It's Chocolate Week!
Yep, that's right. It's UK Chocolate Week from 10-16 October 2016. Now, every week is chocolate week in my house but saying that there are still vegan chocs I've yet to try there is such a huge range available now. In the ten years that I have been vegan I have tried lots though and am always up for sampling new ones. Here are my favourites that I've discovered so far broken down into categories by style.
Dark Chocolate
I came across this bar when I was the vegan reviewer for Can I Eat It? App and I got sent a range of Seed and Bean chocolate for review purposes. Vegan chocolate is very well represented in their range and the bars are great quality, Fairtrade, Organic and widely available. I fell in love this Cornish Sea Salt bar where the crunchiness of the salt pairs brilliantly with the malty flavours of the chocolate.
White Chocolate
I don't eat a huge amount of white chocolate but I do fancy a bit now and again. Organica was one of the first brands I came across in my local health food shop when I was newly vegan and I was so glad they existed! They make a milk bar that is a pretty good pass for a Galaxy style choc but my favourite is their white chocolate, generously flecked with vanilla seeds.
I've actually gone for a joint first place for white chocolate as although I remain loyal to Organica I also recently discovered this White Nougat Crisp proving that vegan white choc can be done in different style. Like the Organica bar with this one there is something about white chocolate that is seriously moreish and a bar doesn't hang around for long!
Milk Chocolate
Probably the style I eat the least of is vegan milk chocolate. I think that would change though if Ethico oat milk chocolate was in my local shops! Although it's not that widely available luckily you can buy it online and sometimes at vegan fairs. I was delighted to receive some samples when they first started out and I found their oat milk bars seriously mind blowing! Here's a link to the review I did back then and check out their website as there are some other amazing sounding flavours on there.
Raw Chocolate
Now, onto raw chocolate. I've long been a fan of raw chocolate and it's been fascinating to see the different brands develop over the years. One company that I come back to over and over again is the Raw Chocolate Company. I love everything they do from their bars which manage to create the snappy texture of non-raw chocolate to my favourite little treats which are these raw chocolate covered mulberries. I find mulberries on their own can be a little sharp tasting but wonderful things happen when they are coated in this signature raw chocolate.
Caramac Style
And finally onto something that I'm not sure is familiar to people outside of the UK. According to Wikipedia Caramac bars were temporarily available in Canada in the 1960s and 70s but remain primarily a UK product. I loved them when I was a kid and always looked forward to a Caramac Easter Egg even though they didn't have anything inside them! Imagine a caramel flavour white chocolate and you're sort of there though technically I don't think Caramacs actually qualify as chocolate they have the look and texture of a chocolate bar. Well, the Raw Chocolate Company's Vanoffee bars remind me a bit of how I remember Caramacs tasting and I love them and as they do qualify as chocolate I'm including them here.
Dark Chocolate
I came across this bar when I was the vegan reviewer for Can I Eat It? App and I got sent a range of Seed and Bean chocolate for review purposes. Vegan chocolate is very well represented in their range and the bars are great quality, Fairtrade, Organic and widely available. I fell in love this Cornish Sea Salt bar where the crunchiness of the salt pairs brilliantly with the malty flavours of the chocolate.
White Chocolate
I don't eat a huge amount of white chocolate but I do fancy a bit now and again. Organica was one of the first brands I came across in my local health food shop when I was newly vegan and I was so glad they existed! They make a milk bar that is a pretty good pass for a Galaxy style choc but my favourite is their white chocolate, generously flecked with vanilla seeds.
I've actually gone for a joint first place for white chocolate as although I remain loyal to Organica I also recently discovered this White Nougat Crisp proving that vegan white choc can be done in different style. Like the Organica bar with this one there is something about white chocolate that is seriously moreish and a bar doesn't hang around for long!
Milk Chocolate
Probably the style I eat the least of is vegan milk chocolate. I think that would change though if Ethico oat milk chocolate was in my local shops! Although it's not that widely available luckily you can buy it online and sometimes at vegan fairs. I was delighted to receive some samples when they first started out and I found their oat milk bars seriously mind blowing! Here's a link to the review I did back then and check out their website as there are some other amazing sounding flavours on there.
