Vegan Vanilla Wafers?

Question

I know I've seen these somewhere at some point in time but now that I need them I can't find them. Anyone know of a good company that makes some and/or which major stores might carry them? So far no luck at Whole Foods- Arroyo or my local health food store. There's a recipe in the latest issue of VegNews for rum balls that I'm hankering to try. :)

kindlizard · Answer

Vegan vanilla cookies by Midel. http://www.midelcookies.com/classic_naturals/natural_snaps.shtml Don't know if they are wafery enough for your needs, but maybe you could alter them. Hope it helps. They are found in many HF stores. These are "snaps". Are snaps similar to wafers?

MichelleOJ · Answer

Thanks for the tip. I'll check for this brand next time I'm out & about. :)

Tatiana · Answer

According to Peta's I Can't Believe it's Vegan!, Keebler Sugar Vanilla Wafers are vegan. They also have other cookies and wafer cookies on the list. http://www.peta.org/accidentallyVegan/VeganShoppingQS-Snacks.asp?Category=Snacks

kindlizard · Answer

Companies on that list may not nec put animal product in a certain cookie or whatever, but they aren't a vegan or eco-animal friendly company, like Nestle or Kellogg.  Thats just my take when shopping, though I understand some of these multinational companies have bought some of the vegan companies and the lines blur and are harder and harder to keep track.  But.........

Tatiana · Answer

Very very true....

MichelleOJ · Answer

Thanks for the link tatiana.

Good point kindlizard.

I could've sworn I saw some Paul Newman's vegan vanilla wafers- maybe my imagination??

Tatiana · Answer

I have never seen a vanilla wafer from Newman's, and I just checked online and couldn't find it there either.

MichelleOJ · Answer

I checked online too and came up with nothing so maybe it was my imagination. Hmm.

JohnnySensible · Answer

A great read - "The Pleasure Trap" by Douglas Lisle and Alan Goldhamer - it helped me to overcome my 40+ year cookie addiction! ............still more to work through though. The Keebler site is wonderfully "trippy" - http://www.keebler.com/# On their site the Vanilla Wafers have scary ingredients - including "cow juice butter" - so they are probably not "vegan" now - http://www.keebler.com/ServeImage.aspx?bid=31603&md5=255ae679240b35c40e2472a56119b38f

JohnnySensible · Answer

Try these bikkies - just slightly less scary - http://www.earthsbest.com/sesame_street/products/product/1174.php As you ingest the flour, oil, sugar etc. you are helping - http://www.sesameworkshop.org/home

MichelleOJ · Answer

Thanks for the links johnny. I'm not looking to satisfy a cookie addiction though. ;) Just need a few vanilla wafer crumbs to make rum balls. :)

MichelleOJ · Answer

After some more research I've discovered that every "vegan" vanilla wafer listed on Peta's site is clearly NOT vegan. All contain butter and/or milk/eggs. :( I just sent an email to VegNews where I found the recipe to see what specific cookie they used. Looks like I'm on another quest to find a vegan product in a non-vegan world.

JohnnySensible · Answer

Warning - not every word of this next post is to be 100% believed! . Vegan Piracy - http://www.piratesofthecarobbean.com/ . There is a modern version of a deadly old "Pirates recipe" for Vegan Chocolate Rum Balls posted at http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=6738.0 The original recipe is rumoured to have been created by the former cook of the French merchant ship "Le Concorde de Nantes" in 1716 or 1717. The pirate Blackbeard acquired a taste / addiction for Vegan Chocolate Rum Balls after capturing the French merchant vessel "Le Concorde de Nantes" off the island of Martinique in the fall of 1717 - along with it's cargo of African slaves, cocoa (many tonnes of it), gold dust, copper The ship was renamed "The Queen Anne's Revenge" - it's wreck was discovered a few years ago in the shoals of the Beaufort Inlet at Beaufort, NC. Think - "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" - if you decide make them & they turn out well perhaps send a few to Orlando Bloom & Johnny Depp - http://veganforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11179 ...........and http://www.piratesofthecarobbean.com/ Fuller story here - http://www.blackbeardthepirate.com/Queen%20Anne's%20Revenge%20Documentation.htm That part of NC is not too well represented on HappyCow yet - it looks as though 21stC Vegan Pirates have to travel all the way to Asheville to get a decent meal these days - http://www.happycow.net/north_america/usa/north_carolina/asheville/

Tatiana · Answer

Michelle - Please let me know if you find out, I need to make rum balls as well!  I was thinking of using animal crackers, which are easy to find vegan.

kindlizard · Answer

i dont know why peta would try to turn folks onto veganism w crappy products like that anyway.  they are such posers.  whenever i tell straight folks I am vegan they all ask if i belong to peta, and cringe backwards.  they have so illegitamized veganism, not only w a false list like that, but w their bs that is more about getting themselves in press than veganism/animals.  you know how many folks are terrified of animal-friendliness due to their terror? 

anyhow, i didnt find them online, but there is a brand named "lets do this organic or vegan or something..."  they have ice cream cones, gummy bears, other snacky, kid-friendly stuff.  good luck

kindlizard · Answer

does anyone else find it disturbing that darigold, a dairy, is the sponsor of this page and advertises a banner here?  a vegan thread?!

