Interview Series – Treeline Treenut Cheese

“I could never be vegan.  I love cheese way too much.” 

How many times have you heard that?  You might have said it yourself.  We do love cheese.  Even as vegans, most of us still crave it from time to time.  Until recently, finding anything that was remotely close to the cheese we remember was pretty much impossible.  But times are changing.  And it’s all thanks to companies like Treeline Treenut Cheese.  Chic Vegan recently interviewed Michael Schwarz, the owner of this innovative company.

 

Chic Vegan: Please tell us a little about yourself

Michael Schwarz: Vegan cheese is a second career for me. I am a trained patent attorney and practiced intellectual property law for most of my professional life. The discipline and scientific precision of patent law have proven very useful in the process of inventing the recipes and manufacturing processes. Frequent visits to France and Italy (in my non-vegan days) exposed me to fine artisanal cheeses which I have tried to replicate in Treeline vegan cheeses.

I grew up in South Africa during the apartheid era, when racism was the norm. My parents were prominent in anti-apartheid politics and instilled in me the belief that you don’t have to go along with things that are wrong just because other people are doing them. People like my parents ultimately brought an end to the apartheid system. We can do the same for animal cruelty. When I came to understand just how cruel the dairy industry is, I realized that not only did I not have to eat dairy, I could also provide an alternative to it. That’s how Treeline came to be.

 

CV: What made you decide to make vegan cheese? How did you get started?

MS: Just about every vegan has heard someone say “I’d like to be vegan, but I love cheese too much.” My goal in starting Treeline was to inspire those people to go all the way to become vegan, by providing a high quality artisanal vegan cheese. It turns out that many people who would never dream of being vegan also love Treeline because it tastes so good and is far healthier than dairy cheese.

Animal advocates often urge people not to eat certain things that are made using cruel practices and are bad for health and the environment. But without alternatives to those products, there is bound to be push-back from some people who rationalize their choices on the basis that the cruelty of dairy products is just an unfortunate necessity. So I see producing top quality vegan cheese as being an integral part of the animal rights movement.

 

CV: What are the challenges you face?

MS: Vegans love our cheese, so our biggest challenge is to generate awareness about our products so that non-vegans will want to try them too. Another challenge we have relates to getting the product to everyone that wants it. The process of distribution of food in the US is fairly complicated so it is often hard convince our fans that we can’t instantly get our cheese into every store in the country, no matter how much they love the product.

 

CV: Where do you see your business going? What do you want to accomplish?

MS: We aim to have Treeline cheese available in every state within the year. We are already in over 30. Our product is as creamy, tasty and delicious as the finest dairy cheeses, so we also plan on having just as many non-vegan fans as vegan fans.

 

CV: What’s your favorite way to serve your cheese?

MS: My favorite way to serve the soft French-style cheeses is on a toasted bagel. I also love it in lasagna or eggplant parmigiana. The cracked pepper hard cheese is fantastic with a small dollop of balsamic fig confit, on a cracker. The classic cheese is perfect grated over pasta or stirred into risotto.

 

CV: Where can we find your cheese?

MS: The best way to find our cheese is to go to the store finder on our website.

http://www.treelinecheese.com/where-to-buy.html

In the eight months since we launched we have reached over a hundred stores from coast to coast, including Whole Foods in the New York metro area, Erewhon in LA and several health food stores, supermarkets and coops as far afield as Seattle and Portland in the northwest and Key West in the far southeast. We are adding new stores just about every day.