One of the rare things I’ve found missing from my life as vegan is “milk” chocolate. I run into a lot of “accidentally-vegan” dark chocolate that has certainly widened my scope of chocolate-eating, but not very many people are tackling a vegan chocolate for those of us who, well, aren’t that into dark chocolate to begin with. So, when I heard there was a box of vegan milk chocolate (or “light chocolate” as
NO Whey! is calling it) to be reviewed, I got excited. And when I saw it was a Valentines assortment, my heart sang and angels appeared. One of my great past loves was those heart-shaped box Valentines Day assortments. The boxes almost made up for the dumb holiday.
The
NO Whey! Candies Valentines assortment is a sampler of heart-shaped chocolate in a tasteful (non-heart shaped) brown-striped box with white, pink and red (recyclable!) paper ribbon, accompanied by a candy menu with ingredient listings in red print. The box sparked memories of chocolates of yore (my pre-vegan days) as visions of Chunkys and Cadbury crème eggs popped into my head. The light chocolate, used for most of the varieties in the box, is very sweet and creamy.
I’ll start with the varieties that aren’t normally my favorites:
The
Cream-Filled Hearts stood out as surprisingly on-target for that type of candy. The
Cherries & Cream reminded me of the cherry/raspberry confections you’d stumble upon in the assortment box, but better as they weren’t cloyingly sweet (I actually finished this one instead of casting it aside). The
Coffee Cream's creamy coffee-flavored filling was a nicely sweet coffee-in-candy alternative compared to the ubiquitous dark chocolate covered espresso beans you find everywhere (that are more coffee than candy). Remarkably, the chocolate covered cherry,
My Cherry Amour, didn’t leak goo all over as I bit into the nice mound of sweet milk chocolate to reveal a perfectly respectable maraschino nestled in its creamy interior.
Then I got down to business with the chocolates I was most looking forward to, and for which I had the highest expectations!