The Conscious Chocoholic: Sustainable Vegan Chocolate Bars

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.

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)

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.

Ombar (made by a small team in Cambridge)

Ombar is made by a small team in Cambridge with cacao (for superior taste and quality). They say ‘Cocoa? We don’t know her!’ Flavours include:

• Creamy oat m*lk and smooth dark
• Raspberry coconut and pistachio cream
• Vegan biscuit (like Yorkie bars!)
• Hazelnut truffle (tastes like Nutella)
• Caramelised or matcha blonde (green chocolate!)

Raw Halo (organic raw vegan chocolate)

Raw Halo has gone from a kitchen experiment to a major brand, sweetened with lucuma powder (a superfood that tastes like maple shortbread). This brand plants a tree for every 50 bars sold, so far having planted over 30,000 trees in the Andes forests in Peru, and Indonesia. Choose from:

• Dark Chocolate
• Mylk & Pink Salt
• Dark & Orange
• Dark & Mint
• Mylk & Vanilla

Seed & Bean (unique vegan chocolate flavours)

Seed and Bean has a vegan range that’s organic. Some of these flavours are quite unique such as lavender, dark espresso, Cornish sea salt and fruity ones (mandarin and spicy ginger or cardamom and lemon).

Nomo vegan chocolate (widely sold in stores)

NOMO is the one you’ve likely seen in most shops (it’s even sold in Tesco). It’s not organic, but it’s likely the best you’re going to get in shops, if you want a vegan chocolate bar (albeit expensive). It also makes Easter eggs and sharing boxes (like a plant-based version of a box of Roses!)

Lovo Vegan Chocolate (made in Switzerland)

Lovo is a Swiss brand (from the motherland of milk chocolate!) This is a quality small range made with oats, hazelnuts, coconuts or almonds.

Happi Chocolate (including oat mylk Easter eggs)

Happi offers many flavours of oat milk chocolate, including gingerbread. And also makes sustainably-packaged oat milk Easter eggs and advent calendars.

Luisa’s Vegan Chocolates (from Nottingham)

Luisa’s Vegan Chocolate is made in Nottingham, and pays farmer above standard fair trade prices. The chocolates are mostly based around cashew mylk, and available in many flavours including rose, white and matcha.

Plus there are Easter eggs and advent calendars, in sustainable packaging.

Moo Free rice chocolate (including Moofreeas!)

Moo Free is made with rice powder, and seriously tastes just like milk chocolate. Sold in many shops, you’ll find white chocolate bars, baking drops, choccy buttons and even Moofreesas (vegan Maltesers!)

The Undairy Co (tastes like a bar of dairy milk)

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.

Made in small batches in Lincolnshire, the recipe took two years to master!  The range includes fruit & nut, salted caramel, gooey hazelnut, chocolate orange and even vegan Turkish delight!

Coco Caravan (artisan chocolate from Gloucestershire)

Coco Caravan is a small brand founded by an ecologist (his artist partner designs the mandalas on the eco-friendly packaging). Sweetened with coconut sugar, 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

Booja Booja (luxury vegan truffles from Norfolk)

Booja Booja (Norfolk) also makes Easter eggs, alongside luxury boxes of chocolates sold in boxes hand-painted by Kashmir artists, so they can work from home in freezing Himalayan winters).

These are expensive but also very rich, so you don’t need many! The range includes espresso, and ones containing hazelnuts to champagne!

Plamil (including for food service in plastic-free packs)

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.

Play in Choc (plastic-free Kinder alternatives)

PLAY in CHOC offers organic vegan chocolates made with Peruvian cacao beans from family farms, organic Madagascan vanilla and organic creamed coconut from Indonesia.

These are ‘eco alternatives to Kinder eggs, with each box containing a 3D educational puzzle toy, to learn about endangered species. Never leave any toy (even natural) unsupervised with children.

Did you know that Kinder eggs are banned in the USA due to choking hazards from the inside toys. But not in the UK?