The Best Brands of Artisan Vegan Chocolate
Choosing vegan chocolate isn’t just about skipping milk. It’s about taste, ethics, and the planet. The best artisan vegan chocolate brands use fair trade cocoa, skip animal products, support farmers, focus on eco-friendly packaging, and offer natural, satisfying sweetness. If you want creamy, rich vegan chocolate with great flavour, these brands stand out.
Avoid caffeine for pregnancy/nursing. Keep chocolate away from pets (due to cocoa, dried fruits, nuts, nutmeg and xylitol – use letterbox guards for home delivery). Read more on food safety for people and pets.
Artisan brands do more than avoid dairy; they treat chocolate-making as an art, focusing on clean, traceable ingredients, fair trade practices, and eco-friendly packaging. Oat milk often features as the star for non-dairy creaminess, far outshining older soya or almond-based chocolates. Many artisan companies use coconut sugar or other plant sweeteners, so you get a full, rich flavour without refined white sugar.
Why Are People Giving Up Dairy?
The dairy industry is huge. No-one denies that a small organic dairy farmer treats his cows well. But the big dairy industry (from where most dairy milk is produced – especially for all the by-products used in ready-meals etc) has huge welfare concerns.
It’s still the case in the UK that most male calves (of no financial use to the dairy industry, which is separate from the beef industry) are shot dead soon after birth.
Many cows spend their entire lives in factory farms, being inseminated and giving birth, then having their calves ripped from them soon after birth. Cows and calves have incredibly strong relationships, and will cry out loudly for weeks, if separated.
Some organisations are helping dairy farmers to transfarm over to growing more profitable oats, giving seeds and training. Remaining animals are then left to live out their lives in peace, akin to farm sanctuaries.
Happi Oat Milk Chocolate
Happi offers many flavours of oat milk chocolate, including gingerbread. This company even makes sustainably-packaged oat milk Easter eggs and advent calendars.
Choose Fair Trade chocolate (cocoa is grown by some of the poorest farmers on earth). Although plastic chocolate wrappers are a litter hazard, some ‘compostable packaging’ is from flammable eucalyptus plantations (causes wildfires), so choose brands in paper or cardboard, if possible.
Vegan Chocolate from Switzerland
Rhythm 108 is a Swiss chocolate company (and you can’t get better than that!) that makes a range of delicious vegan chocolate bars:
- Hazelnut Praline combines hazelnut chunks and praline in dark chocolate. The same flavour combination as Nutella.
- Sweet Salty Almond is filled with smooth almond butter and crunchy almond pieces, dipped in ‘milk’ chocolate and finished with a pinch of sea salt.
- Creamy Coconut has coconut flakes and coconut cream, with dark chocolate. The company calls this their ‘Swiss swap’ for Bounty bars!
Lovo offers chocolate with toasty notes and next-level creaminess. Choose from bars made with oat, almond, hazelnut or coconut milk, for that Dairy Milk flavour without the cow.
Vegan Alternative to Cadbury’s Dairy Milk
The Undairy Co (also sold at Farm Fetch) was co-founded by a man who had to visit ‘Sad Alley’ (the free-from aisle in supermarkets), after being diagnosed with a dairy allergy. After spending years trying to find a chocolate he liked, he gave up and decided to make his own.
This chocolate is so creamy, it is loved by people who love milk chocolate, and is likely the closest you’ll find in a vegan bar to a bar of ‘dairy milk’. The recipe took 2 years to master! The bars became so popular, this couple quit their jobs and sold their house, to build a chocolate factory!
- Original Creamy
- Fruit & Nut
- Salted Caramel
- Honeycomb
- Chunky Nut
- Dark
- Chocolate Orange
- Dark Ginger
- Dark Orange
Otherly Oat Milk Chocolate Bars
Otherly (also sold at Farm Fetch) offers creamy chocolate that tastes like dairy milk. The packs are illustrated by artist Tomi Um, the brand founded by a chocolate entrepreneur who was increasingly catering for allergies.
Just like oat plantmilk is great for creamy hot drinks, oats are great to give that ‘dairy milk’ taste in chocolate bars too. Flavours include:
- Salted Caramel
- Sea Salt
- Peppermint
- Cold-Brew Coffee
- Seasonal Gingerbread
- Cinnamon Clove Drinking Chocolate
Coco Caravan (including Easter eggs!)
Coco Caravan uses fairly-sourced cocoa, and sweetens bars with coconut sugar. This brand was co-founded by an ecologist and artist (who designs the mandalas, on the eco-friendly packaging). The brand works direct with cacao farmers, supporting fair wages and safe conditions. Without any middlemen taking a cut.
Unlike most companies, the ‘flavours’ are listed by country (a bit like coffee). Alongside Oat Milk chocolate and Easter eggs, you’ll find chocolates from:
- Colombia
- Brazil
- Guatemala
- Jamaica
- Mexico
- Peru
- Tanzania
Coconut sugar is often used in artisan chocolate brands, rather than white refined sugar. With a natural maple flavour, it’s also better for you.
Luisa’s Vegan Chocolate from Nottingham
Luisa’s Vegan Chocolate is an artisan chocolate company, founded by a woman who pays farmers 60% above Fair Trade prices. Single bars are all made with just a few ingredients.
