Green & Black's Mint & Maya Gold plain chocolate

[alexx]

As a newbie to dairy free I was wondering how I was going to cope without milk chocolate - I've never been a plain chocolate fan...until my boyfriend pointed out that these two varieties of Green and Blacks are milk free and the flavourings make them to my taste a little more palatable than just plain choc...mmmm!:D

[Copper]

Oh yes G&B mint is very yummy. Some peppermint creams are milk free - you have to read the ingredients. I am busy munching my way through Matchmakers mint of course. They were on BOGOF recently in Tesco.

[Lan]

Hi there.

I know that Sainsburys do a nice dairy free chocolate. Yoou can choose from plain and nutty. :drool: I prefer this to Tescos as find it less like real chocolate.

Kind Regards,


Lan. :D

[cnc]

Kinnertons plain chocolate is much sweeter than traditional dark chocolate, so tastes quite a lot more like milk chocolate. Can get this in Sainsburys and Tescos I think...
Plamil chocolate orange is also delicious. I have a bar of it somewhere here, and when we tasted it at the allergy show, we had to keep going back for my dairy eating friend to go and keep tasting it- they then bought me a bar of it, because they thought it tasted so nice. :drool: This can be found in most health food shops.

[alexx]

I think my local Holland and Barrett sells the Plamil one - I'll check it out!

[Pam]

Maya Gold is my favourite, I've never tried the mint one. If I want something minty I usually go for after eights or Elizabeth Shaw mint crisps. I got 5 boxes of mint and orange poppets for £1 on a market stall today.

I haven't seen the Tesco Free From chocolate bar again yet. I hope it is not gone forever.

[Nic]

Sainsburys (at least the big Savacentre near where I live) does an Australian imported bar which is made with soya milk - so its non-dairy 'milk' chocolate. I personally prefer dark chocolate and always have, but its nice for a change.

Its in a purple wrapper, and is made by a company called Sweet William. They apparently do a whole range (according to their website) but I've only ever seen one sort in Sainsburys. But if you're really yearning for 'milk' chocolate, it might be worth having a look.

Nic

[Copper]

Sounds interesting except for one small problem - I don't go to Sainsburys. It is a long story but in a nutshell they gave me the run around a couple of years ago - never replaced dairy free items when the shelves were empty. They don't give a fig for customer care.

[Pam]

That blue/purple bar is also available in Morrisons, they do the Rice Crackle variety by Sweet William ("milk" chocolate with rice Krispies) at 79p per bar and I'm told that some places sell a tangerine flavour one too but I have yet to find that one.

Sainsburys do their own brand of free from chocolate in a yellow wrapper but from the markings on the chocolate I am pretty sure that it is just Sweet William in disguise.

Tesco used to do a free from bar but had trouble with their supplier (allegedly) and stopped selling it. They are supposed to be bringing it back when they get a new supplier (don't hold your breath!).

[cnc]

Pam I think it must be time to start emailing Tescos again!!

[Pam]

You would have thought so, but there's no sign of it coming back yet. Maybe we should all e-mail Tesco again and see how many different replies we get this time.

[Jayne]

Oh, thank you, thank you! I'd been despairing about chocolate, having just bought a bar of Carob from the health food shop and found it DISGUSTING - was wondering how I was going to live without chocolate and then to find that Green & Black's (whose chocolate I love) do 2 varieties that are dairy free!!!! This is indeed a joyous occasion.

[Pam]

All the G&B dark varieties are dairy free - Plain, Maya Gold, Mint, Cherry (is the ginger one plain or milk chocolate?).

You can also have After Eights in mint or orange as long as they are produced in the UK (European production lines use butterfat but list it in the ingredients). Most of the Elizabeth Shaw dark chocolate products are seeminly dairy free too (nothing listed in the ingredients), they do mint or orange crisps (like coins wrapped in foil) or some mint fingers.

Not all dark chocolate is dairy free - some contains butterfat so check the ingredients first.

