Bakol Jel Dessert - All Natural Vegan Dessert Mix - Kosher - Halal - No Artificial Sweeteners Flavors or Colors - Lemon Flavor (PACK OF 3)

I'm not a huge fan of gelatin desserts, but in preparation for a certain GI test...ahem....I wanted some lemon gelatin to eat during the prep period. I was pleasantly surprised by this product. I found it indistinguishable in taste and texture from gelatin based (and therefore animal based) products.

Jello with natural ingredients, yay! Also it gels quickly which is perfect if you want to layer with other flavors.

I am disappointed in this dessert. It tastes OK but not great; it could use less sugar and a lot more lemon tang. It has a fairly short list of ingredients, setting it apart from some other jel desserts.But here are the disappointments:* The expiration date is in code, so it's unintelligible to the purchaser. I haven't seen a coded expiration date in years! Manufacturers do that so the product can be left on the shelf longer. I thought it was illegal now, but I guess not. In any case, it is not a "use by" date, and the product comes with no use-by date.* Because of that, I don't trust anything else that the label says:* 1. Cane sugar. Is it really? It matters, if you care about non-GMO, and they claim that the product is non-GMO. But who is to tell? BTW sugar appears to be the only nutrient. There is no protein, fat, or fiber, and no listed vitamins or minerals.* 2. Gluten-free. My diet requires gluten-free, so I hope it is. However, I ate it as part of a low-fiber diet in preparation for a medical procedure, and I did have diarrhea during those days. Gluten can have that effect on me.* 3. Amazon says the product is from a small business brand. I spent a few minutes trying to determine what this means, but was not successful. In any case the company whose brand is on this, Bakol Natural Foods, sells a lot of products for a small business. And even if it is small, that doesn't make the claims on this product any more credible.* 4. Natural flavor. This is a favorite beef of mine. Why do companies say "natural flavor" when they could just say what the flavor component actually is? Dehydrated lemon juice? Or is it actually something un-natural? This is always suspicious, but the FDA lets them get away with it. It's another reason not to trust the company.* 5. The Amazon advertisement page does not include any information about either the ingredients in the product or its nutrition facts. They go to great lengths to say what is NOT in it, but say nothing about what is.* 6. The Amazon advertisement shows that it is made by "Natural and Tasty LLC," and "Made in the USA." The product that I received says it is "Distributed by Lieber's Kosher Food Specialties," Bayonne NJ, but says nothing about the company or country of manufacture. Is it made in the USA? Who knows how many companies (or countries) this product passed through before reaching me.Bottom line for me: I did eat two of the three packages of this stuff, because the labels on competing brands (e.g. jello) look even worse and I didn't have time to search for another product. I believe that it has no fiber, and that's what mattered most. However, I have one of the three packages left, and I will toss that in the garbage and never buy any more.

OK - so not everyone knows or cares about animal welfare or the toxicity to the human body of eating animals which are frequently pumped full of antibiotics, medications, and other things that you may not necessarily want to consume. But here is a great product that is vegan, is simple to make, and tastes great. It's a little more expensive than the traditional jello - but so many better for you, for the animals and for the planet. You should try it!!

I bought the lemon jel desserr. It was easy to make and tasty. Not overly sweet. It's best to eat it within about 4 days. It was still good day 5, just not quite as firm. Overall, a great product

I purchased this because I needed to go on a clear liquid diet prior to a medical procedure, and I would never eat regular jello which contains gelatin. This vegan jello is pretty good! It has a delicate flavor, and let me feel like I was eating something real in the day before my medical test. I would use this again.

I was surprised how good this gelatin dessert is. Flavor is not overpowering and very tasty. Good for vegetarians/vegans that need a gelatin ingredient for making desserts. It is very easy to make by just boiling 2 cups of water, stirring into the mix in a bowl or mold, then put in the refrigerator for about 4hours. The only drawback is the wait time, but not an issue. I purchased this to eat as prep for a colonoscopy, since the yellow lemon color is acceptable for consumption during the liquid diet phase.

Used this in a lemon picnic cake and it turned out great. Jello doesn't have as strong of a lemon flavor as others, but my cake turned out good anyway. Glad to have an alternative to pork jello.