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Tate’s Cookies is a much-loved bakery on the South Shore of Long Island. For over 30 years, Tate’s has been serving up delicious baked goods to locals and tourists alike. The bakery is best known for their iconic Tate’s cookies, which are thin, crispy, and perfectly sweet. But, are Tate’s Cookies vegan?
Tate’s Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies and Tate’s Vegan Vanilla Maple Cookies are vegan because they don’t contain any ingredients derived from animals.
Below is a table showing Tate’s Cookies flavors and its vegan status.
| Flavor | Vegan Status |
| Tate’s Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies | Vegan. |
| Tate’s Vegan Vanilla Maple Cookies | Vegan. |
| Tate’s Chocolate Chip Cookies | No, contains Milk & Egg. |
| Tiny Tate’s – Chocolate Chip | No, contains Milk & Egg. |
| Tate’s Butter Crunch Cookies | No, contains Milk & Egg. |
| Tate’s Coconut Crisp Cookies | No, contains Egg. |
| Tate’s Lemon Cookies | No, contains Milk & Egg. |
| Tate’s Double Chocolate Chip Cookies | No, contains Milk & Egg. |
| Tate’s Walnut Chocolate Chip Cookies | No, contains Milk & Egg. |
| Tate’s Gingersnap Cookies | No, contains Milk & Egg. |
| Tate’s Cinnamon Brown Sugar Cookies | No, contains Milk & Egg. |
| Tate’s Pumpkin Spice Cookies | No, contains Milk & Egg. |
| Tate’s Oatmeal Raisin Cookies | No, contains Milk & Egg. |
| Tate’s White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies | No, contains Milk & Egg. |
Tate’s Cookies Ingredients
Below is a list of ingredients from all the flavors that I could find.
- Baking Soda
- Brown Cane Sugar
- Brown Sugar
- Butter
- Cane Sugar
- Canola And/Or Sunflower Oil
- Chocolate Chips
- Chocolate Liquor
- Cocoa Butter
- Cocoa Powder
- Coconut
- Coconut Extract
- Corn Starch
- Corn Syrup
- Dry Whole Milk
- Eggs
- Eggs Whites
- Flour
- Folic Acid
- High Oleic Sunflower Oil
- Lactic Acid
- Macadamia Nuts
- Malted Barley Flour
- Maple Syrup
- Milk
- Milk Fat
- Monocalcium Phosphate
- Vanilla Flavor
- Natural Flavor
- Natural Vanilla Flavor
- Niacin
- Oats
- Palm Oil
- Raisins
- Riboflavin
- Rice Flour
- Rice Syrup
- Salt
- Sea Salt
- Sodium Bicarbonate
- Soy Lecithin
- Sunflower Lecithin
- Thiamine Mononitrate
- Toffee
- Unbleached Flour
- Unsulfurated Molasses
- Vanilla
- Bean Specks
- Vanilla Beans
- Vegetable Shortening
- Vitamin A Palmitate
- Walnuts
- Water
- Wheat
[Source]
As always I’ve highlighted the ingredients that we need to take a closer look at.
Non-Vegan Ingredients
Milk & Eggs
Since both eggs and milk comes from animals, they are not vegan-friendly ingredients.
Questionable Ingredients
Natural Flavors
Natural flavors is an umbrella term, which means that companies can add whatever ingredients they wish to accomplish their taste inside natural flavors without needing to disclose all the ingredients.
They normally don’t disclose if they contain non-vegan ingredients but rather if they contain milk, because people can be allergic to milk.
Sugar
Sugar is a controversial ingredient within the vegan community and reason for this is the risk of bone char from dead cows being used in the production process. Beet sugar and cane sugar are two of the most common sugar types and the most popular one used in candy and sweets is cane sugar.
Beet sugar and raw cane sugar is always vegan-friendly, but the cane sugar is often refined to fit the product better and in this process the sugar is also bleach. One of the most common bleaching methods is to use bone char from dead cows.
Because of this, many vegans stay away from sugar completely, while other don’t. The bleaching method would never be disclosed on the ingredients label and if you are concerned then, contacting the company is the best option.
Vanilla Flavor
You might think that vanilla flavor is always vegan, but that is not the whole truth. I found an interesting article on National Geographic where they disclosed that companies can use butt goo from beavers as an ingredient in vanilla flavors.
So vegans needs to be careful when it comes to any flavoring ingredient.
Palm Oil
Another ingredient that has made a huge impact on the vegan community is palm oil. It’s known for being the most lucrative vegetable oil to produce and the reason for this is its production value per square meter which is higher than other vegetable oil.
But this does not make it controversial, the reason is the deforestation issues that takes place in order for the companies to produce palm oil. This has a very detrimental impact on the environment and it destroys the habitat of wildlife such as the orangutans.
But there is a way to make this ingredient more vegan-friendly and that is through an non-profit organization called RSPO. This stands for Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil and it helps companies produce and buy sustainable palm oil.
This way the production has a minimal impact on the environment and the wild life.
Soy & Corn
Soy and corn are two of the common GMO crop in the US and the problem with GMO’s is the high amount of herbicide used in order for the crops to grow. This can pollute the surrounding ecosystem and damage it beyond repair.
Vitamin A Palmitate
This ingredient can be sourced from both animals and plants.
Conclusion
It’s amazing that Tate’s chose to create some dedicated vegan flavors because all of their other cookies contains milk and egg, making them unfit for vegans. More and companies are making vegan alternatives, which is great for vegans.
Thanks for reading, take care!
