Top 7 Vegan Chocolates of 2024: A Delicious Guide

Hu, Endangered Species, Alter Eco, Raaka, Loving Earth, Theo and Vego make the seven best vegan chocolate bars going. Between them they cover clean-ingredient dark, oat milk chocolate that behaves like dairy milk chocolate, salted almond dark, fruity unroasted cacao, raw Australian-made bars, fair trade dark, and a hazelnut bar that stands in for Nutella.

Vegan chocolate has moved a long way past dark chocolate being the only option. Oat, rice and coconut milk chocolates now do a genuinely convincing job of the creamy end of the range, which used to be the gap. Below are seven worth buying, followed by what to actually check on a label, since plenty of chocolate that looks vegan is not.

The top 7 vegan chocolates

1. Hu Chocolate Bars

Hu built its name on a short ingredients list. The dark bars use three things: organic cacao, organic coconut sugar and organic cocoa butter. No emulsifiers, no vanilla, no dairy. The result is a clean, direct cacao flavour with a slightly grainy coconut sugar texture that you either like straight away or do not.

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2. Endangered Species Oat Milk Chocolate

For a creamier texture, the oat milk bars are the closest thing here to conventional milk chocolate bars. Made with ethically sourced cacao and oat milk, they melt properly rather than sitting waxy on the tongue, which is where a lot of dairy-free milk chocolate falls down.

3. Alter Eco Dark Salted Almonds

Dark chocolate, whole crunchy almonds and a decent hit of sea salt. Well balanced rather than aggressively bitter. Alter Eco has put real work into its packaging and sourcing, including trials of compostable materials, and it is a reliable choice if provenance matters to you.

4. Raaka Chocolate

Raaka does not roast its cacao beans, which leaves the fruit notes intact. The bars taste brighter and more acidic than most dark chocolate, closer to berries than to coffee. Flavours like Coconut Milk and Green Tea Crunch are worth trying if you find standard dark chocolate one-note.

5. Loving Earth Chocolate

The Australian one. Loving Earth is Melbourne-based, works with raw and organic cacao, and sweetens with coconut nectar rather than refined sugar. That gives the bars a distinctive caramel edge. Easily the simplest brand on this list to buy in Australia.

6. Theo Chocolate

Theo runs a range of vegan options from plain dark through to bars with almonds or coconut. Fair trade and organic certification across the range, and a straightforward, well-made dark chocolate that does not try to be clever.

7. Vego Chocolate Bars

Vego makes the best vegan hazelnut bar there is. Big chunky bars, whole hazelnuts, and a rice-milk-based chocolate that lands very close to the milk chocolate and hazelnut spreads it is clearly aiming at. The bars are enormous, which is either the point or a warning.

A note on buying these in Australia

Most of this list is American. Hu, Endangered Species, Alter Eco, Raaka and Theo are all US brands, and in Australia they turn up sporadically in health food shops, specialty grocers and online importers rather than in Coles or Woolworths. Expect to pay import prices. Loving Earth is Australian and widely stocked here, and Vego (German) and Tony’s Chocolonely (Dutch) are both reasonably easy to find. If you want to shop locally, Pana Organic, Vegan Dairy and Alter Eco’s Australian distribution are the practical starting points.

Other vegan chocolate brands worth knowing

1. Hu Kitchen: Beyond the plain dark bars, the range covers flavoured and filled options, all built on the same short ingredients list.
2. Loving Earth: The Australian brand above, with a spread of flavours from plain dark through to salted caramel and coconut.
3. Tony’s Chocolonely: Known for campaigning on slavery and child labour in the cocoa supply chain. Worth being precise here: Tony’s dark bars are vegan, but the milk and white bars contain dairy, so check which one you are picking up.
4. Plamil: One of the original dairy-free chocolate makers in the UK, with milk-style, dark and white chocolate versions.
5. Moo Free: UK brand specialising in allergy-friendly chocolate, dairy-free and made without gluten. Their advent calendars and novelty shapes fill a gap almost nobody else does.

Recipes and certifications change, so check the current label rather than relying on any list.

How do you choose vegan dark chocolate?

Four things to look at, in this order.

Ingredients

Cocoa butter itself is always plant-derived, since it is pressed from the cocoa bean, so that is not the thing to worry about. What to look for instead is milk fat, milk solids, whey, milk powder or butter oil added separately, which is common even in bars sold as dark chocolate. Lecithin is usually soy or sunflower and is fine either way. “Natural flavours” is vague enough to be worth a second look if you are strict.

Also check the allergen line. Plenty of dark chocolate is made on shared equipment and carries a “may contain milk” warning, which is a manufacturing issue rather than an ingredient one. Whether that rules a bar out is a personal call.

Cocoa percentage

Higher percentages (70% and above) mean more cacao and less sugar, so a more bitter, intense flavour. Around 50% gives you something milder and sweeter. Bars above 85% are an acquired taste and much drier.

