VEGAN FOOD REVIEW: Vegan Chocolate a Gift of Love

Valentine’s Day doesn’t seem complete without chocolate. Most commercial chocolate candy isn’t vegan due to dairy ingredients. Fortunately, vegan chocolate is available to treat those you love, including yourself. Several brands are truly labors of love for the cocoa growers, for endangered animals, and for the planet.

Endangered Species (http://www.chocolatebar.com) has won VegNews magazine’s award for best vegan chocolate the last three years, with 30,000 votes cast in 2008. It’s easy to see why. Aside from great tasting chocolate, ES donates 10% of their net profits to support animal species, habitat and village projects. They use only sustainably farmed and ethically traded cocoa. ES highlights the plight of endangered species. For example, Dark Chocolate with Espresso Beans bar highlights the plight of tigers. You can find ES bars at Hornbachers at Osgood and Cashwise grocery stores. Their full vegan collection can be purchased online. Not all their products are vegan, so read the labels.

It may be too late to find Equal Exchange chocolate bars, produced by an interfaith organization. Many local church groups sell them. They are also known for their fair trade and sustainable methods, along with improving the lives of the cocoa growers and surrounding villages. Look for the vegan bars.

Lutheran World Relief (LWR.org/chocolate) sells a smooth vegan chocolate bar, Divine Dark Chocolate. Again, fair trade, sustainably grown in Ghana, with proceeds used to build wells, clinics and schools, in which women have equal voting power as the men.

Tochi Products carries several brands of vegan chocolates. A romantic brand, Chocolove XOXOX, includes a love poem inside. Try Orange Peel in Dark Chocolate. You will also find two kinds of Smackers—wonderfully sweet concoctions.

Spread the love this Valentine’s Day with vegan chocolate.