best Vegan Chocolate? We've Got You Covered

Vegan Chocolate

My oh my, how I adore chocolate. 

There isn’t much else that makes me ooh and aah like a nice big bar. However, when I went vegan, I was so terrified that my love for chocolate would be forced to cease since most big-name players like Cadbury and Galaxy are full of dairy ingredients.

I was so wrong.

In recent years, big-name chocolate brands such as Cadbury, Galaxy and Green and Blacks have made more effort than ever before to include vegan-friendly recipes in their products. Now, while many dairy-eaters condemn this change in the consumerist industry, I, for one, am very thankful for the new vegan chocolate on the market. 

It tastes even better than regular chocolate if you ask me.

You might be wondering, why has everyone gone the extra mile for vegan recipes over the past few years? Let’s discuss that, shall we?

Veganuary

Veganuary

Source: USWSU

Veganuary is the holy grail for all-new vegan products, leaving the vegan community charged up and ready for January to arrive every year. 

It all started in an effort to increase the percentage of the population eating a plant-based diet and became all the rage in 2014 when the challenge was held for the first time.

Each year, participation in the 31-day veganuary challenge has more than doubled, with over 400,000 people signing up for the campaign in 2020. 

With veganuary being such a big hit, big corporate companies have adopted a mad scramble to roll in the dough for January. This has resulted in an abundance of vegan products being released in January every year, chocolate being one of the most exciting.

So which chocolate in our local supermarket is actually vegan?

Vegan Chocolate In Your Supermarket

Vegan Chocolate

Source: CTP Photography

It can be so easy to walk down the chocolate aisle in your local supermarket and walk past something that you had no idea was vegan friendly.

I’ve done it plenty of times, having only just recently realised that Galaxy’s vegan chocolate bar had been stocked in our local Tesco the entire time!

So in order to avoid you making similar mistakes, I’m going to make a long and comprehensive list of every chocolate brand that I can think of that is suitable for vegans. 

You can thank me later.

iChoc Vegan Range

iChoc Vegan Range

iChoc is one of my personal favourites (if you exclude Galaxy Smooth Orange, but we’ll get into that later!)

Not only does iChoc’s Vegan range come in a wide variety of flavours, but they are absolutely delicious and much more available than they used to be.

Here is the full range of vegan flavours for you to choose from:

  • Classic
  • White Vanilla
  • Choco Cookie
  • Almond Orange
  • Super Nut
  • White Nougat Crisp
  • Expedition Jungle Bites

While the variety of flavours is amazing and extensive with something to suit everyone’s personal taste, they can be pricey depending on where you shop. In your local health food store, they are likely to be less expensive than big corporate stores (they tend to charge a little more for vegan products!)

If you buy them online, however, you can get them in bulk for much cheaper. This is usually the route I go.

Montezuma’s

Montezuma’s

Source: LinkedIn

Another smaller player in the best vegan chocolate industry, but by no means less delicious. Montezuma’s are a cult classic for vegan chocolate, often filling stockings and Easter eggs all year round for vegans and chocolate lovers alike.

While iChoc is extremely creamy and likened to Dairy Milk chocolate, Montezuma is known for its astoundingly delicious dark chocolate, which comes in various flavours and gorgeous colours! Here are just a few:

  • Cherry Pie Truffle
  • Chilli Bonkers 
  • Black Forest Cherry
  • Lordy Lord Dark Chocolate
  • Spice It Up Ginger
  • Sea Dog Lime and Sea Salt
  • Happy Hippy Orange and Geranium
  • Like No Udder Milk Alternative

Many more can be listed on their website under ‘vegan chocolate bars.’

Montezuma’s are available almost everywhere in terms of price, often on offer and discounted in big supermarkets like Tesco, Asda and Morrisons. I’ve seen them for as cheap as £1 on offer before in my local Tesco. 

The most popular flavours to stock in supermarkets are Sea Dog and Happy Hippy, with nearly no reports of Like No Udder being seen anywhere except Amazon and Montezuma’s website.  Although your local health food store is likely to stock the other flavours, and I certainly recommend trying them since they are absolutely out of this world. Dare I say that they are like no udder.

Cadbury Bournville

Cadbury Bournville

Source: SLR Mag

I hear you, and you’re probably thinking how much you would rather a creamy chocolate alternative rather than dark chocolate all day long. Hear me out.

Cadbury’s Bournville Orange is my go-to chocolate every time, and there is an excellent reason for this. It doesn’t taste like dark chocolate. Not even a little bit.

Cadbury’s, being the masters of chocolate, have mastered the best vegan chocolate bar, including none of the milk in their Bournville recipe yet still managing to make it taste exactly like Dairy Milk. I don’t know how they’ve done it, but boy, am I glad they did.

Not to mention, Cadbury’s Bournville is one of the oldest chocolate bars made by Cadbury, indicated by the ‘OLD!’ label on the bar pictured above. Bournville Orange was brought back after so many people missed it that Cadbury had no choice but to announce its significant return.

Now Bournville comes in multiple flavours, the others being Old Jamaica (Rum & Raisin) and Cadbury Bournville Classic.

Cadbury Bournville

Source: Old Jamaica / Confectionery News

Cadbury Bournville

Source: Bournville Classic / Veganoo

Galaxy Vegan

Galaxy Vegan

Finally, the big bucks. The one we’ve all been waiting for: Galaxy Vegan Chocolate.

Galaxy is one of those brands that immediately remind me of my mother, who always had a bar after work. I’m reminded of the adverts where women would find a bar in a draw and sit in the window under the basking moonlight and eat it lovingly.

I thought veganism had taken Galaxy chocolate away from me forever, but how wrong I was.

Recently (as part of the veganuary hype), Galaxy released an entire vegan range, including:

  • Caramel Hazelnut
  • Smooth Orange (my all-time favourite)
  • Caramel and Sea Salt
  • Smooth Mint
  • Crumbled Cookie
  • AND a vegan instant hot chocolate!

These products are usually available to buy in your local supermarket (mine is Tesco’s), but if not, they are certainly available online and in local health food stores.

Conclusion

Having a plant-based diet doesn’t mean that chocolate is out of your league.

There are so many wonderful, affordable and delicious chocolate brands out there for vegans to choose from (some of which didn’t even intend on being vegan, but here we are!)

Take a look in the chocolate aisle of your supermarket, look for these brands, check the ingredients labels, and get yourself a treat. You deserve it.