H!P Chocolate creates good quality creamy vegan chocolate! They pride themselves on using the best of the best in their chocolate and sustainability is at the heart of what they do. At Curated, we love supporting growing sustainable British brands that share our ethos of authenticity and well-being.

We spoke to the founder James to learn more about H!P Chocolate…

Tell us a bit about HIP Chocolate and how it came about?

H!P (Happiness in Plants) launched in early 2021, with the aim of bringing great tasting,dairy-free alternatives to the masses. H!P blends only the best quality cacao and oat milk to produce deliciously creamy vegan chocolate in contemporary flavours and standout packaging.

Tell us about your products and how they are made

We were the first chocolate brand in the U.K. to make vegan chocolate by combining oat milk and single origin Colombian cocoa. We chose to use oat milk as it offers a creamy texture that other alternative milk choices simply can't provide. Additionally, it out-performs other plant milk on sustainability, healthiness, and importantly taste too.

Oat Milk contains no added sugars, whilst high in fibre, protein, and vitamins like zinc, vitamin D, and magnesium. Plus, it’s allergen-free, soy-free, and gluten-free, therefore, appealing to a broader range of consumers while being one of the most sustainable choices.

Once ready, our bars are wrapped in compostable film rappers made from wood pulp, as well as recyclable cardboard outers, which ensures all our products are ethical, sustainable, and 100% plastic-free.

 What makes your product unique?

Here at H!P we care as much about providing ethically sourced chocolate as we do ensuring it tastes amazing! With this in mind, we source the cocoa that goes into making our delicious bars from a family-owned business in Bogota, Colombia which has have grown cocoa for over 100 years. They harvest their own beans and work alongside other cocoa farmers to create long-term, sustainable relationships. This transparent approach from farm to bar guarantees that every link in the supply chain gains value.

Due to this collaborative mindset, our cocoa supplier has had the resources to invest in local community projects such as helping to build numerous schools. The positive effects of this can be felt throughout the whole community, as having improved learning conditions is vital to ensure children have access to the education they deserve. Slavery and child exploitation is a problem that is mainly associated with West Africa and in particular, the Ivory Coast and Ghana where larger companies source their beans. Unfortunately, this is an issue that takes years to extinguish, however with our careful consideration of each link in our supply chain H!P chocolate can be enjoyed with a clear conscience!

What inspired you to create the products?

Launching H!P Chocolate was spurred on by a few different factors. As an office a couple of years ago, we fully switched to exclusively drinking oat milk; this was then coupled by visiting the ISM trade show in Germany, the world’s largest confectionery show, were Love Cocoa, our other brand, was exhibiting and walking around and reviewing the vegan chocolate on offer. The whole vegan offering was simply dark chocolate, which is more of an accidentally vegan product, rather than a suitable replacement for the creamy, milk chocolate we all know and love.

After researching vegan milk chocolate, we discovered that the ones that were on the market didn’t replicate the mouthfeel of dairy chocolate, and were made with low-quality ingredients. So, I decided to change that and create H!P or Happiness in Plant, providing bars that genuinely rival dairy mainstream chocolate; with so many people telling us that they can’t believe it’s a vegan bar!

Have you got any exciting upcoming plans/projects?

All we can say is watch this space… 😊

If you fancy tasting their delicious chocolate you can buy it here, or in pop into Curated!