James Cadbury, descendant of John Cadbury whom founded the infamous British confectioner (now owned by US multinational Mondelez International) launched his own premium chocolate brand, Love Cocoa in 2016. His latest vegan oat-milk chocolate HiP is due to be launched this month.
At home consumption is on the rise due to lockdown restrictions from the Covid pandemic. Health is also a key consideration, not simply a matter of calories, but many are looking to change their diets using plant-based ingredients.
Vegan chocolate is one of the fastest growing categories, with using non-dairy ingredients such as oat-milk version. HiP, which stands for “Happiness in Plants is James Cadbury’s latest line.
HiP was partly inspired by changes in his own diet, as he increasingly replaced dairy with oat milk out of health and ethical concerns.
Although many dark chocolate products contains no dairy, he wanted to create a dairy-free range without the bitterness associated with dark chocolate. He wanted to create a substitute for the milk chocolate that tastes creamy and what most people crave.
He found the coconut-milk, soya or rice-powder-based bars currently on the market “incomparable” to traditional milk chocolate and instead experimented with oat milk, which requires a completely different production process to remove the gluten.
James Cadbury said,
HiP is looking to disrupt the chocolate market by replacing the use of animal products in chocolate with plant-based milk.
HiP chocolate was born out of a desire to eat good quality creamy vegan chocolate. We use the best quality single-origin Colombian cacao and combine this with creamy gluten-free oat milk.
The HiP range is; plant-based, plastic free, single-origin and handmade. It launches this month offering 4 different flavours – salted caramel, cookies and cream, Salty Pretzel and Creamy Oat Milk. It is currently available to pre-order at hipchocolate.com at £2.95 a bar.