The quality cocoa beans give intense chocolate taste without without bitterness or chalky texture. Flavours include:
- Hazelnut M*lk
- White Casholate
- Gingerbread Casholate
- Casholate M*lk Chocolate
- Latte Chocolate
- Wild Rose White Casholate
Ombar Chocolate (and chocolate buttons)
Ombar is known for its organic ingredients, to make creamy bars without milk. It uses unroasted cacao, so this keeps in more natural antioxidants and nutrients. Raw cacao is often linked to health benefits like improved mood and heart health.
The company sources its cacao and coconut sugar from farms that follow strict organic practices. And there’s no palm oil, so our orangutans friends are looked after by this chocolate company!
Flavours include:
- Ombar 72% Cacao
- Ombar Coco Mylk
- Ombar Blueberry & Acai
- Ombar Raspberry & Coconut
- Coconut & Vanilla
- Hazelnut Truffle
- Ombar Pistachio
- Ombar Almond & Salt
- Ombar Strawberry Mylk
Plastic-Free Alternatives to Kinder Eggs
PLAY in CHOC offers alternatives to Kinder Eggs, which are banned for sale in the USA due to choking hazards (at least three children have died, the company not liable due to warnings on packs).
Never leave any toy (even natural) unsupervised with children. Keep away from pets due to choking and chocolate hazards.
These bars are organic, sold with collectible 3D puzzle toys, and animal fun fact cards. All plastic-free, and designed to help children learn about endangered species, woodland animals, rabbits and dinosaurs!
The chocolates are also designed to be free from the top 14 allergens, made with cacao, coconut and vanilla. Everything is made in the UK, with a portion of profits to environmental charities.
Why Kinder Eggs are Banned in the USA
In the USA, Kinder Eggs are straight-out banned, due to the small plastic toys presenting a choking hazard (at least three children have died).
The company cannot be sued, as it has warnings on the packet (which is why the UK does not ban them, saying it is parental responsibility to not leave children alone with the toys).
Strangely, McDonald’s Happy Meal Toys (which are gradually moving to plastic-free) are not banned outright, so it’s all a bit confusing. These toys have been restricted in certain cities (mostly due to concerns over childhood obesity).
In San Francisco, a law passed banning toys with meals that did not meet certain nutritional standards. McDonald’s therefore charged 10 cents for the toys (donating the proceeds) so it was a separate purchase, to circumvent the law.
In the USA, the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has strict rules on banning foods with ‘inedible objects’ inside them (apart from lollipop sticks). People who bring Kinder eggs into the USA, will have them seized by customs, and some people have even been fined.
Coconut Sugar-sweetened Raw Chocolate Bars
Raw Halo focuses on quality ingredients and ethical production, for those who value flavour and values. These bars of organic cacao and coconut sugar are sold nationwide. Creamed coconut is used for the mylk chocolate bars, with a little lucuma powder (a superfood that tastes like maple shortbread).
This brand works with a social enterprise to produce the chocolate, and plants a tree (in Peru or Indonesia) for every 50 bars sold. Raw Halo chocolate uses only certified organic ingredients. Every bar is made with unroasted cacao, which helps keep the natural antioxidants intact.
The range includes:
- Dark Chocolate
- Mylk & Pink Salt
- Dark & Orange
- Dark & Mint
- Mylk & Vanilla
Raw chocolate is more than just a sweet treat. When you eat it in its pure form, you get a burst of flavour alongside real health perks. Unlike regular chocolate that’s roasted and packed with additives, raw chocolate keeps its natural goodness. The taste is rich and earthy, and each bite offers more than comfort.
Moo Free Chocolate (served on British Airways!)
Moo Free is sold nationwide, you can even buy bargain ‘wonky choc’ made from offcuts! Made with rice powder, these bars taste just like dairy milk, and you can also buy chocolate chips for baking.
Rice milk doesn’t have strong flavours that can clash with cocoa. Unlike alternatives like coconut or almond, rice milk lets the chocolate stand out. This makes the experience nearly the same as eating a regular dairy milk bar, with cocoa’s taste front and centre, not masked by other notes.
The range includes:
- Chocolate bars and chocolate buttons
- White chocolate bars
- Moofreesas (vegan Maltesers!)
Labels are very clear for people with allergies, and the brand uses Rainforest Alliance certified cocoa, to support farmers and protect the planet. It also makes white chocolate, and seasonal Easter eggs and Christmas treats.
The brand is easily found in health shops and supermarkets, and is even now the brand of choice on British Airways.
Booja Booja Luxury Chocolate Truffles
Booja Booja is a Norfolk food brand, which offers luxury chocolate truffles, sold in health stores, farm shops and some supermarkets. It’s been around for 25 years, and the boxes (and Easter egg packaging) are decorated by Kashmir artists (which gives them home income, during freezing Himalayan winters).
These are very rich, so are the perfect size for the occasional treat, sold in boxes of several flavours including:
- Fine de Champagne
- Hazelnut Crunch
- Almond Salted Caramel
- Espresso
- Raspberry Ecuadorian
- Stem Ginger
- Around Midnight Espresso
- Orange Chocolate
- Vegan Chocolate Easter Eggs