Tatiana · Answer

Is that random?  Banner isn't showing up on mine.

webmaster · Answer

KL- That must have been a Google Ad (no forum pages have sponsors), which we can block if you let me know the url. Thanks for your help in updating me regarding any offensive ads in the future. Regarding PETA, the have their own path which does a ton of good. http://www.peta.org/2008YearInReview/index.asp Just cause it's not your way, your negativity about it adds to the counter-productive preconceived ideas/stereotypes which some people have, and does no good at all.

kindlizard · Answer

Actually webmaster, I do believe my attitude towards PETA is well justified.  Currently I live in a bubble.  This bubble veganism is not strange or foreign.  So Cal, too, is a bubble, where veganism is not unheard of.  But elsewhere in the country there is a real fight and a real struggle.  When squares hear you are vegan, you are equated w terrorists.  I have turned more carnivores vegan than anyone else I know.  Yet even the mere mention of it in the tough parts of the country, the FIRST question is 'like those peta people'?  and it is asked w fear cringing away.  so now for most of america, we animal-lovers who choose not to eat our animal friends are now thrown into the whack-job class, the fringe criminals.  no matter what you can tell them about our lifestyle they don't want to hear it b/c to them, it is NOT legit nor safe nor true to any cause, it is about destruction, radicalism, and terror.  not the image i have of myself or fellow vegans; is it the one you have for yourself or other vegans?  

Also, that list of "accidental vegan" food, is such crap.  Like someone is going to switch to being vegan so they can eat more keebler elf garbage.  I usually start off w great veggies and other stuff when trying to get people to turn to the plant kingdom, but like you said, we all have different paths.  And most screwy of all is that list was NOT even vegan, just their corporate sponsors.  For shame.

(Similar to how those who blow up car dealerships illegitimize the eco-fight, the tree-sits, all the nonviolent means to connecting w people.  Once they feel threatened they shut down.  Treesitting is one of the most noble things ever, yet it has such a bad rap due to the other nonsense other knuckleheads do to harm the "fight" ~~ which is really outreach, trying to communicate and educate.)

MichelleOJ · Answer

I picked up a box of EnviroKidz Organic Animal Cookies- Vanilla from my local health food store today. After reading & re-reading the entire box I couldn't figure out which ingredient might not be vegan. The box does not indicate any allergy warnings on it like "contains milk, soy, and wheat". I found the ingredient list & nurtitional information on their website. Can anyone decipher any non-vegan ingredients in here? What am I missing??...
www.naturespath.com/products/snack_foods/cookies/vanilla_animal_cookies

In case the link doesn't show up, here is the list of ingredients... Organic evaporated cane juice, organic brown rice flour, organic corn flour, organic palm oil, organic cornstarch, organic low fat soy flour, organic corn syrup, organic vanilla and natural flavors, sea salt, sodium bicarbonate, (leavening agent), soy lecithin (added as an emulsifier), xanthan gum, organic cinnamon, tocopherols (Natural Vitamin E) added to enhance freshness.

Tatiana · Answer

Michelle - That list looks pretty good to me, unless for some off reason the vitamin E was taken from an animal source.  The company is legally supposed to list if anything in the product contains a milk or egg product (like you said the "contains milk,soy... part). 

Also according to their site:
 "All Nature's Path and EnviroKidz products are vegetarian. Most of our products are also vegan, with the exception of the following which contain either honey and/or dairy.

EnviroKidz (items containing dairy and/or honey)
Chocolate Crispy Rice Bars (dairy)
Cheetah Berry Crispy Rice Bars (honey)
Peanut Butter Crispy Rice Bars (honey)


Nature's Path Foods (items containing dairy and/or honey)
Heritage® Raspberry Granola (honey)
Spelt Flakes (honey)
Heritage® O's (honey)
Honey'd® Corn Flakes (honey)
Honey'd® Raisin Bran (honey) 
SoyPlus™ Low Fat Granola (honey)
Pumpkin FlaxPlus® Granola Bars (honey)
Apricot 'n Nut Granola Bars (honey)
Cranberry Soy Granola Bars (honey)
HempPlus™ Granola Bars (honey)
Apple Cinnamon Toaster Pastries – frosted (honey and dairy)
Apple Cinnamon Toaster Pastries – unfrosted (honey)
Strawberry Toaster Pastries –frosted (honey and dairy)
Strawberry Toaster Pastries – unfrosted (honey)
Blueberry Toaster Pastries – frosted (honey and dairy)
Blueberry Toaster Pastries – unfrosted (honey)
FlaxPlus® Multigrain Pancake Mix (dairy)
Buttermilk Pancake Mix (dairy)"



Is there a reason you think they aren't vegan?

MichelleOJ · Answer

I didn't think they were vegan at first glance because my husband already went into this particular store recently and asked if they had vegan vanilla wafers and was told they didn't. I guess these aren't "technically" vanilla wafers, they're labeled as vanilla flavored animal cookies so maybe the staff didn't think about these. I was also hoping to see a little "vegan" symbol somewhere on the box, but have come to realize I need to read labels very closely as not everything that is vegan is necessarily labeled as such.

I really just want the vanilla flavoring of the cookie as part of my rum balls. And I won't mind finishing off the rest of the box while the rum balls are setting. ;)

JohnnySensible · Answer

www.naturespath.com - nice reminder. http://www.naturespath.com/about_us/our_story http://www.arranstephens.com/bio.html 40+ years of running veggie businesses!

Tatiana · Answer

Okay, fyi, was shopping around today and it looks like Safeway brand vanilla wafers are vegan.

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