I was so shocked that my boyfriend was able to find me vegan chocolate at See’s Candy last week that I decided to look up more information on what See’s Candy products are vegan for further reference, but I couldn't find anything. So I decided to look into it further and email the company.
They unfortunately said that none of their main chocolate is vegan for it contains butter or milk, but I did get a list of some of their other non-chocolate as well as holiday products that are vegan:
- Citrus Twists (Summer item)
- Fancy Mixed Nuts
- Hot Hearts (Valentine's Day item)
- Jelly Bean Eggs (Easter item)
- Licorice Medallions
- Nonpareil Jelly Eggs (Easter item)
- Orange Twists (Halloween item)
- Peppermint Twists
- Sour Bats (Halloween item)
- Sour Bunnies (Easter item)
- Sour Hearts (Valentine's Day item)
- Sour Stars (Christmas item)
- Sugar Sticks
I found this information to be a bit of a bummer for I have always loved See's Candy, but I was still determined to find a list of what brands carry vegan chocolate. I then stumbled upon a great article on vegan chocolate that gave a list of brands that carry vegan chocolate as well as went on to talk about what exactly the difference is between vegan and non-vegan chocolate.
The aticle said that good quality chocolate has a higher chocolate content, pure ingredients, and no additives which makes the majority of high quality chocolate vegan. The ingredient lists on the back of high quality chocolate should be simple and might include cocoa, cocoa butter, lecithin, sugar, and sometimes vanilla but that's it. Other non-vegan, lower end chocolates, normally have a long list of ingredients with cheap fillers such as food starch, artificial flavoring, and can often contain milk, milk solids, or milk fat.
There are plenty of chocolate bars that are "accidentally" vegan which means they aren't marked or labeled as vegan, but they contain no animal ingredients.
"Accidentally" Vegan Chocolate Brands:
- Chocolove - Dark Chocolate and Orange Peel
- Trader Joe's brand chocolate chips
- Newman's Own Chocolate Bars - Sweet Dark Espresso and Sweet Dark Orange
- Ritter Sport - Chocolate Mint (the light blue one's) and Marzipan (the red one)
- Green and Black Organic Chocolate - Dark Chocolate
- Organic Equal Exchange Chocolate - all flavors except milk chocolate
- Fanny May's Dark 70% Chocolate Bars
Other Vegan Chocolate Brands:
- Endangered Species Dark Chocolate - Most, but not all flavors
- Sunspire and Tropical Source - chocolate chips and chocolate bars
- Whole Foods 365 Brand - chocolate chips, dark chocolate, and dark chocolate with almonds
- Dagoba - They were bought out by Hersey's a few years ago, so watch out for a few milk ingredients they tried to slip in
- Plamil Organic Vegan Chocolate - fair trade
- Terra Nostra - rice milk chocolate bars
- Sjaaks
- Bug Bites
- Sharffen Berger
- Vosges
Hi I appreciate you sharing this info with us who seek to be vegan. I am disappointed that Sees doesn't offer at least their dark chocolate candies to be vegan, but maybe they will consider it in the future.
ReplyDeleteYou understand the cruelty involved in the dairy & meat industry yet only committed to 101 days of being vegan? Hopefully you’re joking and actually are going full vegan for life as it is zero percent challenging like this article states. And u didn’t the name of the vegan chocolate that your bf got u
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