The Best Vegan Options at Expo West

The sun was barely rising as I made my way through the typical LA traffic and got to Anaheim – sadly, it was not a Disney Day.

I passed by all the families in their Mickey gear heading to the happiest place on earth, and made my way to the Anaheim convention center for the Natural Products Expo, AKA Expo West.

With over 3,000 companies sharing their latest and greatest products, you could call it the happiest place on earth for foodies (like me). With hundreds of plant-based options to sample, I knew I would need to save my appetite for the best products. 

You’re probably wondering, after trying so many things what were the best new vegan products? Let’s get into it.

Here are my top vegan finds based on everything I was able to sample.

1. Best Milk: Apricot-Seed Milk – this is from an Austrian brand currently sold in Europe under various brand names (for example, Wunder Kern in Germany). This was the brand I was most impressed with at Expo for their innovation and great products. Hope to see them get a distribution deal for the U.S.! Honorable Mention: Planet Oat.
2. Best Ice Cream: Eclipse BonBons. Honorable Mention: Green Girl Bakeshop.
3. Best Yogurt: Cocojune. Honorable Mention: Icelandic Provisions Oatmilk Skyr.
4. Best Chips: Chipz Happen Cheese-ee Nacho. Honorable Mention: Brutal Velvet Cheddar.
5.  Best Chocolate: 7^th Heaven Oat Milk Peanut Butter Cups. Honorable Mention: TCHO.
6.  Best Cracker: Every Body Eat Cheese-less. For the Honorable Mention, I am going with a slightly sweet cracker – Animal Crackers from the brand Happy Snacks.
7.  Best Snack Pack: Mighty Yum Munchables. Honorable Mention: Parmela Snackables.
8.  Best Dessert: Dandies Marshmallow Cream – ok technically this is not a dessert, but you can definitely add it to your pantry to use for all your baking needs. Honorable Mention: Abe’s Muffins (new cupcake).  
9.  Best Protein Alternative: Nasoya Plantspired Chick’n Bites. Honorable Mention: Layonna’s Vegan Thai Lemon Chicken.
10.  Best Cheese: Good Planet. Honorable Mention: Armored Cheese.
11.  Best Creamer/Coffee Drink: Elmhurst Brown Sugar Oat Latte. Honorable Mention: Califia Farms Brown Sugar Creamer.
12.  Best Sour Cream: I am pretty sure this is the only vegan sour cream I came across there, but it was great. Smooth with a neutral flavor.
13.  Best Spread: Apricot-Seed spread (same Austrian brand I mentioned under milk). Honorable Mention: Sunday Night Vegan Chocolate Spread.
14.  Best of Non-alcoholic Spirits: Abstinence. Honorable Mention: Three Spirit (Night Cap).
15.  Best Eggs: I only saw two brands of vegan eggs (unless I missed some others). I like Yo Egg better than Wunder Egg, but I will say I liked the new Deviled Eggs and Egg Salad from Wunder Egg.

I want to note that I tried many other great products (you can find some posted on my IG page), but I have mainly focused on new brands or new products from established brands in this post. There are also a few brands I was unable to sample because they were out of the product (usually on the last day of expo) or they were not serving that particular item when I stopped by their booth. Overall, we are lucky to have so many great existing and emerging vegan brands and also brands with good vegan options. I hope this list will help you discover some of your new favorites. Make sure to follow me on social media for regular product posts and reviews as well!