Plamil Vegan Chocolate (including wholesale for caterers)

Plamil was one of England’s first vegan brands, and today still makes vegan chocolate, free from palm oil and in paper packaging. The range includes baking chips, a coffee bar and Plamilla (vegan chocolate spread).

Plamil offers vegan chocolate bars in health shops, and has a wholesale site for chefs and caterers to buy different types of vegan chocolate in bulk.

Avoid caffeine (in chocolate and coffee chocolate) if pregnant or nursing.

Keep chocolate (plus nuts, nutmeg and dried fruits away from pets. Also avoid chocolates sweetened with xylitol (this birch sweetener is not just lethal in leftovers for animal friends if dropped, but also bad for your tummy).

Organic vegan chocolate is pretty difficult to find in most shops, though you may have more success in independent health stores or farm shops. If bought in bulk online, use a letterbox guard is you live with dogs, in case you’re out.

Of course, England would call itself a chocoholic nation, considering the amount of chocolate bars bought (and often littered). But actually near all of them are packed with sugar, and it’s more a sugar than chocolate addiction. Plus many contain palm oil, and they also rot your teeth!

Indulge instead in better brands. Yes, they are more expensive, so just eat less. This is also for important welfare reasons, as cocoa beans are grown by some of the poorest farmers on earth. Some even say that the wages that some farmers get paid, is almost equivalent to slavery. In an industry that makes billions.

These brands all have different personalities. Whether you like dark chocolate, prefer the taste of ‘dairy milk’, or like to play around with praline to fruit-filled choccies.

Issues with chocolate and packaging

With chocolate (unless you make your own, there’s a recipe below), comes packaging. But like coffee, it’s difficult to pack chocolate in paper, as it causes ‘bloom’. But so-called ‘compostable wrap’ is often made from flammable eucalyptus trees (new plantations are already banned in Spain and Portugal, due to wildfire concerns).

So for now, look for chocolate in paper and recycle any plastic packaging at supermarket bag bins, if your kerbside doesn’t recycle.