Disclosure: There are affiliate links in this article, meaning at no extra cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. (Full Disclosure)
When it comes to dark chocolate, there is one brand that stands out above the rest, and that is Godiva. For those who are looking for a rich and decadent dark chocolate experience, Godiva is the way to go. Their dark chocolate is some of the best tasting on the market, and it is also made with high quality ingredients. However is Godiva dark chocolate vegan?
Dark Chocolate Hot Cocoa Canister maybe vegan, but it contains natural flavors, which could contain ingredients derived from animals.
| Flavor | Vegan Status |
| Dark Chocolate Hot Cocoa Canister | Maybe, contains Natural Flavor. |
| Dark Chocolate Covered Strawberries | No contains Milk. |
| Dark Chocolate Biscuit | No contains Milk. |
| Dark Chocolate Gold Gift Box, Gold Ribbon | No contains Milk. |
| Dark Chocolate Covered Almonds | No contains Milk and Confectioner’s Glaze. |
| Classic Dark Chocolate G Cube Box | No contains Milk. |
| Dark Chocolate Cherry Cordials | No contains Milk. |
| Dark Chocolate Gift Box, Red Ribbon | No contains Milk. |
Godiva Dark Chocolate Ingredients
Below is a list of ingredients from all the flavors that I could find.
- Ammonium hydrogen carbonate
- Breakfast Cocoa Processed With Alkali
- Butter
- Butter Oil (Milk)
- Butterfat
- Cocoa Mass
- Cocoa Butter
- Confectioner’s Glaze
- Dextrose (Corn)
- Emulsifier (Soy Lecithin)
- Glucose Syrup
- Invert Sugar Syrup
- Natural Flavor
- Natural Vanilla Flavouring
- Palm Oil
- Palm kernel fat
- Potato Starch
- Raising Agent
- Salt
- Skimmed Milk powder
- Sugar
- Unsweetened Chocolate
- Vanilla
- Wheat Flour
- Wheat Semolina
- Whole Milk powder
[Source]
As always I’ve highlighted the ingredients that we need to take a closer look at.
Non-Vegan Ingredients
Milk
There are several ingredients made from milk that can be found throughout the flavors such as whole milk powder, skimmed milk powder and butter. These are not vegan since milk comes from cow’s.
Confectioner’s Glaze
This ingredients is made from bugs in East Asia and is not vegan-friendly.
Questionable Ingredients
Sugar
You can find sugar in almost any candy and sweets. The most popular sugar used is cane sugar and this can cause problems for vegans, because in order for the cane sugar to be used in a product, it often needs to be refined first.
In this refining process the sugar is also bleached and a common method is to use bone char from dead cows. Exploiting animals in the production process would classify the product as non-vegan friendly and there is no way of knowing the bleaching method unless you ask the company and ask.
Natural Flavor
An umbrella term, which means that several ingredient can be put in here and source of these will be unknown. This causes a problem for vegans because the ingredients could be sourced from animals. There is an interesting article on National Geographic where they disclose that butt goo from beavers can be used in vanilla flavors.
Palm Oil
Palm oil is a very controversial ingredient not just for vegans. The severe deforestation and the suffering of wildlife being forced from their homes has many people around very upset. This had led to a boycott of products containing palm oil.
But there is a way to make the palm oil more vegan-friendly and it’s called RSPO. It’s a non-profit organisation that helps companies produce and purchase sustainable palm oil that has low impact on the environment. The palm oil in Godiva is RSPO-certified and indeed vegan-friendly.
Corn
The reason I mention corn is because it’s a very common GMO crop in USA and there are vegans that are staying away from these crops because of the negative environmental impact it can cause. Most vegan try to find products with the label non GMO project to be sure the crop is not GMO.
Conclusion
So most of the Godiva flavors are not vegan and the problem is the milk. This ingredient is very common in chocolate and without it the chocolate would consists of mostly cacao. Dark Chocolate Hot Cocoa Canister as mentioned in the beginning could be vegan, but the natural flavors is a tricky ingredient.
Thanks for reading, take care!