Fair trade and organic

Cocoa has a well-documented problem with forced labour and child labour, particularly in West Africa. Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance and direct trade certifications are imperfect but they are better than nothing. Organic certification tells you about pesticides rather than about labour.

Taste

Try a few. Cacao origin changes the flavour as much as the percentage does, and a 70% bar from Ecuador tastes nothing like a 70% from Madagascar. Look for a clean snap and a smooth melt rather than a waxy or chalky texture.

Is vegan chocolate good for you?

It is chocolate. It is a treat, and it is worth being straight about that rather than dressing it up.

The one thing that can be said with reasonable confidence is that dark chocolate contains flavanols, a group of plant compounds that have been studied fairly extensively. The research on what they do in the body is ongoing, findings are mixed, and most positive studies use concentrated cocoa extracts at doses well above what you would get from a normal bar. Meanwhile, a bar of chocolate is mostly cocoa butter and sugar either way.

Vegan chocolate is not automatically lower in sugar or fat than dairy chocolate. Some bars use coconut sugar or dates instead of cane sugar, which changes the flavour more than it changes the numbers. If nutrition matters to you, compare the panel on the back, not the claims on the front.

Baking and cooking with vegan chocolate

Choosing the right form

• Vegan chocolate chips: For cookies, muffins and anything where you want the pieces to hold their shape.
• Vegan chocolate bars: Chop and melt for sauces, ganaches and frostings.
• Cocoa powder: For cakes, brownies and hot chocolate. Check that it is plain cocoa and not a drinking chocolate mix with milk powder in it.

Tips that actually matter

• Melting: Use a double boiler, or the microwave in short bursts at half power. Overheated chocolate seizes and goes grainy, and there is no fixing it.
• Tempering: If you want a shiny finish and a proper snap on coatings, you need to temper, which means taking the chocolate through specific heating and cooling steps rather than just melting it.
• Fat swaps: Plant-based butter, coconut oil or a neutral oil all work. Coconut oil sets harder than butter, which is useful for shells and less useful in a soft frosting.
• Milk swaps: Oat and soy milk both work well in ganache. Almond milk is thin and can leave a sauce loose, so reduce it first or use less.

Vegan chocolate gift ideas

Some options that go beyond handing over a bar:

• A mixed box of bars: Three or four brands at different cacao percentages, which is more interesting than one big block.
• Vegan hot chocolate mix: Good winter gift, and easy to find dairy-free now.
• Vegan truffles: Several small makers do these well, though they have a short shelf life so buy close to the day.
• Chocolate-dipped fruit: Simple and easy to make at home with a tempered dark bar.
• A homemade dessert: A vegan chocolate cake or a tray of brownies beats most bought gifts.

Frequently asked questions about vegan chocolate

Is dark chocolate always vegan?

No. Plenty of dark chocolate contains milk fat or milk solids, and a lot more is made on equipment that also handles dairy, so it carries a “may contain milk” warning. Higher cacao percentages improve your odds, since there is less room in the recipe for anything else, but 70% is not a guarantee. Read the ingredients list every time.

How is vegan milk chocolate made?

By swapping dairy milk powder for a plant-based equivalent. Oat, rice, coconut and almond milk powders are the common ones, and each brings its own flavour. Rice milk chocolate tends to be the sweetest and closest to conventional milk chocolate, oat is creamier and slightly cereal-like, and coconut is the most obvious in the finished bar.

Is vegan chocolate healthier than dairy chocolate?

Not inherently. Removing dairy does not remove the sugar or the cocoa butter, and some vegan bars are higher in both than the dairy version they are copying. Bars sweetened with coconut sugar or dates are not meaningfully lower in sugar either. If it matters, compare the nutrition panels side by side rather than assuming.

Can vegans eat white chocolate?

Traditional white chocolate is not vegan, because it is made from cocoa butter, sugar and milk solids. Several brands now make dairy-free white chocolate using rice, oat or coconut milk powder instead, and it is much easier to find than it was a few years ago. Check the label, as some versions still use milk-derived lactose.

How do I know if a chocolate is truly vegan?

Look for a certified vegan mark, which covers both recipe and production. Failing that, read the ingredients for milk, milk solids, milk fat, whey, casein or lactose, then check the allergen line underneath for a shared-equipment warning. “Dairy-free” on the front of a pack is a useful signal but it is not a certification.

Final thoughts

The vegan chocolate range is genuinely good now, and the creamy end of it has caught up in the last few years. Hu and Theo cover clean dark chocolate, Endangered Species and Vego cover the milk chocolate craving, Raaka is the interesting one, and Loving Earth is the pick if you want to buy Australian.

The rest comes down to reading labels properly. Cocoa butter is not the problem, added milk fat is, and a “may contain” warning is a judgement call rather than a verdict. Buy a few, work out which cacao percentage you actually enjoy, and go from there.

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• vegan chocolates of 2024