[Fozzybear]

The nutritional information for Green and Blacks can be found here:

http://www.greenandblacks.com/nutrition.php

I've tried the Hazelnut and Currant one, which was nice, and I've just bought the mint and the maya gold to try. I thought I'd bought the raisin and hazelnut one but that's milk chocolate so can't have been - I checked the pack very carefully before buying it and I'm not showing a reaction (other than a touch from something I ate last week).

The hot chocolate and cocoa that G&B do is milk-free too - expensive but might get some and try it with hot soya or rice milk.

[Copper]

I drink their hot chocolate. I make it with hot water and a dash of lactolite milk. It is an acquired taste :) I can't help feeling that if you make it with rice milk all it will taste of is rice. That is certainly true for coffee made with rice milk.

[cnc]

Generally speaking cocoa with soya milk seems to work quite well as it provides quite a creamy taste.

[pixizzy]

the green & blacks ginger IS safe, but a bit out of my price range.. luckily a good friend of mine always brings me a bar of it when she visits:bleh: im a big fan of sainsburys chocolate too, the plain type in the uber-cheap range hasnt any dairy in it... i get through at least 100g a day (thankfully its 25p a bar!) I have to go to the big sainsburys to buy it though... a few months ago i asked if they were going to stock it in the smaller, local store, and a nice man told me to keep coming back and checking as they may do in the future... last time i asked though i got a really frosty response... it went something like this;

me - excuse me, will you be stocking the plain version of this soon? (holds up cheap bar of milk choc)
man with name badge - no it costs more money to make
me - its the same price at the big store?
man - yeah well thats at the big store
me - so your not going to stock it then?
man - no
me - but its one of the only affordable types of choc that milk allergy sufferers (like me) and vegans can eat?
man - well we havnt got the space available
me - no offence but you have about 4 foot of shelf space for 'cadburys dairy milk' cant you spare a few inches?
man - no
me - so youre telling me that youre never going to stock this chocolate in this store?
man - no.
me - fine. *walks off and lightly tosses evil milk choc back onto its shelf*
man - OI ! thats not very nice is it!
me - well im p****d off. you'd be p****d off too if you were constantly hungry and 80% of food available made you really ill.
man - well your on camera now so your barred.. get out!

but im not going to give up asking for it... and if they insist that im still barred, im going to point out that instead of lightly tossing the choc back on the shelf, i could have thrown it at him and been highly abusive, which i resisted.

sorry for ranting on, but we all know how difficult it is everytime we need to shop or eat.... hopefully the rest of the world will understand one day.

take care everybody xx

[Nic]

I do know how you feel.

I asked (at the HUGE Sainsburys, a Savacentre, that I use) where the non-dairy cream cheese had gone. They said they'd stopped making it. I asked why it was still on the website, they said 'oh'.

Then I asked where the 'freefrom' aisle had gone. They said the store was being redeveloped. I asked when it would come back. Got a blank look.

If Asda wasn't a traffic jam away (across a huge A road that's permanently blocked) then I'd go there instead. But I refuse to sit in a jam for an hour just to get some food. So I should probably just keep working on Sainsburys. But its a dismal task.:(

pixizzy - have you thought about buying cooking chocolate, that's cheaper and a lot of its non-dairy?

Nic

[Copper]

I went through something similar with Sainsburys about two years ago. I now refuse to shop in that place. I would rather do without the odd free from thing than go there.

I feel that you both of you should write to the managers of the stores and complain. Their customer care is still zero. B******s

[matt]

i agree with the "you should complain" nut not locally, got to the head office. proper handwritten letter addressed to md. won't reach him but it means that it's not going to be binned by the person your complaint is about.


if you don't complain you'll never know.

[Nic]

I know I should complain, but it won't make any difference and there's so many other things to do with my rather scarce free time...

Nic

[Lan]

Hi all,

Agree with you for complaining. If you do send a letter of complaint always ring up, get the name and mark it private and confidential. I have found that no-one will open a letter marked private and confidential. Worth a go and also mark it urgent.


Lan. :bleh::bleh::bleh:

[Fozzybear]

Green and Blacks chocolate (the 100g slabs) are reduced to £1.19 at the moment in Tesco - picked up some Mint and some Raisin and Hazelnut bars tonight.

[Copper]

Ooo I want some now :drool: Thanks for letting us know.

