I came across kimchi watching Mommy Tang (whom thankfully, is now getting back into youtube). Traditional kimchi is not vegan (it uses fish sauce), I do believe it's naturally gluten free though but always check the ingredients. It's something you might have to try more than once to really like it (that was the case for me), but there are also differing flavors so you should be able to find a preference.
This is a list of the vegan kimchi you can get in the DMV, I'm sure you can get these in other states,however, that's not where I live to vouch for. There may be some flavor variations that I didn't include or brands I missed so please feel free to leave it in the comments. I got these from a variety of grocery stores and a couple food spots [Safeway, Giant, Mom's, Wegmans, Whole Foods (a friend of mine mentioned David's) Matcha Time Cafe & Bibibop]. Of course there's the store locator option.
This is my favorite kimchi. I can eat it by itself, just with rice or cook it into anything. I get this from safeway or giant, if it's not at one it's usually at the other. Sometimes neither will have it in for a week or two randomly so the last time I bought all five jars that were there.
This is the brand I found through Mommy Tang and it's great. It's also not cut up so if you want to use it as a wrap or just like to eat a lot at a time this is really good. I saw the "kimchi wrap" done by Stephanie Soo aka MissMangoButt and I'm dying to try it. (She's not vegan so obviously it would be a modified version) MIL also make non vegan kimchi so be sure to check the label.
This is the first brand I found in my area, it does taste lighter and healthier. I don't have another way to describe it but this is really good to eat if you're sick, especially if your sinuses are stuffed up you can just drink the white kimchi juice and it helps. At least it does for me, though the smell is potent to some and the spicy kimchi has more flavor though I wouldn't say it's actually spicy.
*She now makes a cucumber kimchi, I prefer fresh cucumber kimchi as there'll be more crunch but it's still yummy.
I have seen this in Chicago, I don't remember the store name though, sorry. The flavor of this is really good, however, it is salty so if high blood pressure is something you're conscientious of you might want to either water this down, cook it into something or maybe make onigiri. I made onigiri and it was spicy rather than salty as well as in stew which it's perfect for. They have a Japanese kimchi but I haven't tried it yet.
I'm not fond of what the miso does to the kimchi flavor, it's also in more of a thick paste than juice. Now as I was already vegan when I started eating kimchi so I can't say how close the taste is to traditional kimchi but it's still pretty good. I was told they have a seasonal kimchi that uses daikon, it was out of season at the time but I'm really interested to try it.
This tastes like peppered pickles.
It's pretty good with rice and string beans. It's not really my place to pass judgement but I don't really consider this kimchi. I know it says "California style" but it's more like peppered sauerkraut.
This is from bibibop, they have a tin of it so you can put it directly into your bowl or you can take one of these cups. They don't always fill the cups as much as they used to. There's a bit of tang and sometimes there's more spice to it but it's good and not overbearing.
This is from Matcha Time Cafe, They don't always have kimchi as they are a small business in Old Ellicott City (major flood devastated area). They do have about six different recipes though, I believe two of them aren't vegan, I've only had this one because I don't live near there to just go every week. You can check before hand if the have kimchi. They were going to start doing a different kimchi every other weekend or something along those lines but I haven't been back yet so just call or message them to see if they have any.
This tastes like a cross between the Wildbrine and Mother In Law's kimchi. Not as spicy as wildbrine, it gives me a spring/summer vibe. I like it by itself and I feel like it'll give a more mild taste to soup.
http://ozuke.com/
Rather than having to constantly adding new photos I made a spreadsheet!
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1rC_UHfiUPSYxpxM1PCEBjuGMUwklZAUy5Hj-qM27aas/edit#gid=0
Honorable Mentions
I saw these when I was walking around whole foods and thought you guys might be interested.
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