Raw Chocolate
Now, onto raw chocolate. I've long been a fan of raw chocolate and it's been fascinating to see the different brands develop over the years. One company that I come back to over and over again is the Raw Chocolate Company. I love everything they do from their bars which manage to create the snappy texture of non-raw chocolate to my favourite little treats which are these raw chocolate covered mulberries. I find mulberries on their own can be a little sharp tasting but wonderful things happen when they are coated in this signature raw chocolate.
Caramac Style
And finally onto something that I'm not sure is familiar to people outside of the UK. According to Wikipedia Caramac bars were temporarily available in Canada in the 1960s and 70s but remain primarily a UK product. I loved them when I was a kid and always looked forward to a Caramac Easter Egg even though they didn't have anything inside them! Imagine a caramel flavour white chocolate and you're sort of there though technically I don't think Caramacs actually qualify as chocolate they have the look and texture of a chocolate bar. Well, the Raw Chocolate Company's Vanoffee bars remind me a bit of how I remember Caramacs tasting and I love them and as they do qualify as chocolate I'm including them here.
What's your favourite vegan chocolate treat. I'd love to know!
Those white chocolate bars look so delicious! I've only had vegan white chocolate once, it's really hard to find! I think my favorite treat is any kind of vegan chocolate that reminds me of milk. I'm enjoying the Amy's Chocolate nougat bars, they remind me of a vegan three musketeers.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to have to track down some UK milk and white to send to you! The Amy's bars sound lovely. I think a 3 musketeers is what we would call a Milky Way over here. And I think what you would call a Milky Way is what we call a Mars Bar!
DeleteI love Seed and Bean chocolate it's so rich and delicious! I really wanna try the Raw Chocolate Mulberries - they sound lovey!! I'm not a fan of white chocolate I've not found a vegan version I like!
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I definitely recommend tracking the mulberries down, in fact anything from Raw Chocolate Co as it's all gorgeous!
DeleteOoh, chocolate week, how did I not know about this?
ReplyDeleteI found the lavender Seed and Bean in a shop in rural Norfolk and it was delicious, I've always loved lavender things but never found any vegan lavender food.
I think the lavender was the first one of their bars that I tried. I love lavander things too. I have an easy lavander shortbread recipe. They always go down well at bakesales.
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That Seed & Bean sea salt chocolate bar is one of my absolute favourites but I also love their Sicilian Hazelnut bar. I'm also partial to a Vego but I'll try anything that's certified by the Food Empowerment Project at least once!
ReplyDeleteI must track down the Sicilian hazelnut as I haven't tried it yet. I like a bit of Vego now and again too.
DeleteI am a dark chocolate fan all the way. I want my chocolate dark and bitter. I find most 'milk' style chocolates too sweet, and I loathe white 'chocolate'... should it even be allowed to be called chocolate? Should it even be allowed to exist? Am I being overly dramatic?
ReplyDeleteI love the Seed & Bean bars! They can be found in some places here, but are pretty expensive. But I think they are worth it.
haha, you made me laugh about white choc. I've always been more of a fan of dark even before I was vegan and I hardly ever ate white but it's started to grow on me recently. That's cool you can get Seed and Bean, it is such great choc.
DeleteMmm...! This makes me want to go completely out of my way to get some chocolate and a mocha latte before work! Ack! XD
ReplyDeleteI wonder if that caramac bar tastes a lot like the white chocolate bar by Raw & Fine? They mix raw white chocolate with lacuma and maca giving a caramely flavor. That would be my favorite white chocolate bar if I made a list!
That bar sounds very similiar! This one has no maca but the ingredients are virgin cacao butter, lucuma, coconut palm sugar and vanilla so i think you would like it.
DeleteHappy chocolate week! Like you, I'm so impressed at the variety of vegan chocolate that there is now and I love that there's still new stuff for me to discover. I didn't know about the caramac-style stuff - I'll have to track some down!
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