In the post about Christmas scented candles I tried to nudge you towards supporting small, independent brands when you’re doing your Christmas shopping this year. This vegan chocolate gift box is even better in that it provides a way of supporting several small brands at once. It gets a big tick in my Book of Good Things.
So for the dairy-free loved one in your life we have – The Vegan Christmas Gourmet Chocolate Gift Box. Yes, you can get one for yourself as well. Let’s face it, you deserve a treat.
The Vegan Larder is a UK-based labour of love set up by two vegan foodie friends. The site itself is particuarly good for new vegans, since there are tons of recipes and a vegan food subscription box for people who want to cook vegan but need a hand hold in starting.
So, what’s inside the vegan chocolate box?
First up, bear in mind that these vegan chocolate Christmas hampers are sourced from small producers, so they won’t all be identical. I was sent a sample box to review, and hopefully this will give you an idea of the sort of things to expect in yours. If this box is anything to go by, I’m impressed at how much they’ve crammed in there for under £20. I would happily give this as a gift, if I hadn’t already eaten most of it.
Packaging-wise, what you get is a recyclable cardboard box, stuffed with goodies (six products in this box, all from small, independent brands).
Merry Veganmas
Most Christmassy is Rudolph’s Round Up, which is a really sophisticated, vegan version of the Wagon Wheels your mum used to put in your lunchbox. It’s a gelatine-free marshmallow sandwiched between two chocolate biscuits, with a dollop of cherry & berry jam, held together by Belgian chocolate.
Equally festive is the christmas cracker by Cocoalibre, containing four adorably cute little penguins made from rice milk chocolate. So cute, I had to pause before biting their heads off. Not for long though.
Next up are chocolate and hazlenut truffles by Nouri, and hemp and chocolate flavour fudge from The Hemp Pantry.
Taste-wise, on the whole these products taste less sweet than their non-vegan counterparts, especially the fudge and the truffles. There’s a deeper, more chocolatey taste coming through that you don’t get with mainstream chocolate brands (ie it doesn’t taste like oily soap).
Finally, there’s a gorgeous slab of dark chocolate and orange by Slab & Tipple. This was my favourite product in the box. It’s dark but not too dark at 43% cocoa mass and flavoured with natural orange oil and preserved orange slices.
And for more orange chocolateyness, there’s a jar of choc orange nut butter by Norty. This last one tastes like Terry’s Choocolate Orange meets Nutella, and makes you wonder why that isn’t already a thing?
I’m really impressed with the selection that The Vegan Larder have put together. It’s such a good combination of tastes, ethics, style and fun. And when it’s vegan and a bit less sugary it’s basically health food, right? That orange is one of my five a day, don’t you think? Not sure what the penguin counts as, mind you.
Product details
The Vegan Christmas Gourmet Chocolate Gift Box is available here from The Vegan Larder. It costs £19.50 and is available in gluten free or standard options. Check out the rest of The Vegan Larder’s range of Christmas gift boxes here. Delivery is £4.95 to the UK and £12 to Europe.
*PR Sample
Check out more reviews of vegan-friendly products here