Is Chocolate Vegan?
Whether you live a plant-based lifestyle or you’re just starting out on a plant-based diet, you might wonder: Is Chocolate Vegan? The answer is… it can be. There are two types of vegan chocolate. Dark chocolate (with a high cocoa percentage, usually 60% and above) OR plant-based chocolate made with nut milk or oat milk. For now though, let’s focus on dark chocolate. Dark chocolate with a higher cocoa percentage is naturally vegan. It contains less sugar and tends to use soya lecithin to bind their ingredients, making it a plant-based vegan friendly chocolate alternative.
What’s more, dark chocolate is packed with antioxidants and flavonoids, so it makes a delicious dairy-free alternative.
What is Cocoa Butter and is Cocoa Butter Vegan?
The word ‘butter’ is deceptive isn’t it, particularly when it comes to gifting vegan. But, rest assured, Cocoa Butter is vegan! Cocoa Butter is a type of fat extracted from cocoa beans and is used to make chocolate. Cocoa Butter gives chocolate its sheen and that all important melt-in-mouth texture.
How Do You Know If Chocolate Is Vegan? What Ingredients Should You Avoid?
Packaging labels can be hard to read making it difficult to know if chocolate is vegan or not. Vegan chocolate should not contain the following ingredients: milk solids, milk fat, milk powder, lactose, whey powder and casein. You should also be wary of labels where the word ‘lecithin’ is used alone. Most chocolate manufacturers use ‘soya lecithin’, but some use ‘lecithin’ which is derived from eggs. Now you have this knowledge, you’re ready to shop for vegan chocolate gifts!