Veganuary - How to get your chocolate fix

So you’ve decided to try out Veganuary and it’s going pretty well so far, you’ve found a dairy free spread, you've mastered the lentil dahl and your fridge is packed full of fruit and veggies and has never looked more colourful.

And then you remember that chocolate exists and you find you don't know where to look. Sure, most dark chocolate is vegan but that stuff is bitter and let’s be real, it just isn’t going to make the cut.

Well, have no fear! For I have already been through this struggle (it is so real) and as someone who cannot stand dark chocolate, I’ve tried every vegan chocolate I could get my hands on over the last two years to try and find my perfect match.

Out of the goodness of my heart I’ve decided to compile the best ones into one neat blog post so you can peruse to your heart’s delight and then go purchase the ones that sound the best and find out for yourself. Sure, you could attempt to find the perfect one by yourself with a trial and error method, but have you SEEN the price of vegan chocolate??? 

Yeah, good luck with that.

So without further ado, here are my recommendations:

Moo Free

Moo Free is one of the first vegan chocolates I ever tried because it was the cheapest one available in my SU shop at uni. I ate a lot of it while I was at uni, more because it was there rather than it was a genuinely great chocolate, but as vegan chocolates go it’s not bad. It’s made with rice milk, which makes it sweeter than some vegan chocolates but it is rock solid. So solid. Like, be-careful-you-don’t-break-your-teeth solid. Because of this I’ve found it really difficult to eat any of the bars that have extra ingredients, like dried cranberries or honeycomb, because it’s just more things to break your teeth on. Despite this, it does taste nice and I have had the Moo Free advent calendar for the last two years with no complaints.

iChoc

iChoc is probably my favourite vegan chocolate because it's the bar that reminds me most of actual made-with-dairy chocolate. When my dad (who is about as far away from being vegan as you can manage) tried it he said it was the best chocolate he’d ever had. It’s sweet, it’s creamy, it snaps like chocolate should snap. I haven’t tried melting it yet but I’m hoping to use it in a recipe later this month because out of all the chocolates I’ve tried this seems like the one that’s most likely going to be the best for baking. You can get all different types of iChoc chocolate, I’ve tried the super nut, the almond orange flavour and the choco cookie and there are definitely at least a few others!

Caramel flavoured Choices

I never knew how much I liked caramel chocolate until it was taken away from me and I am so glad that I discovered this chocolate-covered caramel goodness to bring it back into my life. I've found they're only available in Holland and Barrett around Christmas time so I bulk buy them (I know I could order online but that’s effort) and it takes so much will power (that I don’t have) not to just sit and eat a whole box in one go.

Vego

Vego is probably the worst-named vegan chocolate out there (sorry creators of Vego, thank you for making such a heavenly product) but don’t let the terrible name put you off. It’s essentially solid Nutella in a bar and it's amazing. It comes in a really chunky bar, contains whole hazelnuts, is super creamy and melts in your mouth. I really don’t think I need to say any more.

Booja Booja

Booja Booja chocolates are on another level. They are probably the closest thing you’ll come to having a proper box of chocolates again. They’re definitely not cheap but one thing I really missed about being able to eat dairy chocolate was the choice of flavours. Vegan chocolate is really lagging behind. However, Booja Booja is trying to fill that gap and they’re doing pretty damn well! My favourites have to be the salted caramel truffles because I nearly cried when I had my first one and I’ve made my little box of six last over probably two months now, I’m really savouring them. Their chocolate hazelnut truffles are another ode to Nutella and their champagne truffles fill the void where I used to get Marc de Champagne truffles for Christmas and my birthday. 

Essy and Bella

I recently tried Essy and Bella chocolate for the first time when I was gifted it as a leaving present. I think the main appeal Essy and Bella has as a brand is the choice in flavours. As well as the normal flavours you’d expect to get from a chocolate brand, they also have bars called Gin Fizz, Rose Bellini and even Avocado. I’ve only tried the orange bar and I must say, the texture isn’t my favourite as it isn’t as creamy as other brands like iChoc or Vego. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the taste though and I’m definitely tempted by the range of flavours so I’ll probably try some of the others in the future.

Supermarket own free from

And finally, you can’t go wrong with supermarket's own free from ranges. Tesco, Asda, Sainsburys and Morrisons all have their own free from ranges and they’re adding more to them all the time! As far as I’m aware they currently only sell small bars of chocolate which is a shame because I’d really like the option of buying a bigger bar for when I want to bake (or just eat a lot of chocolate) without having to hunt for a specific shop that happens to stock a vegan brand. I hope this is something they might add in the future though because as I said, they’re improving all the time with a lot of them stocking free from selection boxes over Christmas and Asda even had an incredible vegan truffle selection that I hope they’ll keep stocking even though Christmas is now over!

So there we have it, there are my top recommendations for vegan chocolate brands. I hope this was somewhat helpful to anyone who is lactose intolerant, trying to go vegan, or just looking to reduce their dairy intake.

I’m always looking for more chocolate brands (because is there such thing as having too many?) so if you know any I’ve missed off then let me know!

What’s your favourite brand?