The Best Brands of Artisan Vegan Chocolate
Happi offers many flavours of oat milk chocolate, including gingerbread. This company even makes sustainably-packaged oat milk Easter eggs and advent calendars.
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.
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.
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.
Ombar (fair trade organic vegan chocolate)
Ombar is a brand of vegan chocolate, that is also organic and Fair Trade. It uses unroasted cacao to keep more antioxidants for mood and heart health. Sweetened with coconut sugar, and free from palm oil.
The range (which includes mixed bundles) includes:
- Ombar 72% Cacao
- Ombar Coco Mylk
- Ombar Blueberry & Acai
- Ombar Raspberry & Coconut
- Coconut & Vanilla
- Hazelnut Truffle
- Ombar Pistachio
- Ombar Almond & Salt
- Ombar Strawberry Mylk
- Advent Calendars
The Undairy Co (creamy plant-based chocolate)
The Undairy Co was founded by a couple who were fed up of visiting ‘Sad Alley’ (the free-from aisle in supermarkets) to find chocolate, after he was diagnosed with a dairy allergy. After spending years trying to find tasty dairy-free chocolate, they gave up and decided to make their own.
Made in small batches in Lincolnshire, this brand is ideal if you like the taste of dairy-milk chocolate, but without the dairy (this brand also has less sugar).
The recipe for this chocolate took two years to master. And once it went on sale, it became so popular, that the couple quit their jobs and sold their house, to build a chocolate factory!
The range includes:
- Original Creamy
- Fruit & Nut
- Chunky Nut
- Salted Caramel
- Gooey Hazelnut
- Turkish Delight
- Honeycomb
- Chocolate Orange
- Dark Ginger or Orange
Coco Caravan (vegan organic chocolate bars)
Coco Caravan is an artisan brand of vegan organic chocolate, sweetened with coconut sugar. The brand was founded by an ecologist, whose artist partner designs the mandalas on the eco-friendly packaging.
This brand works direct with cacao farmers, to support fair wages and safe working conditions. It works with regenerative farmers who reuse other parts of the beans for products like tea, to ensure nothing goes to waste.
Hand-crafted in Stroud (Gloucestershire), the range includes bean-to-bar chocolate, and even vegan organic Easter eggs in cardboard boxes.
Like coffee, the range is listed by country, rather than flavour. Choose from:
- Brazil
- Colombia
- Guatemala
- Jamaica
- Mexico
- Peru
- Tanzania
Luisa’s Vegan Chocolate (made in Nottingham)
Luisa’s Vegan Chocolate is an artisan chocolate company in Nottingham, founded by a woman who pays cacao farmers 60% above Fair Trade prices. The single bars contain just a few quality ingredients, and the casholate range is designed to replace dairy milk.
You’ll also find unique bars like white chocolate, rose chocolate and even Easter eggs and Advent calendars, in easy-to-recycle packaging.
Flavours include:
- Hazelnut M*lk
- White Casholate
- Gingerbread Casholate
- Casholate M*lk Chocolate
- Latte Chocolate
- Wild Rose White Casholate
Raw Halo (organic vegan chocolate bars)
Raw Halo is a chocolate brand that started with kitchen experiments, and now is a major force in the ethical food world, sold in many shops nationwide.
These organic vegan bars use unroasted cacao for best nutrition, creamed coconut for the same ‘dairy flavour’ plus lucuma powder (a superfood that tastes like maple shortbread).
The brand also plants a tree for every 50 bars sold, so far having planted over 30,000 trees in the Andes forests in Peru, and Tanjung National Park in Indonesia. This helps to restore vital ecosystems, supports local communities, and gives back to places where the ingredients are grown.
- Dark Chocolate
- Mylk & Pink Salt
- Dark & Orange
- Dark & Mint
- Mylk & Vanilla
Moo Free (rice milk vegan chocolate treats)
Moo Free is a major brand of dairy-free chocolate, created due to allergy concerns. Made with rice powder, these bars taste just like dairy-milk, and sold in many health shops, farm shops and supermarkets.
You can recycle packaging at supermarket bag bins, if your kerbside does not recycle.
The range includes:
- ‘Milk Chocolate’ Bars
- Mini Moo Bars
- White Chocolate Bars
- Baking Drops
- Choccy Buttons
- Moofreesas (vegan Maltesers!)
- Easter Eggs and Advent Calendars (made with recycled plastic)
Lovo (vegan ‘milk chocolate’ from Switzerland)
Lovo is a family-owned business in beautiful Switzerland (known as ‘the motherland of milk chocolate’). But this company does things differently, giving all the flavour of dairy chocolate, but with no animal ingredients.
The range of bars include:
- Hazelnutmilk
- Oatmilk
- Coconutmilk
- Almondmilk
Booja Booja (luxury vegan chocolates from Norfolk)
Booja Booja is a Norfolk brand of luxury vegan chocolate (it also makes dairy-free ice-creams), sold in health stores, farm shops and some supermarkets. This company has been around for over 25 years, the luxury boxes (and Easter egg packaging) given income to Kashmir artists, who work from home during freezing Himalayan winters).
These chocolate are expensive but also very rich, so the perfect occasional treat for special days. Sold in boxes of single or mixed flavours, the range includes:
- Fine de Champagne
- Hazelnut Crunch
- Almond Salted Caramel
- Espresso
- Raspberry Ecuadorian
- Stem Ginger
- Around Midnight Espresso
- Orange Chocolate
- Easter Eggs
- Hot Chocolate
Booja Booja also sells Christmas decorations, again to support Kashmir artists. These are not toys, so keep away from children and pets (read more on keeping pets safe at Christmas).
Play-in-Choc (organic vegan chocolates for children)
PLAY in CHOC offers organic vegan chocolates made with Peruvian cacao beans from family farms, organic Madagascan vanilla and organic creamed coconut from Indonesia.
What makes this company unique is that not only is it sold in plastic-free packaging, but each box has a 3D educational puzzle toy inside, making them the ideal alternative to plastic-filled Kinder Eggs (banned for sale in the USA).
Never leave any toy (even natural) unsupervised with children. Keep toys and chocolate away from pets.
Children can enjoy organic vegan chocolate, then read fun fact cards to learn about endangered species, woodland animals, rabbits and dinosaurs!
The chocolates are also designed to be free from the top 14 allergens. Made in the UK, with a portion of profits given to environmental charities:
