Found out about this spread from another parent with a child with special dietary needs.  What a relief!  So happy to find a product that can be used for all types of cooking interchangably with butter.  I use this to bake and cook with and have had great results.  It is no sweet cream butter but it works great.  Has a bit of a waxy feel in your mouth but all in all a great product if you need a butter substitute.

katiekat1180

Virginia Beach, VA

I live in a 60-person student housing co-op, and Earth Balance is our rallying cry at events.  It's that good.  Someone shouts "Earth Balance!" and we all cheer--we can't help it.  When I first moved in, I called home to send word of this new discovery.  "It's a vegan buttery spread," I said, "and it's butterier than butter."  I was especially excited because my delicious new find was non-hydrogenated (and this was way before the recent mass avoidance of trans-fats). Four years later, I'm still in love. 

rainbowsorbet

Berkeley, CA

SmartBalance betrayed us. We took it personally when our favorite margarine was taken over by a food conglomerate that changed the ingredients. Grrr. Until then, we congratulated ourselves on being among the early discoverers of a margarine that lacked artery-clogging hydrogenated oils and actually helped lower cholesterol. Then the changeroo. The new owners added casein, a low-rent milk derivative that does what hydrogenated oils usually do--hold the product together without hardening. That's fine if you're merely lactose-intolerant, since casein is a protein and not that hard-to-digest complex sugar. But it sucks if you're allergic to milk, like my husband. Not to mention needlessly ticking off vegans. Fortunately, my favorite trader--Joe--carries a taste-alike brand called Earth Balance that lacks the offending dairy stuff, as well as those nasty hydrogenated oils. Phew. Its taste is light, non-greasy and just piquant enough to stand up to sauteeing or being spread on butter. A 16-oz tub doesn't last long in our household, so we buy a few and freeze them, which doesn't affect the taste. Alas, the baking sticks don't taste quite as good, so if you can eyeball amounts and don't need exact measurements, I'd stick with the tub.

AnneWithAnE

Chicago, IL