There are so many ways to make Veganuary utterly delicious. The best way, we find, is with a morsel of chocolate. Vegan Chocolate is an art our chocolatier’s have mastered. From our Vegan Milky Sea Salt Chocolate Bar to our bestselling Scorched Almonds, to our dairy free dark chocolate range. If you are looking for a vegan or dairy free chocolate gift to treat your way through Veganuary 2023, we’ve got you covered.
Is Chocolate Vegan?
Whether you live a plant-based lifestyle or you’re just starting out on a plant-based diet, you might wonder: Is Chocolate Vegan? The answer is… it can be. There are two types of vegan chocolate. Dark chocolate (with a high cocoa percentage, usually 60% and above) OR plant-based chocolate made with nut milk or oat milk. For now though, let’s focus on dark chocolate. Dark chocolate with a higher cocoa percentage is naturally vegan. It contains less sugar and tends to use soya lecithin to bind their ingredients, making it a plant-based vegan friendly chocolate alternative.
What’s more, dark chocolate is packed with antioxidants and flavonoids, so it makes a delicious dairy-free alternative.
What is Cocoa Butter and is Cocoa Butter Vegan?
The word ‘butter’ is deceptive isn’t it, particularly when it comes to gifting vegan. But, rest assured, Cocoa Butter is vegan! Cocoa Butter is a type of fat extracted from cocoa beans and is used to make chocolate. Cocoa Butter gives chocolate its sheen and that all important melt-in-mouth texture.
How Do You Know If Chocolate Is Vegan? What Ingredients Should You Avoid?
Packaging labels can be hard to read making it difficult to know if chocolate is vegan or not. Vegan chocolate should not contain the following ingredients: milk solids, milk fat, milk powder, lactose, whey powder and casein. You should also be wary of labels where the word ‘lecithin’ is used alone. Most chocolate manufacturers use ‘soya lecithin’, but some use ‘lecithin’ which is derived from eggs. Now you have this knowledge, you’re ready to shop for vegan chocolate gifts!
Rococo’s Vegan Chocolate
The star in our vegan crown is our very own Vegan Milky Sea Salt Chocolate Bar. The recipe was expertly developed by our chocolatiers, to ensure our plant-based chocolate was sweet, creamy and melt-in-the-mouth delicious. Our vegan chocolate uses oat milk. Is oat milk good for you? Well, yes. It’s low in fat and sugar, and high in fibre. What’s more, when used in chocolate, it creates a silky mouth-feel similar to standard milk chocolate. So anyone looking to take on a plant-based lifestyle won’t miss a thing. We added a hint of sea salt to our recipe, to give the vegan chocolate bar a depth of flavour you won’t find elsewhere.
Our vegan chocolate bar will give your Veganuary a splash of decadence. We recommend pairing it with an oat milk latte or perhaps a cup of breakfast tea for a decadent Veganuary gift.
Rococo’s Vegan Snacks
We have a host of vegan snacks available to buy online and in our London Stores. You can browse the collection here, or stay a while and read about our plant-based snacks. Our favourite has to be our Scorched Almonds. Provencal almonds are toasted, caramelised and rubbed in herbs and vanilla, before being enrobed in dark chocolate and rolled in cocoa powder. They make the perfect movie night snack, or vegan and biodynamic wine pairer.
If you’re hosting a few vegan friends for dinner, our Orange Dark Chocolate Thins make the perfect gift to share. 65% dark chocolate, delicately infused with sweet orange essential oil. That sharp and bittersweet tastes makes the perfect after-dinner snack to cleanse that palate. Or add a sweet citrus lift to those January Blues.
Rococo’s Vegan Hot Chocolate
Speaking of January Blues, we find there’s no better way to lift the spirits than with a cup of hot chocolate. We have an array of vegan hot chocolates for your tasting pleasure. Our range of dark hot chocolates includes orange, chai and luxury dark. To make the best vegan hot chocolate, we recommend combining our luxury drinking chocolates with either almond or oat milk for a creamy velvet hot chocolate.
To learn more about our hot chocolate range, click here and if you’d like to learn how to make, taste and pair a Rococo Hot Chocolate, read our blog here.
Rococo’s Vegan Chocolate Gifts
If you are looking for a vegan chocolate gift, we can help you curate the perfect present. Why not try our bespoke hamper service? You can build your own chocolate hamper and fill it with vegan gifts. For a treaty selection, we recommend filling a hamper with a carton of vegan Hot Chocolate, a bag of Scorched Almonds, our Vegan Milky Sea Salt Chocolate Bar and a bag of our bestselling Orangette Batons. Whether you’re looking to buy a birthday gift, or treat your vegan friend to a delicious present for Christmas, our vegan collection is packed with vegan chocolate gifts for every occasion.
Looking for a vegan easter egg? Our Vegan Sea Salt Easter Egg is a decadent treat fit to grace any Easter Sunday feast. It’ll be back in stock soon, so be sure to register for a back in stock alert to avoid missing out.