The Best Vegan Mayo: A Taste Test

There was a time when going vegan meant making countless sacrifices. Alternatives to foods made with animal products—be it a chicken nugget or slice of cheese—were scarce. But as veganism grew in popularity, brands refocused their investments into eggless, dairy-free, and meatless products, often creating dupes of their originals, aimed at both vegans and the plant-based curious. Now the grocery store is stuffed with vegan options and that’s precisely what led to our latest taste test: vegan mayonnaise.

Traditional mayonnaise is a mundane miracle: a mixture of water and oil held together by the magic of an egg yolk (also known as lecithin, an emulsifier). Without eggs, vegan mayonnaise must rely on another emulsifying ingredient. Many formulas use some form of legume or its byproduct, such as chickpea flour, aquafaba (the liquid in canned chickpeas and other beans), and pea protein.

The first of its kind, Vegenaise appeared on grocery store shelves in the 1970s—and it’s still on the market. Naturally, we had to include it in our blind taste test. But how would it fare against eight newer plant-based mayonnaise competitors? To find out, we headed to the test kitchen to determine the best brands on supermarket shelves.

How we picked the products

We started by compiling a list of the vegan brands we’d seen in stores. Next, we scoured the internet for any brands we’d missed, checking out competing best-of lists to get a sense of what’s traditionally covered and what might be missing. Finally, we double-checked non-vegan mayonnaise brands to see if they offered a vegan option. One (some might say glaring) omission from our test was Duke’s. While their traditional offering came out on top in our standard mayonnaise taste test, the brand’s vegan option was sold out nationally at the time of testing, so we couldn’t include it.

The best vegan mayo could have fooled us.

Photo by Travis Rainey, Food Styling by Rebecca Jurkevich, Prop Styling by Christine Keely

How we set up our blind taste test

We structured this tasting in much the same way as our search for the best classic mayonnaise: We baked some frozen fries to dip into each mayo. This time, we also provided a bowl of cherry tomatoes so our panel could taste each contender in a juicy, acidic context (think tomato-mayonaise sandwich) for contrast.

How our editors evaluated

Our panel of tasters had a high standard for vegan mayonnaise: It should taste indistinguishable from traditional mayo. That means the same balance of richness, umami, and acid, with a mild sweetness.

Texture was another important factor for tasters. A vegan mayonnaise the texture of plain yogurt, they agreed, would be too liquidy, while a gelatinous mound of eggless mayo didn’t seem enticing either. The perfect texture was somewhere in the middle: swoopable like sour cream and able to cling to the base of a sandwich without dripping off.

The Piquant Choice: Sir Kensington’s

Sir Kensington’s combines aquafaba and sunflower oil to create a classic, spreadable texture. According to Sir Kensington’s website, its aquafaba is sourced from a chickpea processor, who otherwise would’ve thrown it out—a win-win. Unlike many of its competitors, Sir Kensington’s vegan mayo also includes flavorings like rosemary extract, mustard extract, lemon oil, citric acid, and black pepper—which means the final product has distinct black specks, while most others are an unadulterated eggshell in color.