Edward & Sons Road's End Organic Shells & Chreese, Cheddar, 6.5 Ounce (Pack of 12)

UPDATE! I recently ordered a case and the flavor was VERY different, with a strong mustard taste. I wrote to the company and was delighted with the wonderful customer service. Here was their response: "We would like customers to know that this stronger mustard was used on pastas with a BBD of 08/2014. We are not switching to this, it was a one time use. There is nothing wrong with the product, it just has a much stronger, spicier flavor profile. All other lots are not affected." I sent them a copy of my Amazon order receipt and they will be sending me a replacement case of the product with the flavor my son is accustomed to. Great product, great company behind it. My original review is below:I love this product. After making my homemade versions of mac and cheese-less sauces and coming up with mediocre results and spending more time in the kitchen than I wanted to spend, this product is a dream come true. My son is 11 and once he latches onto something he likes it's hard to convince him to change to something else. At his age health reasons are no motivation to avoid dairy. We're both lactose intolerant but can 'get away with' some dairy. I'm vegan, but he'll still eat some dairy cheese pizza and mac and cheese on ocassion. I continually try to come up with alturnatives, but when the cheese versons are so quick and easy and frankly taste better, it's a constant battle. Until we found this product. He claims it's as good if not better than the cheese versions (Amy's or Trader Joe's) and actually likes that it's creamier and more filling than those cheese-based brands. I don't know how the reviewers (with fewer stars) prepaired theirs, but we used Almond Breeze unsweetened milk and put a little more than the recommended amount of 1/2 cup, maybe 3/4 cup, and it made it smoother and less sticky. Using a wire wisk might help too, to mix the sauce before adding the pasta. Then we added alttle sea salt and pepper and some Vegan Grated Topping by Galaxy Nutritional Foods. Yum. My son can prepare it himself and I can feel good about the ingredients.I'm happily ordering a new case of 12 boxes... Oh, and they're also extremely lightweight and convenient to toss in your bag and take along with you when you travel to visit non-veg family.

I love Mac & Cheese but have a dairy intolerance. I’ve tried various vegan brands of mac & cheese, some were good but flavor was always a little off. I like to add ingredients to my mac & cheese: make a “chili-mac”, or mix with spinach and fake meat crumbles, all that my partner loves. I decided to give Road’s End a try. I made my usual specialties and was delighted by the flavor. It doesn’t taste exactly like Kraft, but, it’s flavorful enough to satisfy the taste buds of mac & cheese lovers around the world. My partner loved it too. I mixed some minced garlic and finely chopped onion, with a tiny dab of veganaise (I know, sounds like an odd addition, but don’t knock it until you try it) and it was a hit! Most vegan foods are way too overpriced, and honestly, most are the same ingredients minus the meat or dairy - so it’s a ridiculous how expensive processed vegan food can be. However, the price for a case of this is cheaper than what you would get at a store and not that much more than Kraft or Velveeta. It’s worth it.

My wife and I enjoy this but my kids won’t touch it. It does have a bit of unusual taste. I would buy again but not sure why the price is so high.

We have been using this for about 6 months as a dairy free "Mac and Cheese" substitute. I buy it every week from Whole Foods for my daughter, and sometimes through Amazon Prime (as in this case). I bought the 12 pack on subscribe and save. Stuck to the boxes I received I found a sticker placed over the original preparation instructions changing the prep ingredients from 1/2 C milk substitute of choice to 2/3C cold water and 3 TBSP of Sunflower oil. YUCK. Also on the sticker was the wording "The ground mustard seed has a strong flavor in this batch". Well that is putting it lightly. It actually tastes like rancid milk once prepared and is totally 100% inedible. As this is a grocery item I cannot return it and I am extremely unhappy that I now have 12 boxes of inedible Chreese on my shelf. I will be throwing them all in the garbage. The expire date on them is 8/2014 but I see no batch number (for those curious).UPDATE: (May 2013) -- I contacted Roads End and just like everyone else is saying, the boxes marked with expiry of 08/2014 are the "new flavor" (a.k.a. disgusting) ones. Their customer service was fantastic and they promptly shipped me out new flavoring packets like they have for many other reviewers. I recently found boxes with an 05/2014 expiry and they taste 100% normal. To summarize, if you buy this product and it has an expiry of 08/2014, chances are high that you are not going to like the flavor. Contact Roads End and ask for new flavor packets promptly.Update (June 2013): These guys strike again. I picked up some new boxes with a "Jan 2015" date on them and the dreaded rancid flavoring is back. It's not as strong as the 8/2014 batch but almost just as bad. At this point, I am ready to be done with this company.

My son is highly dairy allergic and this is the ideal way for him to eat "mac and cheese", while the other kids at daycare eat the original version. We use unsweeted rice milk and the recipe works perfectly. To bolster the nutritional content, although it is already a healthy product, add any kind of frozen vegetables to the cooking water when you make the shells. Our whole family has gone to a very low level of dairy consumption because of my son's allergy, so we don't eat many cheese products and aren't comparing this to Kraft or Annie's (we've never even tried them). If you eat it hoping it will taste just like what you are used to, you may be disappointed. This product has a lot of flavor, is healthy, and has a nice consistency. We have all come to enjoy it. I feel so fortunate that there are products like this and like Sunbutter (another favorite) that give kids who have allergies similar choices for common "kid foods". Plus,the company is also very Earth-friendly and there is no better price that I have found than this one!