Erin Elizabeth
Following a vegan diet for health or by choice can mean giving up foods such as meat, fish, milk, and cheese. Anything made with these ingredients is now off-limits.
It can be hard to plunge into veganism or a plant-based diet if you think you’ll never be able to have your favorite foods again.
The good news for chocolate lovers is that most dark chocolate is dairy free!
The following list of the best vegan chocolate brands offers a variety of delicious, often organic, sustainably, and ethically sourced chocolates, so if you’re a new vegan or a bored vegan, check out these vegan chocolate indulgences!
Vegan Chocolate
Try these dairy-free chocolates below for a guilt-free vegan dessert!
Alter Eco
Alter Eco offers a variety of exciting vegan chocolate bar flavors such as Super Blackout, Sea Salt, Mint Blackout, Quinoa Crunch, Salted Almonds, and Raspberry Blackout.
Their chocolate comes from small-scale Ecuadorian farms. All ingredients added to the bars are organic and do not include additives or artificial sweeteners.
With a name like Alter Eco, you would expect them to be environmentally conscious, and they are.
Their packaging features recyclable or compostable materials, and the company has been carbon neutral since 2010.
I enjoy a bar of smooth dark chocolate with an oat milk latte.
Endangered Species
One of the missions of Endangered Species Chocolate is to highlight the plight of endangered species, celebrate them and help them.
Each bar not only brings awareness to a specific animal, but the company also donates money to support its cause.
With their devotion to animals, it’s hardly surprising that most of their chocolate products are vegan. Like most other brands, however, vegan selections are limited to dark chocolate.
Vegan chocolate bar offerings from Endangered Species Chocolate include Tart Raspberries + Dark Chocolate and Oat Milk Mixed Berries + Dark Chocolate.
They also offer vegan dark chocolate baking chips if you want to add special vegan chocolate to your homemade cookies or cakes.
Green & Black’s Organics
Green & Black’s Organics is a U.K. company founded in London by husband and wife Craig Sams and Jo Fairley in 1991.
Green & Black’s Organics focuses on using organic, natural, ethically, and sustainably sourced ingredients and is Fairtrade Certified.
They offer vegan dark chocolate in eggs and bars. Their chocolate bar flavors include Dark Mint, Maya Gold, Hazelnut & Currant, 85%, and 70%.
Their Smooth bar is an excellent choice for the vegan who isn’t the biggest dark chocolate fan, as it’s only 50% cocoa, smooth, and creamy.
Keep a secret stash of their bars at the top of the pantry for private late-night indulgences.
Lily’s
The founder of Lily’s committed to giving up sugar, but she didn’t want to give up chocolate.
So instead of giving it up, she began a chocolate company that does not add sugar to their product.
Instead of using processed or refined sugar for sweetening, Lily’s chocolate bars use stevia and erythritol.
This company is Fair Trade certified and sources its chocolate from Ghana, Nigeria, Indonesia, the Dominican Republic, New Guinea, Ecuador, and Peru.
For vegans, Lilly’s offers dark chocolate bars, baking chips, and peanut butter cups.
The dark chocolate bar flavors include Blood Orange Extra Dark, Extra Dark, Salted Almond Extra Dark, and Sea Salt Extra Dark.
Ritter Sport
You may have Ritter Sport, those square, often filled bars of chocolate at your favorite grocery store or big box store.
I loved them before I stopped eating animal products, and I was so happy to find out that I can still love them. They offer a fantastic range of vegan chocolate options.
Their vegan chocolate bar line includes Dark Whole Hazelnuts Amaranth and Dark Almond Quinoa.
Their Sesame and Vegan Pure Bars capture the sweetness and smoothness of milk chocolate by using almond flour instead of dairy, making these an excellent option for milk chocolate-loving vegans.
TCHO
For vegan chocolate selection and utter decadence, it’s hard to do better than TCHO.
All of TCHO’s products are 100% plant-based. They offer baking chocolate, cocoa powders, and a line of delicious, filled truffle bars.
The bars are either dark chocolate or a “milk” chocolate made with a blend of cashew and coconut sugar instead of dairy.
Flavors include Holy Fudge, Born Fruity, Dark Duo (a hybrid between Holy Fudge and Born Fruity), Aww Nuts!, Toffee Time, and Choco Latte.
TCHO’s vegan chocolate products are non-GMO, Fair Trade Certified, certified kosher, and most are also certified organic.
Theo
Seattle-based Theo began in 2005 with a commitment to ethical sourcing, sustainability, and transparency. Their offerings are fair trade, organic, and non-GMO.
Theo’s vegan chocolate offerings include chocolate bars, peanut butter cups, peanut butter and jelly cups, almond butter cups, and drinking chocolate.
This brand boasts more options for vegans than some other brands, and their vegan chocolate bars are available in various creative and enticing choices.
Some available flavors are Orange Bar, Cherry Almond, Black Rice Quinoa Crunch, Salted Black Licorice, Grapefruit Ginger, and Root Beer Barrel.
Tony’s Chocolonely
Next on our list of best vegan chocolate is Tony’s Chocolonely, chocolate bars that look a lot like the fictitious Wonka Bar.
They’re huge, thick bars in bubble letters and bright paper. But this Dutch chocolate brand isn’t all about fun and games.
The company was founded on a commitment to slave-free chocolate and attempting to change the chocolate industry from the inside.
Tony’s Chocolonely chocolate bars are even divided unevenly to represent the inequality of the chocolate industry and to pay tribute to chocolate-growing countries.
For vegans, this brand offers Dark Chocolate Cocoa Cookie Citrusy Caramel, Dark Almond Sea Salt, Dark Milk Chocolate, and Dark Chocolate.
These bars are the perfect size for sharing with your friends, vegan or not!
