5 Best Vegan Chocolates That Melt [2024]
Whether you’re lactose intolerant, vegan, or simply looking for more interesting and healthy treats, with more and more vegan chocolate products appearing on the market, it is extremely easy to satisfy your sweet tooth!
But, what are the best vegan melting chocolates? The best vegan melting chocolates usually end up having a simple ingredients list of cocoa beans, cane sugar, and cocoa butter. The chocolate should also be tempered so that way it doesn’t come out streaky after melting.
Melting chocolate is usually sold in discs, chips, or slabs; however, very often you can buy them in bars. It isn’t a bad quality, it just means the chocolate hasn’t been tempered which makes it more expensive.
Today, we will be looking at chocolate and the ingredients used to make it. Then, we will look at its vegan counterpart and exactly what makes it vegan.
Finally, we will have a look at the best vegan melting chocolates that you can conveniently find online.
Chocolate
Chocolate can be a very complex topic to tackle, especially with so many critics, experts, and even self-proclaimed chocolatiers out there! To even ask a question can feel taboo.
However, chocolate is very difficult to understand and there are so many questions surrounding it. Is it vegan? Is it gluten-free? Is it dairy-free?
Having to sift through thousands of articles, it can be nearly impossible to get a straight answer!
Luckily, that is why we are here! We’re going to help clarify all things chocolate. Even more specifically beyond that, we’re going to tackle vegan chocolate.
There are essentially three types of chocolate: white chocolate, milk chocolate, and dark chocolate. Each of these uses slightly different ingredients and very different ratios.
Ingredients Used To Make Chocolate
Chocolate consist of cocoa (or cacao), sugar, cocoa butter, and milk solids.
The cocoa part of chocolate is made from either cocoa beans, cocoa mass, or cocoa solids.
All of these are derived from the same bean, they are just different forms. This ingredient is completely vegan, regardless of how it has been made.
Sugar is also a vegan product (depending on the manufacturer) and is what adds sweetness to the chocolate itself.
White chocolate has the most sugar, while dark chocolate has the least. The higher the percentage of chocolate, the less sugar it contains.
Cocoa butter is a natural fat from the cocoa bean and is therefore also completely vegan and despite its name, dairy-free. Cocoa butter is the only cocoa product used to make white chocolate as it has a white color.
Lastly, milk solids are what make chocolate non-vegan.
They can be added in many forms including dried milk powder, milk powder, or dried whole milk – regardless of their form, they are an animal-derived product and therefore not vegan-friendly.
Non-Dairy Melting Chocolate
Here is where you might be shocked. Pure chocolate is actually dairy-free and vegan meaning they don’t contain any milk solids or animal products whatsoever! Is your mind blown yet?
So why does basically all chocolate include milk solids? That is simply because it helps add sweetness and adds a luscious creamy texture to the bar.
It isn’t by any means a useless ingredient to add, but it does make it non-vegan. That is why many people have developed non-dairy chocolate that uses mylk (milk alternatives instead).
Some of these dairy-free alternatives include coconut milk, rice milk, almond milk, oat milk, soya milk, and cashew milk. Keep in mind that usually, these alternatives add their own unique flavor to the chocolate bar.
Buyer’s Guide For Vegan Melting Chocolate
So, there are a few things to look at to help you choose the best vegan melting chocolate.
First and arguably most importantly, look at the ingredients inside the chocolate. If it only says “dairy-free” it doesn’t necessarily mean vegan. The sweetener used could be honey which makes the product non-vegan.
The label actually has to say “vegan”. Alternatively, you can look at the ingredients list on the back to ensure all of the ingredients are vegan and dairy-free.
Next, to determine whether or not you are buying/using melting chocolate, the first give-away is the price tag.
Melted chocolate is considered cheaper because it has been less processed and worked.
Tempered chocolate is more expensive because it has been processed to produce a more visually appealing shiny look. Tempered chocolate also cracks when broken.
Melting chocolate has a dull, mottled, and sometimes streaky appearance to it and doesn’t crack when broken. The streaks in it are the fat that hasn’t been properly incorporated into the chocolate.
The size of the chocolate bar or block will also give you an indication of whether it is melting chocolate or tempered chocolate. Large blocks or slabs are always melting chocolate.
Melting chocolate isn’t by any means bad compared to tempered chocolate, and you can even temper it yourself! It is simply more convenient chocolate to use for products that don’t need a shiny gloss.
