About Us

“A vegan diet is probably the biggest step towards reducing our impact on the planet ” - Joseph Poore, University of Oxford, Science 2018

MUKA stands for “green change”, a change we believe is essential to addressing the environmental and ethical challenges of today. Convinced that human beings, animals and nature can live in harmony, we decided to combine this conviction with our passion for cooking and the art of fermentation.

Our transition to a vegetarian diet was accompanied by the discovery of new and incredible flavors. We were wuick to forget those old flavors. There was, however, one exception: cheese.

“Vegetable cheeses” were products made from oils, starches and aromas that, in addition to being harmful to our health, did not make reference to the affective memory we had of the “cheese” flavor, obtained through fermentation and time. .

We believed we could do better. Muka is the result of several homemade experiments that quickly became successful among family and friends. A simple and healthy vegetable alternative that aims to satisfy the palates of all those who wish to explore new flavors.

Tasty and healthy vegan alternatives

We find the best nuts, add water, salt and fermentation cultures (aka probiotics) and let them ferment and cure for several weeks or months. All of our cheeses are produced by hand, in small batches.

Inspired by traditional cheesemaking, we follow artisanal and ancient cheese production methods and use only organic ingredients.

Packaging

We use the most sustainable packaging we can find. The creamy cheeses are stored in recyclable and reusable glass jars and the remaining cheeses in packaging made from 100% recycled and recyclable FSC cardboard and wrapped in vacuum bags or film. Vacuum bags can be composted at home or placed in a municipal organic waste container. Brito and Cajuberto films are only industrially compostable and must therefore be placed in a municipal organic waste container. If you don't have a way to do this, put them in the general trash as they cannot be recycled.

We want to promote the reuse of packaging whenever possible. In this sense, we will give a €0.50 discount voucher on a future purchase for each bottle that is returned to us - at the moment we are only able to offer returns in the markets in which we are present (monthly), in deliveries from our online store (in Lisbon ), or in our space in Marvila.

Our history

I'm Teresa and I started Muka in the middle of the pandemic because I thought it was urgent to have quality vegetable cheese so that people could have a diet with less environmental impact and healthier.

After five years working on the lands of her majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, sitting in an office, I decided to make a different living. The decision took place on a rare day when the sun did not rise, to the surprise of those involved. I convinced Manel (my husband) that agap yearwasn't just for teenagers, we sold our belongings and prepared our bags, with the aim of crossing the entire American continent (since Patagonia to Alaska) by land and water, hitchhiking.

A year of adventures passed until a virus changed everything. We were still in Colombia, halfway through the journey, and we ended up deciding to return to our homeland for a few months, until the dust settled, and then return to the trip.

Confined at home, I got to work and created a small fermentation and experiment laboratory, from bread to beer and vegetable cheese.

In London I had fallen in love with gastronomy, after discovering a whole new world of cuisines, ingredients and fermentation processes. I became a weekend baker since 2015, when I discovered that a sourdough was incredibly better than the bread I was used to eating in Portugal (I couldn't bear to leave Freddy - my sourdough starter- and I took it to travel with us throughout South America, where it served as a meal on more than 40-50 occasions). Then I discovered krauts, kombucha, tempeh and, later, that it was possible to make cheese from nuts.

I felt that there was still a whole new world to explore in vegetable cheese and the taste for challenges ended up taking me here. The dust from the pandemic ended up taking longer than we anticipated to settle, we decided to stay and Muka was born.

Do you want to know more?

If you want to know more, send us an email to info@muka.pt. We hope to respond as soon as possible.