Valentine’s Day is next week; a holiday closely associated with the ever-romantic gift of chocolate.
Confession: I am a choco-holic. If you know me, you know I have a “stash.” Fellow chocolate-lovers, I know you feel me. You gotta have some chocolate on hand in case of emergencies. The thing is, I have found that having some dark chocolate is great for when I’m having a chocolate/sweet craving because it helps me stray from the temptation to bake some cookies (and then eat like 15 of them) or eat a half a pint of ice cream. We all have heard that dark chocolate is healthy, but before you buy another bag of Dove Dark Chocolate feeling like you’re being “healthy” because you didn’t choose the 12 pack of Twix, you might want to consider some of these even healthier options.
I wanted to discover what chocolate brands toted the most healthy ingredients– I looked for labels that toted GMO-free, dairy-free, soy-free, and organic ingredients… So I could buy those bars and add them to my stash! Here’s what I tried and what I found out. I listed my favorites from 5 being my least favorite/not the healthiest to 1 being the very best option.
-
Divine
This is one of my favorites that I’ve tried, but mostly just because Divine has a bar that is loaded with real dried raspberries in it! Unfortunately, Divine is not certified organic, though it is gluten free, which is a plus. Divine is made with natural cocoa butter and vanilla, and contains no vegetable fat substitutes. Another great thing is that Divine is currently converting from GMO-free soya lecithin, to sunflower lecithin in all its products. While it’s not the most organic by any means, Divine seems to be making changes to get their chocolate to that level, and is at least a gluten-free option.
-
Lily’s Sweets
Lily’s Sweets specifically totes the fact that they’re chocolate uses less sugar and replaces it with a more healthy option– a natural sweetener called stevia. Out of respect for their customers, they only use non-GMO products and all of their bars are gluten-free. They do use some organic ingredients, but do not state that they are certified organic. I tried their Sea Salt bar and it was pretty good!
-
Taza
So this chocolate is cool because it is not a bar, but a circle! It comes with two flat rounds in a paper package. Proudly accentuating that this is Mexican chocolate, Taza has an array of flavors to choose from and is made from organic, stone ground cacao beans. Taza is gluten-free, soy-free, and dairy-free (and still tastes great)! I bought the coffee flavor and it was packed with huge coffee flavor and had a fun, gritty texture to it. I actually liked how raw the stone ground element made it.
-
Green & Black’s Organic
Green & Black’s is probably one of the most prevalent brands of organic dark chocolate. You can find it in pretty much any Walmart, Walgreen, etc, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t as good for you as the afore mentioned brands. Green & Black’s is my go-to dark chocolate because of it’s accessibility and because it tastes very much like what you think a healthy dark chocolate would taste like. It’s simple, classic, and very good. I always get the 70% cacao. Green & Black’s is certified organic, but sadly is not certified GMO-free. That’s the only downside! Green and Black’s is not gluten-free or dairy-free, but they do state that they don’t use milk from cow’s with growth hormones.
-
Alter Eco
Out of everything that I tried, this was the best. Even Jared almost ate the whole bar! Alter Eco’s chocolate is organically produced and minimally processed (some of their bars only have 4 ingredients). What was amazing to me was to realize that this chocolate that ended up being our favorite is vegan, soy-free, AND gluten-free, not to again mention organic. And, many of their bars are dairy-free too. This bar takes the trophy! I tried the Velvet bar, and it reminded me of the smooth chocolate you find in those foil-wrapped easter eggs. I couldn’t even tell it was dark chocolate.
