8 Vegan, Fair-Trade Chocolates for the Conscious Consumer

Valentine's Day might have come and gone (as did the chocolates we devoured that night), but—let's face it—chocolate is an all-year-round luxury. Part of prioritizing wellness means making time to savor rich, layered, moan-inducing tastes, which means that chocolate consumption is very likely a go-to part of most of our self-care routines. 

If you’re at all familiar with Kinder Beauty, you know that we’re all about helping create a Kinder world through supporting sustainable, vegan, and cruelty-free products. But compassion doesn’t end with animals and the environment. That’s why, when creating this list of vegan chocolates, we made sure that none of the companies mentioned below source their product from areas where the worst forms of child labor or slavery are prevalent (be sure to check out the Food Empowerment Project’s list of ethical chocolates for more food for thought). Below, you'll find a list of some of our favorite chocolates that you'll also find in our fridge, our nightstands, and—let's be real—our desks (well, you'll find the wrappers there, anyway). 

Barbon Chocolate 

Barbon Chocolate bars are a perfect gift for the true chocolate connoisseur or anybody who enjoys the finer things. The luxury bars are handcrafted and made from fair-trade, organic, single-origin cacao beans. Produced in limited quantities, they’re low in sugar and free from dairy, gluten, soy, nuts, additives, preservatives, emulsifiers, and artificial flavors. And because Barbon cares about the environment, the company only uses 100% recyclable packaging. Eating chocolate to save the planet? Sign us up!

Chocolate Inspirations 

Chocolate Inspirations is a woman-owned business run by a dynamic mother and daughter team. Though many of this company's concoctions are crave-worthy, we are currently obsessed with the Artisan Mandarin Oat Crumble Bar, which has oats in it, so it's basically breakfast (and that's the most important meal of the day).

Coracao Chocolate

Coracao Chocolates are all organic, sweetened with coconut sugar, and Paleo-friendly. Their customizable build-a-box option allows you to choose a size, sticker message, bow, and a combination of different chocolates that you are sure to love. Packing a nutritional punch, Coracao’s chocolates are perfect for health-conscious foodies and those sensitive to allergens. Time to buy yourself a present with a fancy bow? We thought so.

Hotel Chocolat

Hotel Chocolat operates over 100 shops and a hotel in the Caribbean. The unique brand is committed to reducing waste, using every part of the cacao bean in its products, and it offers a wide range of vegan chocolates, cocoa mix, and even beauty products. The Unbelievably Vegan H-Box contains chocolates with pralines, truffles and caramels, and is the perfect way to treat yourself "unbelievably" well after a long, chocolate-deprived day. 

Lagusta’s Luscious

The Love Is Dead giant chocolate skull from Lagusta’s Luscious is to die for, but you can choose from a wide array of other delectable chocolate bars, bark, and bon bons, too. What’s more, Lagusta’s Luscious offers a Chocolate of the Month subscription box. So while you’re enjoying Kinder Beauty’s monthly delivery of vegan and sustainable beauty products, why not stock up on ethically sourced chocolates, as well? 

Mama Ganache

This family-run company offers a wide array of chocolate boxes as well as soy-free peanut butter cups, peppermint patties, and more. Though we lingered a little too long on the classic chocolate box full of vegan truffles (mostly because of the passion fruit caramels), the Nirvana Bark—complete with rose petals!—is what ultimately made us drool (and we're not sorry).

Rescue Chocolate

By choosing dairy-free chocolate, you’re already doing a lot to help animals, and Rescue Chocolate helps you go a step further by supporting animal rescue groups across the country. One-hundred percent of the proceeds from each Rescue Chocolate bar goes toward helping homeless companion animals. The packaging of each flavor also raises awareness about a different aspect of the current pet overpopulation crisis. Flavors include “Peanut Butter Pit Bull,” “Pick Me! Pepper,” “Foster-iffic Peppermint,” and and other animal-inspired varieties.

Sjaak’s Organic Chocolates

Sjaak’s entire facility is organic and vegan, and the company refuses to use synthetic pesticides or artificial fertilizers, which are harmful to the environment. The item that calls to us the most is the totally vegan and fabulous “Bear Hug” dark chocolate heart, which is filled with gummy bears (it's often a challenge to find gummies without nasty gelatin as an ingredient, which is why we're completely smitten).

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Kim Johnson is a writer and social media strategist with 10 years of experience in the nonprofit sector working for animal protection organizations.