Compartes
Compartes is the one to check out If you’re looking for a high-end, visually stunning taste experience in vegan chocolate, whether for yourself or as a thoughtful and impressive gift for a fellow vegan.
A chocolatier founded in 1950 in Los Angeles, Compartes hand makes their chocolates from scratch.
They are decadent, gorgeous, and delightful gourmet chocolates in various titillating flavor pairings.
Their vegan chocolate bar offerings include high-quality natural ingredients.
Flavors include Raspberry Rose Dark Chocolate Bar, California Berries Chocolate Bar, Nightcap Whisky Chocolate Bar, Salted Pistachio Chocolate Bar, and Strawberry Champagne Chocolate Bar.
UNREAL Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups
UNREAL Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups may taste unreal, but the secret is that all of their ingredients are real, with no artificial flavors or preservatives, which allows the delicious taste of peanut butter and dark chocolate to shine.
These vegan peanut butter cups are low-sugar, without relying on sugar alcohols, stevia, or artificial sweeteners.
They use organic cane sugar, just not a ton of it, making them an excellent choice for vegans and those who want to cut down on sugar without substituting it with chemicals.
UNREAL Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups are available in bags of eight or 18, making them my perfect snack for movie night.
Chocolove
Chocolove prides itself on being a socially responsible and transparent chocolate company with certifications from the Rainforest Alliance, Non-GMO Project, Fair Trade, and Organic.
Chocolove offers vegan chocolate mint creme bites, chocolate bars, and dark chocolate chips.
Their Chocolove XO line features no-sugar-added chocolate sweetened with chicory root fiber.
Their vegan chocolate bars are many with high-quality chocolate, nuts, fruits, and spices.
Flavors include Mint Creme in Dark Chocolate Bar, XO Elderberries & Blueberries in 60% Dark Chocolate, Chili Mole in Strong Dark Chocolate, and Coffee Crunch in Dark Chocolate.
With love right in the name, Chocolove vegan chocolates would be a great anniversary or Valentine’s present.
Ghirardelli
Ghirardelli is a historic and famous chocolate company whose first confectionary opened in San Francisco in 1852.
They grew from there, and even the earthquake and subsequent fire of 1906 could not stop them.
Ghirardelli chocolate is non-GMO, committed to ethical sourcing, and uses only sustainable palm oil in the products, making them a company you can feel good about.
Unfortunately for vegans, Ghirardelli has the slimmest variety of all the brands on this list.
While most dark chocolate does not contain milk, Ghirardelli uses milk derivatives in most dark chocolate offerings.
However, if you are a fan of their chocolate, their Twilight Delight 72% bars are vegan.
Valrhona
Valrhona has long been the chocolate of choice for pastry chefs for a good reason.
This high-quality chocolate is complex and made with the utmost respect for the product. It is available in a wide selection of powders, baking chips, and bars.
Valrhona does process its chocolate in a factory that also processes dairy, so they warn that trace amounts of milk products may be present in all their chocolate.
This is a typical disclaimer made in the chocolate industry and is a matter of personal comfort and choice.
If you decide to make the plunge, some of the flavors Valrhona offers in vegan chocolate include Komuntu Chocolate Bar, Guanaja 70% with Cocoa Nibs Inclusion Chocolate Bar, and Abinao 85% Tasting Bar.
These are serious bars for chocolate lovers looking for a culinary experience.
Justin’s
Justin’s is known for their nut butter, nut butter cups, and other nut-based snacks.
Justin Gold founded the company after he started making nut butter at home in search of healthy, natural food to keep him going.
Justin’s products are made without preservatives or hydrogenated oils. They use sustainable palm oil and ethically sourced ingredients.
As a vegan, you’ll be looking at their dark chocolate line, which includes Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups, Dark Chocolate Crispy Peanut Butter Cups, Dark Chocolate Cashew Butter Cups, and Dark Chocolate Almond Butter Cups.
Drop a pack or two in your bag for your next long meeting or traffic jam.
Beyond Good
All Beyond Good chocolate bars are dark chocolate and do not use dairy, so any of them are perfect for a vegan! They are also soy-free and gluten-free, which are also important to me.
Beyond Good’s chocolate bar flavors include Pure Dark 70%, Pure Dark 92%, Crispy Rice, Salted Caramel, Toasted Coconut, Sea Salt + Nibs, and Toasted Hazelnut.
Beyond Good is dedicated to doing the best for the farmers who grow their chocolate.
Their Madagascar-grown chocolate benefits the people there and reduces transportation to manufacture it in a different country.
Divine Chocolate
Finishing up our list of best vegan chocolate is Divine Chocolate, founded by farmer representative Nana Frimpong Abebrese in Ghana.
As a farmer-owned company, he wanted to give the farmers more compensation and representation for their high-quality products.
Rather than using sustainable palm oil, they’ve moved away from using palm oil altogether since they believe there is still an environmental cost.
Diving Chocolate offers a dizzying choice of vegan chocolate bars.
A few of those flavors include 85% Dark Chocolate, 70% Dark Chocolate with Mint Crisp, Dark Chocolate Hazelnut Truffle, and 85% Dark Chocolate with Refreshing Lemon.
Vegan Chocolate
- Alter Eco
- Endangered Species
- Green & Black’s Organics
- Lily’s
- Ritter Sport
- TCHO
- Theo
- Tony’s Chocolonely
- Compartes
- UNREAL Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups
- Chocolove
- Ghirardelli
- Valrhona
- Justin’s
- Beyond Good
- Divine Chocolate
Which Chocolate Will You Try First?
Tell us your favorite vegan chocolate option in the comments!
With so many great vegan options today, it’s getting easier to maintain a plant based diet. Check out our favorite vegan yogurts or vegan Trader Joe’s items as well!