For someone who is following something like a paleo diet it can be a challenge for family and friends to know what to buy them when it comes to chocolate or something sweet for celebrations like a cake or sweet treat.
Even though I have been taking a whole food approach to my diet for nearly four years now, last year for my birthday my husband asked me “what type of cake do you people eat?”. He is not a cook and although he sees me make lots of paleo snacks, paleo cakes and paleo desserts, he would have no idea what goes into them or more importantly what doesn’t!
So as we are getting close to Easter I thought I would put together a list of some of the best paleo friendly chocolate online that “people like me” eat, so “people like me” can then quietly send this link to loved ones in their life as a little hint about what they could possibly buy them for Easter 🙂 .
I have listed a summary table below of the five chocolate brands I have selected. As noted in the title of this post, these are what I call paleo friendly chocolate. Paleo is the best way to describe the way I eat, but I am not strict about it. For example I eat good 85% dark chocolate which will have a minimal amount of refined sugar in it, I will eat delicious Pana Mint Chocolate which contains agave nectar, a sweetener which is controversial in the Paleo world. I have included a column which denotes the sweetener used in the chocolate so you can make a decision if this is something you want to eat.
I also include an ethical rating for each chocolate as chocolate is a product that is associated with some key ethical concerns like use of palm oil, child labour, pesticide use etc. I have used the Shop Ethical rating for each brand. “A” is the highest rating and you can see their full chocolate guide here. Two of the brands are not rated as yet but from the information on the website they look ethically quite sound (vegan, fair trade etc).
After the table you will find a small write up about each of these brands. In the table to make it easy to compare I have chosen the highest percentage cacao chocolate that each brand has to offer. Most brands have a range for products they sell and I write about that in the description.
| Brand | Cacao Percentage | Ethical rating | Price | Sweetener used | Sugar content per 100 grams |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pana Eighty % | 80% | B | $$$ | Agave nectar | 21.7 |
| Loving Earth 85% Dark Chocolate | 85% | B | $$ | Coconut nectar | 15.0 |
| Alter Eco Vegan Organic Chocolate - Dark Blackout | 85% | A | $ | Raw cane sugar | 15.1 |
| Chocolate Yogi Astral Caramel Crunch | 64% | Not rated as yet. | $$ | Coconut sugar | 31.6 |
| Coco Chocolate Handmade Cacao Mass - Raspberry | 90% | Not rated as yet. | $$$ | Dried raspberries | 8.0 |
Pana Chocolate
Pana Barbounis founded Pana Chocolate in Melbourne, so I do have a soft spot for this hometown chocolate. It is handmade from vegan, organic ingredients with no refined sugar, and produced using minimal heat (raw). It has a range of flavours with my personal favourite being the mint flavour. They do also sell cakes online and they do seasonal offerings like packs for Valentine’s Day, Christmas and Easter Eggs for Easter!
The quality of the Pana Chocolate is excellent, but is on the expensive end. You can check out current prices online here for their chocolates and here for their cakes which start at $65.
Loving Earth
Loving Earth are also a Melbourne founded company. They sell a broader range of products that include snacks, breakfast cereals and coconut based products. Their chocolate is delicious and it comes in a number of flavours and sizes. My favourite is their Salted Caramel! You can check out current prices online here.
Alter Eco
Alter Eco are a USA based company and they have the highest rating from Shop Ethical with an A. I have only tasted their dark chocolate and it is by far one of the nicest dark chocolates I have tasted and for its price it is great value. They also have other flavours including mint and salted almonds! You can check out current prices online here.
The Chocolate Yogi
A new comer to the Australian chocolate market, Chocolate Yogi have smaller sized chocolate bar offerings. I haven’t tasted this exact chocolate from Chocolate Yogi, but I have had their super cute Oscar Chocolate Bars which were delicious. They donate 10c from each bar they sell to Sea Shepherd Australia. You can check out current prices online here and here.
Coco Chocolate
Coco Chocolate specialises in handmade, graded organic chocolate of the finest quality. They have made a number of gorgeous chocolate creations for Sarah Wilson’s I Quit Sugar program, like the Coco No Sugar No Sweetener Chocolate Egg with Raspberry. I haven’t tasted this chocolate yet, but these chocolate bars and products would be the perfect gift for those that love dark, dark chocolate!
What do you rate as the best paleo friendly chocolate online?
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Top photo by NordWood Themes on Unsplash