dairy-free chocolate?

[kate_nepveu]

The Internet claims it exists; any experiences or recommendations?

Comments

[littlebutfierce]

There's lots of vegan chocolate -- better-quality dark chocolate is often dairy-free by default, but there's also rice milk chocolate, etc. I'm blanking on specific brands in the US because it's been a while since I ate them, alas (& here they are all different), though you could probably do worse than google for vegan blogs reviewing chocolate!

(& yes, it can be v. tasty! Sometimes even non-vegan people like them! Blah blah, etc. -- there are dairy-free Booja Booja truffles that they sell here -- they might have them in the US? -- that lots of my non-vegan coworkers like too.)

[kate_nepveu]

Thanks! Stupid sleep deprivation, should've thought of "vegan" as a descriptor as well.

[veejane]

Vegan blogs seem to agree that much dairy-free chocolate risks cross-contamination with milk products made in the same factory. (The "best reputation" brands they cite are ones I don't recognize.) I don't know how strict you are in dairy-avoidance: if that makes a difference.

In theory, any dark chocolate can be dairy-free (cocoa, a vegetable-oil base, sugar, and soy lecithin). I don't really like dark chocolate, but my mother prefers it, in part because she's lactose-intolerant. She's always bringing home "artisanal" and obscure chocolate brands, all of which taste respectably like chocolate to my admittedly-plebeian palate.

[kate_nepveu]

I like dark chocolate but oh ugh soy, goddammit, didn't think of that. (Tends to have similar effects on sensitive-stomached babies as cow's milk proteins.)

Thanks for data points.

[the_rck]

If you want dairy free and soy free, you might pursue Enjoy Life brand chocolate. My recollection of it is that it's not spectacular, but it is passable. Enjoy Life sells chocolate chips and chocolate bars. They also sell several other products that are free of major allergens-- nuts, soy, dairy, wheat/gluten, eggs and some I don't remember.

I have read claims that soy lecithin doesn't really count as soy, that is that those with soy allergies can have it. I don't know that I believe that. I certainly avoided it when I was breastfeeding my daughter who got rash from soy and dairy.

[readinggeek451]

My mother is allergic not to soy as such but to genetically modified soy products, which includes soy lecithin. The small amounts of soy lecithin in many chocolates and in mass-produced breads are enough to give her a reaction.

[veejane]

Yeah, I'm not sure there's a solution between milk and soy. You need an emulsifier to hold the cocoa and the oil medium together. I suppose you could use eggs, but nobody does (presumably because eggs are expensive to use just for emulsification). You could make your own chocolate from scratch, but that seems like a lot of effort to go to.

[heathergalaxy]

Not true! Dark chocolate should just be cocoa mass, sugar, and cocoa butter.

[veejane]

"Should be" maybe, but isn't. If you don't use cocoa butter*, you need an emulsifier, and even most high-end chocolate brands for which I've read the label still have lecithin in the ingredients.

A quick perusal of chocolate from scratch recipes online (even several that start from raw beans) also include lecithin as a standard ingredient.

(*It's really hard to find food-grade cocoa butter in my world; I've only ever seen it sold for cosmetics, and only online.)

[heathergalaxy]

The lovely thing about being vegan and a chocolate lover is that I'm forced to buy good chocolate and not bad tasting slave chocolate (If you did not know most commercial chocolate (Hershey, Nestle, Cadbury, Lindt, etc.) are made in part by using child slaves from the Ivory Coast. http://ihscslnews.org/view_article.php?id=234 ).

Yes most all of the chocolate you find at a grocery store has dairy in it. However unflavored dark chocolate ingredients should only have cocoa mass, sugar, and cocoa butter as ingredients. A place like Whole Foods will have a few decent options such as Theo and Voges. Even better is a place that sells Amedei, Coppeneur, Bonnat, etc. These are all makers of high quality bars. I don't know if you have a shop like this where you live, but this is my local store for examples: http://www.cocova.com/default/products/bars

[heathergalaxy]

That's Vosges. On an iPhone.

[melusinehr]

I've been to the Theo factory in Seattle and second the recommendation for both their chocolate and their trade practices. No lecithin in any of their bars, and the darker ones are almost all dairy free (some of the ones with fun mix-ins aren't). Also, they buy their cocoa beans directly from the farmers and do their own processing.

(This is reminding me that I really need to put in an online order while it's still chilly out; Whole Foods/Fresh Market don't carry all their flavors.)

[kate_nepveu]

Thanks for the recs!

[mkozlows]

Chocosphere.com will sell most of those brands.

[(Anonymous)]

Lindt doesn't actually appear in that link.

[heathergalaxy]

Sorry! For some reason I posted the earlier article. Here's the newer one:
http://ihscslnews.org/view_article.php?id=315

"Ghiradelli/Lindt has actually posted the locations from which they purchase their cocoa, however as they stated that they purchase it from Central and South America and Ghana, it is completely possible their chocolate has been produced by child slaves."

I haven't seen anything to suggest that they've gotten much farther, but they are doing a lot more than say Nestle is doing... but I'd be shocked if just in two years their chocolate is slave free.

On taste, Lindt is super waxy though, so obviously I'd still go with the smaller chocolatiers.

[rosefox]

http://www.tazachocolate.com/

Most (all?) of it is soy-free, and it's kosher pareve, which is a great way to be really sure that something is dairy-free. I should add that it is also incredibly delicious AND organic AND direct-trade.

