Vegan White Chocolate!

[Pip]

Hello all!

I'm producing a vegan white chocolate, and the samples are being made up with icing sugar due to its fineness and the ease of working without a chocolate conche.

However, I would rather use a less refined sugar - something more like demerara at the lightest. I've launched a kickstarter to help fund the equipment needed, but if it's not successful would you mind the sugar that was used? As long as it's vegan, does the level of refinement make a difference to you? The taste is awesome - I've run it past a small group of people (just 8) but the reviews are all fantastic.

Thanks

Pip

 

[winter.frost]

It might help to add where you are hoping to sell the chocolate, as there could be a difference of opinion depending on where you are in the world, I don't know.

 

[Pip]

Oh, sorry! I thought this was a mainly UK forum as it came top in a search I did specific to the UK

I'm UK-based, and can sell there and (currently) to the EU. Further afield I have import regulations to abide by, so it's not impossible, but it's not easy either.

 

[winter.frost]

It is mainly UK-ish, but we have plenty of international members and we are no longer a .co.uk site, we're a .org site now

I don't think people make a habit of eating white chocolate too frequently, at least I don't, so from my perspective it would come down to taste. I'd only worry about how refined the sugar was if I ate it more often. As It stands, I doubt I have white chocolate more than twice a year.

 

[Pip]

Thanks winter.frost! In fairness it's actually been developed as a hot chocolate drink, but it tastes so good as a chocolate on its own that I'm going that way with it as well!

The campaign is here if you'd like to take a look.. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1987219261/pips-real-hot-vegan-expansion/

I have found vegan white chocolate alternatives to be incredibly oily, and filled with a few things that shouldn't be in there. And almost always soy, which I find a lot of people are actually intolerant to! So I make sure I keep it as simple as possible, and with no (main) allergens at all
(obviously someone is always allergic to something - I'm talking about the ones you actually need to highlight on labels)

 

[winter.frost]

Yes, I'm soy intolerant. I tend to go for rice-based white chocolates although rice syrup can have quite a strong flavour which doesn't necessarily help to make it taste like 'white chocolate'. The best vegan white chocolate I've tried (so far) is by Humdinger - they use both rice and soy, and cane sugar.

 

[Pip]

I'll be honest, I was looking for rice flour to test it with and then I came across Gram... It gives it a lovely flavour, and a gorgeous colour! I really do want to try demerara in there though and see what that does to the taste. Some vegans have told me it's the best tasting white chocolate alternative they've had, which I take as a great compliment
And of course, no soy

 

[Pip]

Oh! And this is what it looks like, just before I popped it in the chiller yesterday
[GALLERY=media, 204]White chocolate freshly made! by Pip posted Jul 20, 2016 at 8:25 PM[/GALLERY]

 

[winter.frost]

Gram, that's interesting. I think gram is vastly underrated so you have certainly piqued my interest.

 

[Pip]

It does taste fantastic, which is the most important thing to me. Obviously the gram gives it a certain texture which is why I'm looking for the conch so I can work that out and create a more traditional chocolate feel. It's not far off at all, but not close enough for me! The hours of grinding are what really develops the smoothness in chocolate.
Did you take a look at the campaign?