Vegan Chocolate Guide: Plant-Based Chocolate Brands & Recipes

Chocolate itself is vegan, unless animal milk or other dairy is added. So don’t worry, dear reader, you can find plenty of plant-based and dairy-free chocolate. And we’re here to help. 

It’s a safe bet to say that either you or someone you know is a serious chocoholic. So it should come as no surprise that chocolate is the single most popular sweet treat around the world! We go through more than 3 million tons of cocoa beans every year, according to the World Cocoa Foundation. Holy cacao, that’s a lot!

The good news for all your sweet lovers is that there are more tempting vegan candy and chocolate options than ever before, whether you’re baking, snacking, gifting your vegan date, or downright indulging.

Is Chocolate Vegan?

Believe it or not, all raw, unrefined chocolate is naturally vegan.

Made from fermented cocoa beans, the seeds are dried, roasted, and ground. When placed under such intense pressure, the resulting cocoa mass separates into cocoa powder (which is the same as what you might bake with) and cocoa butter (unrelated to dairy butter and completely plant-based.) Pure chocolate is then created by combining cocoa solids and cocoa butter in a very specific ratio, depending on the desired output.

This chocolate has nothing added and is thus very bitter. You might understand the flavor if you’ve ever accidentally bitten into a bar of baker’s chocolate, which is 100% cacao. In most cases, sugar is added to enhance the flavor along with an emulsifier like soy lecithin or sunflower lecithin, to keep the texture consistently smooth. You can expect to find this basic formula for most dark or semi-sweet chocolate.

Vegan Chocolate Guides

If you’re looking for a specific type of chocolate—such as chocolate chips, dark chocolate, or white chocolate—check out the following guides.

• Vegan Chocolate Chips
• Dark Vegan Chocolate
• Easter Chocolate and Candy Guide
• Dairy-Free Ice Cream Guide
• Vegan Candy Guide
• Vegan White Chocolate Guide

How Can You Tell If Chocolate is Vegan?

Is Dark Chocolate Vegan?

If only the issue was as easy as black and white, or dark and milk chocolate. Some manufacturers still add milk fat, milk solids, cream, lactose, or whey to “dark” chocolate, so always double-check labels.

Conventional milk chocolate incorporates powdered milk, which is an obvious nonstarter, but now there are many innovative chocolatiers using dairy-free alternatives, including soymilk powder, coconut milk powder, rice milk powder, oat flour, cashews, hemp seeds, and more.

Is There Vegan White Chocolate?

Most mainstream white chocolate options do involve dairy, but vegan white chocolate brands are coming to life and we share several below! White chocolate relies primarily on milk solids for its creamy consistency. But as we know, milk can come from plants as well as from cows!

Vegan options will typically rely on more cocoa butter along with the same dairy-free components you might find in vegan milk chocolate, with an extra dose of vanilla, but without the cocoa liqueur that creates the classic dark color and full chocolate flavor. When in doubt, check and double check those labels!

What If the Label Says: “May Contain Milk”?

This opaque phase shows up all too frequently like a veiled threat on many chocolates. Even when there are no dairy ingredients listed on the label, manufacturers often use shared equipment to process all their confections, including those that contain milk. To be safe on the offhand chance that there might be minuscule cross contamination, that little disclaimer is a way of warning those with severe allergies.

For the sake of ethical veganism, it shouldn’t be a deterrent. However, if you’re extremely sensitive or highly allergic to all traces of dairy, seek out 100% certified vegan brands to be safe.

100% Vegan Chocolate Brands

When you want to indulge without any worries, invest in the highest quality brands that produce only vegan products and can ensure purity throughout. Every single option in the lineup for these brands is free of animal products and many other common allergens. Let’s hear it for the makers of the best vegan chocolate in the world! 

• Enjoy Life Foods (vegan chocolate chips and beyond!)
• Gigantic (fair trade plant-based chocolate candy bars)
• Go Max Go (vegan candy bars)
• Hu Kitchen
• Nebula Snacks (sugar-free vegan chocolate bars)
• No Whey Foods
• Raaka Chocolate
• Panda Chocolates
• Pascha Chocolate 
• Sjaak’s (organic vegan chocolate truffles, gift boxes, and more)
• Pascha Chocolate
• Charm School Chocolate
• Taza Chocolate
• Vego

Chocolate Brands with Vegan Options

There’s definitely room on the dessert menu for more sweet options, and these brands should be applauded for their efforts to be more inclusive and offer vegan treats alongside pre-existing options with less suitable ingredients. These are the brands that have something for everyone:

• Alter Eco
• Chocolove
• Dandelion Chocolate
• Equal Exchange
• Endangered Species
• Ghirardelli
• Green & Black’s Organics
• Justin’s
• Lily’s
• Lindt
• Ritter Sport
• TCHO
• Theo
• Tony’s Chocolonely
• Valrhona

Vegan Chocolate Candy Bars, Truffles, and Other Confections

When a plain chocolate bar just won’t cut it, there are plenty of richer treats to enjoy. Whether you’re craving a nostalgic classic candy bar or high-end gourmet truffle, these are just a few drool-worthy treats you’ll want to tear into ASAP.

• Lake Champlain Chocolates
• Vosges Haut-Chocolat
• Nebula Snacks
• No Whey Foods
• Go Max Go
• Lagusta’s Luscious
• UNREAL Snacks
• Nelly’s Organics
• NuGo
• Amy’s
• OCHO

You can even find chocolate-covered vegan protein bars and chocolate protein powder to help crush your plant-powered protein needs.

