A Few Dairy Free, Gluten Free, Food Allergy-Friendly Chocolate Bars

I don't know if it's because Easter is so near or becasue I am just back from holidays but I'm thinking about chocolate much more than usual... Especially considering that I'm not even a massive chocolate addict. Either way there seems to be a lot of food allergy friendly chocolate bars appearing in Dublin these days. I could prbably go on for ages about the different brands that I'm seeing but for now I will limit myself to just a few of my most recent indulgences...

Aine Handmade Chocolates: Seville Orange
70% dark chocolate with orange flavour. The orange flavour is full but not too full and the chocolate is rich. Aine also make sugar free gluten free chocolates which are suitable for diabetics (malitol is the sweetener used). The great thing is that Aine Chocolates are Irish and I was surprised to find them to have been in business since 2001! Where have they been? Not on my radar anyway… But with 25 ‘Great Taste’ awards under their belts and endorsements from Rick Stein & the Bridgestone Guide it’s clear that they have indeed been around! Available in Superquinn, Fallon & Byrne (on Exchequer St, Dublin 2) and online www.chocolates.ie
- Dairy free (no warning present but I assume that it is made in a factory which uses milk)
- Gluten free
- Corn free
- Non GMO
- Egg free
- Vegan
- Vegetarian
Ingredients: cocoa mass, sugar, fat reduced cocoa powder, glucose, natural flavour, soya lecithin
Nutritional Information: unavailable

Aine Handmade Chocolates: Zesty Lime
70% dark chocolate with flakes of zesty lime flavour. This is a strange chocolate flavour to come by but it really is quite lovely and seems to be gaining in popularity with chocolatiers. The lime flavour reminds me of a favoured lime filled hard chocolate coated sweet we used to get in Canada years ago which also happened to be dairy free so top marks from me on taste and nostalgia! Another quality about this bar that I really enjoy is how the bar chips away in layers... again, this may sound strange but I have always loved eating food which has little oddities like this… As the ‘flavour and filling hog’ that I am I would love if there were more flakes of ‘zesty lime’ but even with the present amount it is still some pretty good stuff so tuck in all you dark chocolate fans. Available in Superquinn, Fallon & Byrne (on Exchequer St, Dublin 2) and online www. chocolates.ie. Other Dairy free & gluten free flavours available from Aine Chocolates are Mint Crisp and Roasted Hazelnut (all the dark chocolate flavours except the Wild Raspberry are dairy free).
- Dairy free (no warning present but I assume that it is made in a factory which uses milk)
- Gluten free
- Corn free
- Non GMO
- Egg free
- vegan
- vegetarian
Ingredients: cocoa mass, sugar, fat reduced cocoa powder, glucose, natural flavour, soya lecithin
Nutritional Information: unavailable

Moo Free: Scrummy Organic Dairy Free Chocolate
Moo Free is popping up everywhere lately and it’s a good thing because they are some of the few ‘faux milk’ chocolates on the market which are also soya free! I wrote about their Easter eggs on The Easter Bunny Can Lay Dairy Free, Soya Free & Gluten Free Eggs!. The chocolate bars are generally the same idea. Affordable at under €2 (although I’ve noticed some severe price differences between stockists) and as good as any of the popular milk chocolates. Moo Free is quite sweet if you’re not used to mainstream sugar levels but it’s a good substitute…so good in fact that you might forget that it’s a substitute! Moo Free were even shortlisted for 3 Free From awards this year! A couple places you can pick one up is in Rathmines’ The Hopsack and Terenure’s Nolan’s FoodFare.
- Dairy free
- Soya free (note: potential cross-contamination issues - may contain traces)
- Egg free
- Vegan
- Vegetarian
- Gluten free(note: potential cross-contamination issues - may contain traces)
- Wheat free(note: potential cross-contamination issues - may contain traces)
- Corn free
- Organic
- Fair trade sugar & cocoa
Ingredients: organic sugar, organic cocoa butter, organic rice powder, organic cocoa mass, emulsifier: sunflower lecithin, natural flavouring. Contains cocoa solids 42% min.
Nutritional Information: unavailable

Plamil: Organic Dairy Free alternative to Milk Chocolate
A guaranteed Nut free chocolate (which can be hard to find!). Similar to Moo Free chocolate in that it is also one of the few dairy free ‘milk’ chocolate bars which is also soya free. Plamil have a large range of chocolates www.plamilfoods.co.uk among which you will find dairy free dark chocolate and even dairy free & sugar free dark chocolate in one. They were also crowned ‘Top Ethical Brand’ in 2009. You can find Plamil products in most healthfood stores and a full range of the chocolates can be found in The Sweet Life in Georges Arcade.

- Dairy free
- Nut free
- Egg free
- Wheat free
- Gluten free
- Soya free
- Corn free
- Vegan
- Vegetarian
- Organic
- Fairtrade
- GMO free
Ingredients: Fairtrade Raw cane sugar (35%), Fairtrade Cocoa Butter, Rice Powder (rice syrup powder, rice starch, rice flour), Fairtrade Cocoa mass, Emulsifier: Sunflower Lecithin
Nutritional Information per 100g:
Energy 240kJ/577kcal
Protein 2.7g
Carbohydrate 54.6g
Fat 39.2g

Ó Conaill Chocolatiers: Finest Handmade Irish Dark Chocolate Bar 70%
Another Irish brand coming from Carrigaline, Co. Cork. I came across Ó Conaill the other day in Fallon and Byrne and was delighted to see their Irish nationality and gluten free and dairy free claims! The dark 70% bar is some pretty heavy duty stuff so definitely one for Dark chocolate lovers. Even I can’t eat it all in one sitting which is rare…. but I’m working on it! Ó Conaill chocolate is all handmade and uses traditional methods and I must admit that with the brown paper and gold foil wrapping I feel like a Victorian child with my first chocolate bar which is great fun! There are two sizes of the 70% bar of large and extra large coming in at about €2.75 and €5.75 respectively. Available in Fallon & Byrne (Exchequer St, Dublin 2).
- Dairy free
- Gluten free
- Wheat free
- Egg free
- Vegan
- Vegetarian
Ingredients: Cocoa butter, cocoa mass, sugar, soya lecithin, cocoa solids 70% min.
Nutritional Information: unavailable