[matt]

raisin and hazlenut??? could be time to try chocolate agin. i love raisin and hazlenut!:drool:

[Fozzybear]

The raisin and hazelnut is really nice as it's little shavings of hazelnut. You don't get big lumps (I like big lumps of nut) but the shavings are throughout the entire bar, so you get plenty in each bite.

Tried a little of a maya bar last night and really didn't like it - the spices stuck in my mouth for ages and I didn't think they worked. Too cinamonny for me! I'll stick with the mint and the hazelnut ones.

[Nic]

Have any of you tried the cherry Green and Blacks? Its my favourite, though Maya Gold is a close second.

I melt a bar of it, and mix it with a carton of soya cream, to make a quick and posh-looking chocolate mousse. Which no-one has yet worked out is non-dairy, until I tell them...

Nic

[cnc]

I don't like the cherry one, I think I'll stick to the plain one. Its tasty and more chocolately, theres none of these hazelnuts and things to reduce the amount of chocolate in the bar!!:drool:

[Fozzybear]

I find the plain 70% bar a bit too bittersweet for my taste (I didn't really eat plain chocolate at all before becoming lactose intolerant), but the others (mint, raisin/hazelnut) are very nice indeed!

I tried the G&B drinking chocolate in soya milk (Holland and Barratt sweetened type) the other night and that was very nice, although it left me feeling quite dry, possibly because it was quite thick, and so I needed a drink of water afterwards to wash it down. Very good chocolate though!

[Pam]

Maya Gold is my favourite, I can't say the cinnamon jumps out at me. I've tried the cherry one but was disappointed with the sourness of the cherries, I expected them to be sweeter, they were more like cranberries. I think it is far too expensive at £2.49 per bar - I'll stick with the Maya Gold but won't be buying any at the moment or it will ruin my diet.

I noticed that the health food shop had double packs of the plain G&B for £1.99 the other week.

Lidl do a nice speciality dark chocolate for about 89p, it comes in a jungle print carboard wrap and is very smooth. I think there is only the one variety of their chocolate that is dairy free though, the others contain butterfat.

[alexx]

Waitrose (expensive I know!) have all the 100g bars of Green & Blacks on 3 for 2 if people fancy stocking up! :)

[Rae]

Please be aware that Green & Blacks have recently changed their recipe for all their previously vegan (and therefore dairy-free) products, which include 70% dark, 85% dark, Maya Gold and cooking chocolate.

All the Green & Blacks chocolate now contain "organic whole milk powder".

Be aware that there is no change to their packaging on the front, although they have specifically mentioned, on the back, that "this product contains a milk ingredient".

I just glad I reread the ingredients before including it in my cooking - a close one! :eek:

Rae

[Rae]

I just found this is in a completely different part of the forum so here's what has happened... so maybe not such a close call. But looks good for 2010 :)

Rae

Hi there, I saw someone talking about G&B's choc and how it now says it contains milk (sorry dont remember who wrote it). I also noticed this and sent an email to G&B who wrote back a (really long) email saying that they basically cannot say "may contain traces of milk" because in their opinion no-one has defined what a "trace" would be! This means they can no longer say it is Vegan. So, instead they have taken the ludicrous decision to include Milk in the ingredient list as all the chocolate is made on the same manufacturing lines. I wrote back and told them that this is PC gone mad and it would mislead soooo many people and they cannot possibly include something in the ingredient list that isnt actually in the product! Anyway, the upshot is that if you ate it before, you can still eat it now. I particularly love the maya gold and dark choc with raisen and hazlenut. From 2010, they are going to have different lines for production of the products and will therefore be able to state "suitable for vegans" on the product again. If anyone wants the long email they sent me, I would be happy to supply separately, just give me your email address. But they have confirmed that I can eat the chocs I did before and also the hot chocolate. Madness!;)

[Dianne]

I sometimes go for a curry at a local very nice resturant along with hubby- they always give us both after 8 mints with the bill ....I have always given mine to my husband!!!!!- I cant believe that i didnt know they were dariy free........... I feel very cheeted now but next time ill be eating it - and his too if he's not carefull ha ha