Hu Chocolate Bars
Price: $$
If you’re in the mood for a quality piece of chocolate, Hu is one of the best options, as the company offers a variety of chocolate bars.
Offering original flavor combinations like Vanilla Crunch Dark Chocolate and Cashew Butter with Vanilla, all of Hu Kitchen’s dark chocolate bars are vegan, gluten-free, certified USDA organic, paleo, and non-GMO verified.
They’re also free of refined sugar, sugar alcohols, artificial additives, and palm oil.
While palm oil is vegan, there are concerns about its impact on the environment and wildlife. The harvesting of palm oil has been found to cause deforestation in parts of Asia, Africa, and South America, removing the natural habitat of animals in these areas (11 Trusted Source, 12 Trusted Source).
Various organizations are helping support more sustainable methods of palm oil harvesting, including the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). However, if you’re concerned about the use of palm oil, Hu is a good option, as the company avoids the ingredients completely.
Instead, their bars contain just a small number of quality ingredients.
For example, ingredients for the Crunchy Mint Dark Chocolate Bar include organic cacao, unrefined organic coconut sugar, organic fair-trade cocoa butter, organic fair-trade cacao nibs, and organic peppermint oil.
What’s more, while a serving size is half of a bar (about 1 oz. or 28 g), these vegan-friendly chocolate bars have such rich, complex flavors that you’ll likely only need one or two squares to satisfy your chocolate craving.
One serving (1 oz. or 28 g) of the Crunchy Mint Dark Chocolate Bar provides 190 calories, 14 g of fat, 8 g of saturated fat, 14 g of carbs, 3 g of fiber, 6 g of sugar (including 6 g of added sugar), and 3 g of protein (13).
Nelly’s Organics Chunky Almond Butter Bars
Price: $$
If you’re looking for a variety of candy bar options, Nelly’s Organics is a good choice.
Nelly’s Organics currently offers eight flavors, all of which are vegan, including Chunky Almond Butter, Coconut, German Chocolate, and Caramel Nougat.
They’re also soy-free, gluten-free, palm-oil-free, and made with organic ingredients. Additionally, unlike other vegan bars on the market, they don’t contain any plant-based protein powders or other supplements.
The company’s Chunky Almond Bars are particularly popular thanks to their dark chocolate coating and crunchy-yet-creamy, almond-butter center.
They’re also one of the better options nutritionally, as they contain 6 g of fiber, 8 g of protein, and just 6 g of sugar per bar (45 g) (14).
Ingredient-wise, the Chunky Almond Bar’s filling contains just six ingredients, including organic almond butter, organic raw almonds, organic raw coconut oil, organic raw blue agave, and pink Himalayan salt.
Plus, the organic chocolate coating has limited ingredients, including organic chocolate liquor, organic cacao butter, organic cane sugar, and organic vanilla.
One Chunky Almond Chocolate Bar (45 g) provides 260 calories, 21 g of fat, 6 g of saturated fat, 13 g of carbs, 6 g of fiber, 6 g of sugar, and 8 g of protein (14).
As Nelly’s Organics bars don’t contain any preservatives or artificial additives, they only last for up to 1 week at room temperature. For longer storage, it’s recommended to keep these candy bars in your fridge, where they can last for up to 6 months.
