Review: Sweet William Chocolate

As I mentioned in my Saturday blogpost, I received a large package full of vegan goodies last week. While I was very excited indeed about the huge pack of wheat gluten I received, I was almost just as giddy about these vegan chocolate bars from Sweet William. I grew very attached to the original (milk chocolate) variety while I was travelling in Australia, but I knew I was unlikely to stumble upon them again here in Germany.  I was very excited to see them in stock at VeganWonderland and quickly put four of them into my shopping cart, though I was a bit nervous about ordering such a large quantity, as my Australia visit was a couple of years ago and my taste buds have changed quite a bit since then. Luckily, I was not disappointed.

Sweet William Dairy Free Chocolate

• lactose free
• cholesterol free
• free from animal products
• no artificial flavours, colours or preservatives
• free from peanuts and tree nuts (white delight only)
• low GI
• gluten free
• nut free
• halal
• kosher

You get 100g (3.5 dry ounces) per bar, that is 4 servings per package with 132kcal (milk) / 132 kcal (white) per serving. For more nutritional information click here (milk) or here (white).

Sweet William White Delight Chocolate

Oh, this is a hard one. I was never a big fan of white chocolate, though I loved the rice crispy filled kind, but sometimes when you see something vegan you want it just because it is vegan and so all common sense goes out of the window. You see, the texture is fantastic(!) but I just wish it wasn't so sweet. One serving equals 6 pieces of chocolate... Really? Who is going to eat that much? I congratulate you if you can stomach that, I'll just go sit in a corner and nibble on a single piece for all of eternity. To be fair though, this is a lot better than the Rice Milk one by Bonvita, now that is truly awful chocolate. This one has no odd after-taste, which seems to be the most prominent problem with vegan chocolate and as I already mentioned the texture is really nice and similar, if not identical, to the milk chocolate one. The verdict? Not for me, but you'll probably love this one if you loved white chocolate pre veganism.

Ingredients
cane sugar, cocoa butter (29%), rice flour (7%), soy flour (%5), inulin, emulsifiers (soya lecithin, E476), natural flavours.

Sweet William Original Milk Chocolate

My old favourite, this 'milk' chocolate just doesn't disappoint. Creamy with the right amount of softness and bite to it, it is hard not to eat the whole package all at once. When I was in Australia I'd buy the smaller 50g ones, but those hardly lasted me a day and they soon became a reliable travel companion to me. Honest to goodness, I was genuinely sad when I realised that I would have to make due without these trusty bars upon my return to Germany. Not to get all sappy, but I believe this chocolate helped me decide to commit to a vegan diet; surely if there was vegan chocolate this good it couldn't be so hard after all? It melts nicely on your tongue and the sweetness is just right for a milk chocolate, though some extra cocoa wouldn't hurt I suppose, but overall it is everything you would want from this type of chocolate. I am much more drawn to dark chocolates nowadays, so this is more of a treat for me, but still: After three years of with-drawl, I am glad to have this stuff back in my life again and I urge you to buy a bar if you ever have the chance to! Honestly, it literally changed my life.

Ingredients
raw cane sugar (refined), cocoa butter (21%), soy flour (20%), cocoa mass (11%), inulin, emulsifiers (soya lecithin, E476), natural vanilla flavour.

Though the white chocolate one was a bit of a disappointment for me, I still recommend both the white and milk chocolate kind, you just have to be a bit smarter than me and be more aware of what kind of chocolate you like. ;)