Is Chocolate Vegan?

A question coming in at a close second to the infamous "Where do you get get your protein?" concerns the favorite sweet treat, Chocolate. The answer though here is, it depends. Chocolate itself comes from the cocoa bean plant so in essence it is a plant based food. The issue is what happens after it is harvested. The popular chocolate candy bars that are widely available are NOT vegan as they are combined with dairy additives like milk and casein. what many do not realize is that these additives easily reduce the quality of the chocolate flavor as there is a reduced level of actual chocolate in the candy. This is clearly not the best choice for Vegans.

Enter Dark Chocolate. This variety of chocolate is more pure as it typically contains few to no additives. Often it is sold with an amount of vanilla and small portion of sugar for flavor and sweetener. In this case it is always important to read the package to verify the percentage of actual chocolate contained. A great brand of these dark chocolates are Green & Black's variety of dark chocolate which come in a wide range of  delicious flavors. These specialty chocolates are available for sale in the health foods section of many supermarkets as well as natural food markets but they can also be purchased online.

For those who are more adventurous there is an even more primal option for vegan chocolate. Raw cocoa beans. This form is often too strong for many as there are no natural sweeteners to counter the inherent bitter flavor of raw cocoa. But this is also great for those who enjoy making confections from scratch.

Raw cocoa can be processed at home and made into homemade chocolate bars with customized flavors and ingredients. Try adding cinnamon with chopped pistachios. Mix in some dehydrated raspberries and mint. Consider using a non-dairy milk to take the bitter edge off. Maybe even make a custom vegan Nutella by mixing cocoa powder with ground roasted hazelnuts. This bitter bean is incredibly versatile and is the foundation of  a wide range of creative home made treats.

Have a look at this video that shows a step by step process for making chocolate bars from cocoa beans. *Keep in mind this video demonstration includes a variation using dairy milk so never mind that, and focus on the vegan qualifying part at the beginning.

Interested in creating your own chocolate bars from scratch? Find cocoa beans below.