And finally, have a look at the milk alternative used. This will give you an indication of the flavor to expect and whether or not you want to use it.
You can see what other ingredients can be found in the recipe that will pair nicely with the milk alternative. Let’s say for example you are making an almond cake, then a bar of almond-based vegan chocolate will work very well!
The 5 Best Vegan Chocolates For Melting Of 2021
So, without further or do, here are our top 5 choices for vegan chocolate. And the best part is all of these products can be conveniently found online!
| Rank | Product | Best Feature |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Theo Pure Organic And Vegan Dark Chocolate | Best overall vegan chocolate for melting |
| 2. | Taza Almond Milk Classic Chocolate Bar | Made using almond milk |
| 3. | Taza 95% Dark Chocolate Bar | Doesn't contain any gluten or GMOs |
| 4. | Hu Dark Chocolate Vegan Gems | 100% organic |
| 5. | Enjoy Life Semi-Sweet Vegan Chocolate Chips | Best bulk option |
1. Theo Pure Organic And Vegan Dark Chocolate
This is our favorite vegan dark chocolate that is made using only organic and fair trade-approved ingredients.
It is made with cocoa beans, cane sugar, and cocoa butter.
This product is sold in 3-ounce chocolate bars but can be purchased in various size packs.
This is a fantastic way to test vegan chocolate before buying bulk. It also makes it a lot easier to measure out and easier to store again.
Another thing we love, and actually appreciate, is that they specify how dark their dark chocolate is (70%, in case you were wondering).
It may seem like useless information to want to know, but any chocolate between 65% and 99% is considered to be dark chocolate, and trust us when we say that they have completely different flavors.
2. Taza Almond Milk Classic Chocolate Bar
Taza in general is an amazing brand and even if you want flavored vegan chocolates, they are one of our most trusted brands.
This almond milk chocolate bar is made from coconut sugar, cocoa butter, cacao beans, blanched almond flour, sunflower lecithin, and sea salt.
While you may think this chocolate has an overwhelming almond flavor, it actually doesn’t and we would recommend using it in any recipe.
This is a 100% plant-based, organic-certified, vegan, and non-GMO chocolate bar. Individual chocolate bars are a fantastic way to test the flavor first before committing to bulk quantities that melting chocolates are usually sold in.
3. Taza 95% Dark Chocolate Bar
This is another chocolate bar from Taza, but this time it is a bar of intensely dark chocolate, perfect for creating dark chocolate cakes and decadent brownies alike.
It is still vegan chocolate made from only organic ingredients and doesn’t contain any gluten or GMOs.
This is arguably the best “melting” chocolate from this range of bars, but here is where we completely lose our minds.
Not only do they have this delicious 95% dark chocolate slab, but they also have a wide variety of flavored chocolate bars that range in sweetness.
They have a 60% toffee, almond, and sea salt flavored bar, or a 70% Coconut flavored chocolate bar. There are three others, but no matter which you choose, they are all equally delicious!
4. Hu Dark Chocolate Vegan Gems
This product is another fantastic vegan chocolate that is sold in smaller 9-ounce bags.
However, you can buy them in boxes of 2, 3, or 6, giving you a bulk-buy and budget-friendly option.
This chocolate has always been a personal favorite of ours because unlike most melting chocolates, this one is extremely appetizing to eat as is.
Not only is it vegan and gluten-free, but it is also entirely organic! The ingredients used to make this chocolate include organic cacao, organic unrefined coconut sugar, and organic fair-trade cocoa butter.
These gems can be easily melted and incorporated into many recipes or used as a drizzling sauce.
5. Enjoy Life Semi-Sweet Vegan Chocolate Chips
This is the best bulk melting chocolate available on the market.
When looking for vegan chocolate, you will see that most of them are flavored or only comes in very small quantities.
Luckily, Enjoy Life has made proper melting chocolate chips and sells them in either 5-pound bags or 50-pound bags.
It is a fantastic product if you are looking to use it a lot and it works out much more affordable compared to other brands.
This is semi-sweet chocolate, however, they also sell dark chocolate mini chips. Semi-sweet chocolate has roughly 60% cocoa content and has both the sweetness of milk chocolate and the bitterness of dark.
This chocolate is only made from three vegan ingredients: cane sugar, non-alcoholic chocolate liquor, and non-dairy cocoa butter.
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