[thistleingrey]

Oh, cool--my local indie grocery sells Taza, but I've never tried it (due partly to the price point). Good to have this rec!

[rosefox]

It's pretty intense, so you don't eat much of it at once. I got a boxed set of Taza disks as a gift last July and I'm less than halfway through it.

[kate_nepveu]

Thanks for the rec! I will keep it in mind.

[thistleingrey]

Vosges and Green & Black have vegan chocolate that nonetheless contains soy lecithin. Choco Vivo does not have soy lecithin and tastes better in the "stuff added in" varieties than as plain chocolate, IMO (literally ground nibs + sugar). That's all I got. G&B ginger (60% cacao) is my usual chocolate nosh; I have no idea to what extent soy lecithin may affect a nursing baby, since soy doesn't seem to have been an issue for us.

[redbird]

Also, some of the Green and Black chocolates that used to be suitable for vegans now contain dairy, annoyingly. (I am happy with dairy, but I have a chocolate-loving partner who isn't.)

[thistleingrey]

Good to know--thanks. Sometimes manufacturers change ingredient lineups without warning, too. :/ (I can eat dairy in chocolate but prefer not to have it.)

[kate_nepveu]

A good thing, since it's in fucking _everything_.

[thistleingrey]

It really is--I've been reading labels more while weaning Reason, pondering my mother's wheat sensitivity, and wondering about the extent of mine, and gosh. :( It seems to me that some food sensitivities wouldn't have come about if manufacturers didn't put traces of soy, corn, wheat, and so on into everything they possibly could, thus giving us more exposure than we think we're getting by eating a given assortment of foods in a day. I'm sorry this is hard.

[kate_nepveu]

I know nothing about possible mechanics. And thanks--we have a Lindt store nearby and it's stupidly amazing how much better I feel knowing I can have a little chocolate (just a little, it's still a reflux trigger) when so much else appears to be cut off.

[redbird]

I have a bar of Lindt's 85% dark chocolate. "Ingredients: Chocolate, cocoa powder, cocoa butter, demerara sugar, bourbon vanilla beans." There's a note that "may contain traces of peanuts/tree nuts/milk/soybeans," probably because some of the equipment is shared. However, other Lindt chocolates do contain dairy.

[kate_nepveu]

Ooh. That, at least, is easy to find. Thank you!

[daedala]

Chocosphere.com has an exasperating website, but I was really happy with the chocolate I ordered there, and they have all sorts of artisanal and niche brands.

[kate_nepveu]

Thanks!

[snarp]

If you're in the US, Chocosphere seems to be the only place online to order Grenada, which is amazing and dairy-free - though it does have soy lecithin. (I for a while, when someone asked me what I wanted for my birthday/Christmukka, told them to go on Chocosphere and order me more of this stuff. It is alarmingly good.) They also carry Scharffen Berger, which is also non-dairy and also has soy lecithin.

Both are unfortunately pretty expensive, as is the case with most things on Chocosphere. On the other hand, Grenada, at least, seems to be using it to pay its employees and growers way more than the industry average.

[snarp]

(I'm pretty sure I heard of Grenada from this much more detailed evangelical post by rydra_wong.)

[penmage]

If you can find a kosher market, you should be able to find pareve--dairy free--chocolate. It's not as delicious as dairy chocolate, but it's definitely tasty.

[kate_nepveu]

If all else fails I could always ask at SteelyKid's daycare! Thanks.

[penmage]

According to my husband Shop Rite brand chocolate chips are dairy-free too.

If the chocolate has a kosher symbol (the most common one is a U inside an O, aka the OU), then you can easily know if it's dairy or not, because all kosher dairy products have a "D" next to the kosher symbol. If there's a kosher symbol and no "D", then it's guaranteed dairy free.

[kate_nepveu]

Thanks again! Maybe a reason to finally enter our local ShopRite.

[rosefox]

Oh yes, forgot to mention--Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips are dairy-free. They do have soy, though.

[sparkymonster]

have you been to the Honest Weight Co-Op in Albany? It has many delicious items including things which are vegan, lactose free, etc.

[kate_nepveu]

I have not! I will keep it in mind, thanks.

[sparkymonster]

Honest Weight is better than any of the food co-ops in Boston which makes me SAD FACE.

They have great produce, local foods, blah blah blah. They are also well stocked with the various "can't eat that" stuff. My mom gets most of her gluten free stuff there. They also have food & snacks for vegans etc.

If I remember correctly, they have a great chocolate & sweet things selection including vegan options.

If you're not off dairy for good, they also have an amazing cheese counter.

So yeah. I hope the acid reflux gets better.

[rymenhild]

This was going to be my suggestion.

[malka]

If there is a food co-op or crunchy grocery store near you, those can be good places to shop for things that are *-free (for values of * that are otherwise common ingredients in every-damn-thing, like milk and soy and gluten and corn).

[(Anonymous)]

I love love love these guys: http://www.byrneandcarlson.com/specialties.html

Admittedly, a lot of what I love about them involves cream, but they very much make things the way they should be made. So I would assume their dark chocolate would pass.

They also are handmade in individual batches, so if you asked they could probably make it happen for you.

[metaphortunate]

I did not read your title, and read your post as "The internet claims [it, the internet] exists," and had a moment of Descartian bafflement. Which I now share with you for no good reason. Anyway, I would believe it.

[kate_nepveu]

It would be kind of hilariously wrong to find out that the Internet had declared its sentience through a DW post, wouldn't it?