Vegan Chocolate Chips

The first major brand of vegan chocolate chips in the U.S. was Enjoy Life, but today there are dozens of options for dairy-free chocolate chips! Here are a few brands that have vegan options. 

• Enjoy Life (semi sweet, mini chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, chunks, and beyond)
• Equal Exchange (one of the most ethical brands that offers slavery-free chocolate)
• Grocery Store Brands (like Whole Foods 365, Trader Joe’s, and Thrive Market — but always check the label)
• Hu Kitchen (bittersweet baking chocolate chips)
• King David Gourmet (vegan white chocolate chips, vegan butterscotch chips, and vegan caramel chips)
• Lily’s (sugar-free stevia sweetened chocolate)
• Nestle Toll House (yes, they now have a vegan option for both dark chocolate chips and vegan white chocolate chips! Look for the vegan label)
• Pascha Chocolate (organic Peruvian chocolate grown, harvested and crafted in Peru with socially certified farmers.)

Vegan Nutella Options

Beloved the world over, Nutella is the hazelnut and cocoa spread that goes on everything, even breakfast toast. Unfortunately, the original namesake contains milk, but there’s an abundance of alternate options on the market today:

• Rigoni Di Asiago Nocciolata (this is the best — our top pick!)
• Nutiva Organic Hazelnut Spread with Cocoa, Chia and Flaxseed
• Artisana Hazelnut Cacao Spread
• Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut and Almond Butter
• Vego Fine Hazelnut Chocolate Spread
• Diabetic Kitchen Sugar Free Hazelnut Cocoa Spread
• Blue Stripes Cacao Chocolate Hazelnut Butter

You can also make your own with our homemade vegan nutella recipe! 

Vegan Chocolate Recipes

If you’re craving some cacao goodness after reading through this list, don’t worry! We’ve got plenty of chocolate filled, dipped, covered, and drenched recipes for you to enjoy right now:

Vegan Chocolate Candy

• Snickers Bar Vegan-ized
• Vegan Almond Joy Bars
• Chocolate Bark
• Vegan Chocolate Truffles

Cozy Vegan Hot Chocolate & Chocolat-y Beverages

• Vegan Hot Cocoa
• Easy Hot Chocolate Mix
• Peppermint Mocha
• Chocolate Martini
• Dalgona Cocktail

Vegan Chocolate Desserts

• Silken Vegan Chocolate Pudding
• Raw German Chocolate Cake
• No-Bake Chocolate Pie
• Double Chocolate Donuts
• Easy Vegan Chocolate Hazelnut Crepes
• Chocolate Zucchini Bread
• Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
• Chocolate-Dipped Vegan Rice Krispie Treats

Tasty Vegan Chocolate Cookies

• Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies
• No-Bake Chocolate Cookies
• Vegan Florentine Cookies

Frozen Treats

• Vegan Rocky Road Ice Cream Recipe
• Chocolate-Dipped Banana Pops
• Summery Chocolate-Dipped Fruit Cones
• DIY Chocolate Ice Cream Bowls

A Brief History of Vegan Chocolate

Chocolate has been around for over 4,000 years, beginning in ancient Mesoamerica, which is also known as Mexico today. For many centuries, it was only a beverage, not a candy or confection, used largely during rituals as medicine or an aphrodisiac.

The real chocolate revolution started in 1828 with the invention of the mechanized chocolate press, making mass production of solid bars possible.

Unfortunately, when Swiss confectioner, Daniel Peter, developed the first solid milk chocolate using condensed milk in 1875, future vegans suffered a severe setback. Wildly popular especially with children for its milder, sweeter, and fudgy flavor, almost all chocolate products had a dairy component for many years to come.

Only in the past decade or so have we seen incredible strides forward by established brands to meet the demands of changing dietary preferences. Hot off the presses in mid-2021, industry giant Hershey’s launched a commercially available oat milk chocolate bar, free of all animal products. Hot on their heels across the pond, beloved British staple Cadbury has announced that 100% plant-based bars will be hitting store shelves soon.

What does the future of vegan chocolate hold? It’s hard to say for sure, but at this rate, it seems safe to say that it’ll be sweet!

Child Labor & Slavery in the Chocolate Trade

For such a sweet treat, there’s a shockingly unsavory underbelly to some chocolate production. Child labor, human trafficking, and outright slavery is par for the course when bigger brands scale up production while keeping costs low. It’s estimated that eight million children in the Ivory Coast and Ghana may be trapped in a lifetime of toil on cacao farms, earning less than $2 per day while living in squalid condition. Chocolate slavery is a very big issue and unfortunately, unless a brand is very vocal about ethical sourcing and making It abundantly clear that they’re a slave-free chocolate brand, you can only assume the opposite.

You can find our which vegan chocolates are slavery-free using the Food Empowerment Project chocolate list. They have done (and continue to do) extensive research to determine which vegan chocolate brands are truly ethical. Their online chocolate directory makes it easy for consumers like you and me to put our dollars toward companies with kind, ethical, and worker-friendly practices. 

Fairtrade Chocolate

Just like coffee beans, bananas, sugar, and cotton, the Fairtrade label can be applied chocolate. This certification ensures better prices and decent working conditions for farmers and workers in developing countries. When you see that label on a package, it’s more than just a nice insignia; it’s a promise that you’re helping support a more ethical and sustainable approach that guarantees benefits to everyone involved.

This guide to the best vegan chocolate brands and options is not sponsored and thoughts are our own. The plant-based chocolate brand status is subject to change. We’ll update this often but please always double-check ingredient lists in case.  Please note that this article may contain affiliate links which supports our work at World of Vegan.