One of the best things about being vegan these days is that bigger companies are starting to see the monetary value of having a vegan option. This means more vegan products on the market, in regular grocery stores. And it also means that you don’t have to take a chance with brands that you don’t already know. Today, we get to talk about vegan chocolate, from mainstream companies you’d find in the US.
Having been vegan for over a decade now, I am quite used to trying vegan friendly options from specialty brands, knowing that there’s a chance they won’t be any good. I would call these vegan replacement foods hit or miss. But ultimately, I am grateful for them, as they paved the way for the plethora of options that we see today.
Vegan chocolate
One of the areas where I first felt deprived was chocolate. I was the kind of person who always liked chocolate candy instead of fruity candy. And while I switched to Swedish fish and sour patch kids more or less smoothly, I have to admit I was missing my old fixes.
I started to branch out and try more vegan chocolate. To begin with I became more used to dark chocolate (something I never would have bothered with before), and I found that I liked it increasingly. My tastes changed.
I learned more about fine chocolates, specifically by way of exposure to Ecuadorian traditions and culture. I realized that they had some of the world’s highest quality chocolate and the really good stuff was vegan!
Not to mention that chocolate made with plant milk started coming to market. First, I saw specialty brands for those with allergies carrying it, and then vegan brands. (I still think about Seventh Heaven’s chocolate with reverence, formerly Panda Chocolate. Go check out that review here.)
More mainstream chocolate
And then we begin opening up that market to the brands that “normal people” buy. While I’ve come a long way in my vegan chocolate journey, it’s nice to finally see the sorts of products on the market that I would have loved back when I first went vegan. The fact is, if there would have been vegan Hershey’s (etc.) back in 2013, I feel like people wouldn’t have looked at me so weird on holidays, etc. They would have just bought me “the vegan one” and been done with it.
So I am very excited to be doing this review, although it may be later in the game for some who have already tried it, as I live in an area with less access to vegan options. I am starting to see some of these products on the shelves now, and I’d love to share with you how they taste!
Vegan Hershey’s
The vegan Hershey’s I found at the store is flavored with almond and sea salt, so it is a bit of a departure from your regular Hershey’s bar that you may use for s’mores. That being said, it is delicious!
It is quite sweet, not at all the “bitter” that you might find in dark chocolate vegan bars. The sea salt is also kept to a minimum, so it doesn’t overpower the flavor. The chocolate is made with oat milk. This bar is clearly modeled after Hershey’s milk chocolate, as it is quite creamy.
Another thing I like about the bar is that it has a nice crunch to it, provided by the added almonds. In short, I think it is precisely what I would have been looking for back in the day just coming off of the usual Hershey’s bar standard.
If you are someone who has gone through their own long vegan chocolate journey, and like me has come to enjoy more bitter and dark chocolate, you may find this too sweet. However, in my opinion it is a perfect product for someone who has never tried vegan chocolate and is just starting to go vegan or try plant based treats, and wants to know what’s out there. I would personally give this product a 7 out of 10 for my tastes, and a 9 out of 10 for original product likeness. The oat chocolate yields a very similar flavor to the distinct one of a Hershey’s bar.
For my partner, who has eaten nonvegan chocolate more recently, he says as follows. For his personal tastes, it’s an 8 out of 10. For product likeness, he says it definitely tastes like Hershey’s. He gives it a 10 out of 10. So I would definitely recommend this bar for anyone who misses Hershey’s chocolate.
Vegan Reese’s
And now, let’s talk about the vegan Reese’s Peanut butter cup! I can’t say enough about this, I really enjoyed it. Firstly, I think it really hit me in that nostalgic place. The oat chocolate was, again, sweet and creamy. And for me, it was the perfect amount of sweetness to balance out the peanut butter.
I could tell a lot of effort went into making this like the original and from my memory, it’s dead on! I didn’t expect to enjoy this one as much as I did. After all, the vegan chocolate peanut butter cups that I’ve tried in the last few years have been, in my opinion, not worth buying. In fact it got to the point that I was making my own. (It’s actually fairly simple to do.) But trying this made me a believer again, that buying a vegan peanut butter cups could be worth it.
For me, this is a 9 out of 10 confectionery. I got so much joy out of it, and it was perfectly sweet while having the peanut butter to balance it out. As far as likeness to the original Reese’s peanut butter cups goes, I would say 9.5 out of 10. The taste and texture is exactly how I remember it being. The only difference is how it melts, which is due to the fact that oat milk was used instead of cow’s milk. But in my opinion, melting patterns are not what I’m looking for when I’m judging the experience of a candy.
As far as my partner goes, he definitely enjoyed this one as well. In fact, he called it “insane”. (That is a good thing in our household.) He said it gets a 10 out of 10 for both likeness and for his personal taste. In his own words, “it’s everything that it should have been.” So if you like Reese’s and are looking for a vegan alternative, do not hesitate to give this one a try. You won’t regret it.
Lindt Truffles
Now we get to the Lindt truffles by Lindor. I got one dark chocolate, and one that was meant to mimic the milk chocolate truffle. Again, they are using oat milk and I find that oat milk, while it mimics the flavor of nonvegan chocolate really well, melts faster/ easier. In fact, by the time I had these unwrapped the outer chocolate shell that is harder than the inside had already melted a bit, making them fairly soft at parts.
For that reason, I give these a 9 out of ten for likeness. The flavor was quite pleasant, and while I liked the dark chocolate one better due to my newfound tolerance for bitter, they were both delicious and incredibly creamy, especially in the center, which is what I always liked about the truffles in the first place. I always used to call it “chocolate water” as a kid, and I definitely thinks this hits the mark. I give them both an eight out of ten for my personal tastes. While a bit sweet for me, the luxury feel really shines through.
For my partner, he said as follows: “Both taste and likeness, 10 and 10. They’re that good.” And I don’t really think you can get a better, more succinct review than that. His only remark was that he wishes he could have tried some more varied flavors, which I agree. I’d love an oat milk straciatella, or strawberries and cream etc. If you’re someone who likes the normal Lindt truffles, try the oat milk ones, they are totally worth it.
Conclusion
Ultimately, I’m really excited by these big companies bringing out vegan options for their chocolate. This wasn’t one of those reviews where I expected to be disappointed—it is a chance to eat chocolate, after all. But it’s really nice to see variation in options and be able to suggest products to people from brands they already know they enjoy.
Have you tried any of these chocolates before, or ones like them? Let me know what you thought of them or give us some recommendations! Thank you for reading my thoughts on these exciting vegan chocolate options. Be sure to subscribe to the blog to get email updates when a new post comes out, and I hope you have a great day!