We’re not vegan, but we tried Kosbaar’s plant-based food at its new Strand factory shop, including Date Me’s, Truffle Mac and Cheese and Vegan Carrot Pineapple Cupcakes.
Earlier this week, we visited Kosbaar Collective’s new factory shop at 3 Church Street in Strand, initially wanting to see what the move from an e-commerce business to a physical shop meant for the growing plant-based brand.
What we found was a modest, neat and well-organised operation on the ground floor of the SANDZ building, but more interestingly, a business that has taken a rather practical approach to plant-based food.
We are not vegan. In fact, this was our first proper experience of trying plant-based food in this way, which made the visit particularly interesting.
Food first, lifestyle second
What struck me most about Kosbaar was that the conversation did not begin with lifestyle. It began with food.
Speaking to the team, the philosophy seemed remarkably straightforward: food should be nutritious, and protein matters. That thinking runs through what Kosbaar makes, rather than the products being built around the idea that plant-based food has to imitate a particular lifestyle.
That simplicity is probably what made the rest of the visit so interesting.
The team walked us through the ingredients used in their products, including gluten-free oats, chickpeas, hemp and pumpkin seeds, chia seeds and many more. They are recognisable ingredients, things that look and sound like food rather than a chemistry lesson.
That stood out to me because when you turn over the packaging of many highly processed foods, plant-based or otherwise, you can quickly find yourself in a world of maltodextrin, emulsifiers, calcium chloride and a long list of things most of us would struggle to identify.
Kosbaar’s approach felt different. There was a sense that the ingredients themselves matter, and that the job is then to figure out how to make something good from them.
The science of getting food right
That became even clearer in my conversation with Ju-Ann, Kosbaar’s Operations Manager, who generously shared some of the thinking behind the products.
She explained that developing the food is very much a process of experimentation. The team keeps working at a product until the combination of ingredients, texture and flavour is right.
Fridays, in particular, are dedicated to that process.
Under the leadership of founder Adien, kitchen manager Jogge and the team spend time experimenting with new products and working out how to get the best from the ingredients they use.
At one point, Jogge introduced me to something I had never encountered before: kala namak, a type of salt with a distinctly sulphurous flavour that reminded me remarkably of boiled eggs.
It was one of those small moments that changed the way I was looking at the food.
Plant-based cooking suddenly seemed much less like some mysterious exercise in trying to replicate meat, dairy or eggs, and much more like what happens in any good kitchen. You have ingredients, you experiment, you combine things, you taste, you adjust, and you try again.
Then came the tasting
The team walked us through the products we were going to try, including their Date Me’s, chocolate-covered peanut butter dates, Truffle Mac and Cheese, described as plant-based comfort food, and a six-pack of their Vegan Carrot Pineapple Cupcakes.
After spending time learning about the ingredients, the philosophy behind the food and the experimentation that goes into developing each product, it was time to see what it all tasted like.
The Date Me’s were the easy win
I started with the Date Me’s.
They were, without hesitation, my favourite thing we tried. What I loved most was how well balanced they were. I usually find dates themselves overly sweet, but the peanut butter and dark chocolate brought everything together beautifully. The sweetness was there, but it was not overwhelming. Everything just seemed to blend into the right combination.
My five-year-old agreed. I had reluctantly left one for him, and he promptly devoured it, looking at me afterwards and announcing: “This is really good, Mommy.”
I agreed.
The Truffle Mac and Cheese divided the household
Then came the Truffle Mac and Cheese. This was perhaps the most interesting one for our family because we all came to it with very different expectations.
Our son’s favourite is Spur’s Mac and Cheese, so I told him this was vegan Mac and Cheese, and he only heard one thing: Mac and Cheese. But it was not the Mac and Cheese he knows, so after a few bites, he gave me his verdict: “This is not like the one at Spur.”
And, in a way, that was exactly the point.
My husband, an avid rib-eye lover and, honestly, anything-meaty lover, found it interesting. What impressed him most was the bouquet of flavours, including the drizzle of truffle oil on top.
I was probably even more impressed than he was. I liked it.
For me, the mistake would have been approaching it purely as a test of whether it could fool me into thinking I was eating conventional Mac and Cheese. It could not, and I don’t think that is necessarily the right test.
It was a plant-based dish in its own right, with its own combination of flavours and textures, and I enjoyed it. Would I eat it again? Yes. Would I serve it as a family meal? Probably yes, but not for my Mac and Cheese critic son.
Then came the cupcakes
The Vegan Carrot Pineapple Cupcakes were another surprise.
Both my husband and son already love carrot cake, but I don’t think it would be fair to compare these directly with carrot cake. They were something different altogether.
I am not a fan of carrot cake, but oh my, I just loved the cupcakes.
The pineapple addition was so good. The flavour and texture worked beautifully and, to be honest, I barely even knew I was eating carrot and pineapple. That is how well proportioned the ingredients were.
And then there was the icing on top. Tangy and sweet, it brought the whole thing together.
They were a little sweeter than I would usually choose, but that did not take away from how much I enjoyed them. I would happily have another.
My husband and son loved them too. My son wanted more than one, although unfortunately for him, he had already reached his daily sweetness allocation.
So, are we becoming vegan?
No. Not quite.
But that is perhaps the most interesting thing about the experience.
I went to Kosbaar expecting to learn something about a category of food that I had never really explored. Instead, I came away thinking less about veganism and more about food itself.
The Date Me’s are an easy yes. I will buy them again. The Truffle Mac and Cheese is a yes for me, but probably not a family staple. The Vegan Carrot Pineapple Cupcakes are another yes, and I suspect they will disappear rather quickly if they make it into our shopping bag again.
So it was a mixed bag, but overwhelmingly a positive one.
A different way of thinking about plant-based food
There is also a lesson in the fact that my husband and son did not particularly respond to the Truffle Mac and Cheese in the same way I did.
Taste is personal. We all bring expectations to food, and those expectations can be surprisingly powerful.
Call something Mac and Cheese and the natural reaction is to compare it with the Mac and Cheese you already know. Does it taste like it? Does it smell like it? Does it have the same texture?
But perhaps that is where something gets lost.
A plant-based version of a familiar dish does not necessarily have to win by perfectly impersonating the original. It can also be appreciated for what it actually is, and for the ingredients and flavours that make it different.
That is probably what I found most compelling about Kosbaar. The food is familiar enough to invite you in, but different enough to make you pay attention.
And underneath it is a philosophy that I can understand: start with good, recognisable ingredients, make the food nutritious, and keep working until you get the combination right.
That is not particularly revolutionary. It is simply good food practice. And perhaps that is exactly why it works.
The Final Verdict
We are not leaving Kosbaar as newly converted vegans, but we are leaving with a few new favourites. The Date Me’s won me immediately, the cupcakes surprised me, and the Truffle Mac and Cheese won me over, even if my son remains firmly loyal to his beloved Spur’s version.
More importantly, Kosbaar changed my perception of plant-based food. I had always understood the concept, but I had never really considered what happens behind the food itself. Spending time with the team, seeing the ingredients, hearing about the experimentation and then actually tasting the results made it feel considerably less like a dietary category and much more like what it is: food made by people trying to get food right.
And that is something I can get behind.
Will Kosbaar become part of our weekly grocery run? I am not making that promise just yet. But I will definitely be going back for those Date Me’s, and I’ll be adding the cupcakes to the shopping list too.
