Chris Baraniuk
Technological journalist
Chris Baraniuk
The cocoa’s arrow prices have trained
The first thing I notice is the absence of a strong aroma. There is no familiar and powerful cocoa drilling when opening this bag of candy, packet of cookies or truffles filled with caramel.
And as I taste everyone as part of my solemn commitment to inform the public, I do not completely get the same burst of chocolate flavor that you could wait for treats with this familiar, waxy coating and similar to chocolate. The fact is that it is not chocolate. It is made with sunflower seeds. Or Fava (also called wide) beans.
The selection in front of me is only a handful of the alternatives containing non-chocolate non-cocoa which slip into the European retail market at the moment. Their manufacturers have seen an opportunity, partly because real sole chocolate prices.
“The average increase in the price of chocolate was 9% compared to 2024,” said Richard Caines, principal research analyst in the United Kingdom of Food and Drinks at the Mint Market Studies. “In January, he just passed, he increased by 14%.”
It is the retail price of chocolate. The wholesale price of the key ingredient, cocoa – which is made from fermented, roast and ground cocoa beans – increased by 300% in 2024.
“I have been watching this chocolate market for several years now – I don’t remember a great story like this on the costs that are increasing,” added Mr. Caines.
One of the main reasons for this increase is the weather impacts linked to climate change on cocoa farms, especially in West Africa.
In addition, some farmers in Ghana turn away from the production of cocoa in favor of illegal gold, according to reports.
This means that there was a deficit of around 500,000 tonnes of cocoa on the world market last year.
Getty images
West Africa explains most of world cocoa production
Real chocolate could become a “luxury” article in the future, known as Massimo Sabatini, co-founder and managing director of Italian Foreverland, which makes an alternative in cocoa powder called Choruba.
The company opened its production center in March, where staff do not treat cocoa beans but carob envelopes.
The caroubids produce small brown banana -shaped pods containing seeds. It is possible to treat the pods to create a cocoa powder. This chocolate alternative, however, has a long story – and not very happy.
An article from New Yorker says that a generation was “traumatized” by the confectionery based in Caroul in the 1970s. He did not have a taste as good as real chocolate, and he did not merge into your mouth in the same way, apparently.
But Mr. Sabatini insists that he and his colleagues created a worthy product. He recognizes that the carob “really does not have a taste for chocolate” but adds that the Fermentation and Foreverland roasting process removes part of the carob flavor to bring it closer to cocoa.
Their alternative to dark chocolate based on carob is softer and more caramel than real dark chocolate, he explains.
There may be health benefits. “We can considerably reduce the sugar content,” said Sabatini. The caroub is also higher in fiber and lower in fat than cocoa.
Foreverland
The roasted caroul is the replacement of coconuts
The German food manufacturer Planet a Foods has developed a different chocolate alternative. Sara Marquart, co-founder and director of technology, says that her goal is not to replace chocolate but to help fill the gap in the market caused by the volatility of cocoa availability and prices.
Unlike Foreverland, Planet a Foods has chosen sunflower seeds as a key ingredient in their alternative in cocoa powder, Choviva.
“We treat sunflower seeds like cocoa beans,” said Dr. Marquart. “It is a very abundant ingredient, there are millions and millions of tonnes on the market.”
Choviva is now present in around 35 different retail products, mainly on the market in Germany and France-although it also appears in mini-bonbons in the form of eggs sold by Aldi in the United Kingdom. The candies are made with peanuts and have a chocolate -shaped coating containing choviva.
When I try them, the flavor is extremely dominated by salty peanuts in the heart of the egg. But the chocolate texture of the coating is impressive. The same goes for cookies covered with Choviva manufactured by the company.
I note that the chocolate -shaped coating is rather thin and not too tasty. But again, the texture is roughly what you expect from real chocolate, but not as fundamental.
The popcorn covered with the company’s Choviva is probably the most chocolatey element I try-the popcorn does not use its coating.
Overall, there is nothing here that would disrupt a consumer. Above all, we do not know that these products do not really contain chocolate.
Daniel Schvarcz
Sunflower seeds are the key ingredient in the planet in food
Nukoko is a British start-up wishing to compete in this space. Two of its founders previously directed a real chocolate business and have joined a food scientist to train their new business.
“We have seen problems with the chocolate supply chain,” said Ross Newton, co-founder. Like Foreverland and Planet A Foods, Nukoko has opted for a key ingredient that the company can obtain and treat locally – to reduce food miles and isolate against the risk of the supply chain. But in the case of Nukoko, the raw material of choice is not caroul or sunflower seeds but Fava beans.
“There are about a million tonnes harvested in the United Kingdom each year,” said Newton.
He is early for the company, but he adds that he hopes to start selling their alternative in cocoa powder to food companies later this year.
Mr. Newton says that the imitation of the flavor of real chocolate is very difficult, but that, out of 25 composed of crucial flavor in real chocolate, the product of his business manages to include 24 of them – although in some cases at slightly different concentrations.
The company sends me four truffles filled with caramel to try. The caramel completely dominates and the truffles are very sweet. But the chocolate alternative is as soft and shiny as you can imagine, and very satisfactory to chew.
“Everything that is again that comes out must meet the expectations of equal taste,” explains Mr. Caines, noting how demanding consumers are regarding their favorite chocolate products. Bringing them to adopt alternatives without cocoa will not be an easy task.
He adds that alternatives could get better when used in bakery products – such as fries in chocolate chip cookies: “Chocolate is not so much the star of the show, so it could actually be more acceptable.”
If chocolate alternatives are successful, there is a risk that this could have a negative impact on cocoa farmers, explains Tonya Lander, lecturer in biology at the University of Oxford.
“This is something that should be resolved with farmers or farmers’ collectives,” she said. Cocoa farmers are among the poorest agricultural workers in the world.
Nukoko, Planet a Foods and Foreverland all say that they are not intended to replace chocolate, the objective is rather to fill the gap left by cocoa production deficits.
Dr. Lander and his colleagues have studied the environmental factors that influence cocoa performance.
Bad pollination and high temperatures negatively affect the amount of cocoa that trees produce, according to researchers in a study published in February.
By shading cocoa in plantations, for example, it may be possible to improve crops and potentially reduce the volatility of cocoa supplies. Such interventions, in addition to moving to cocoa alternatives, could help satisfy consumers obsessed with confectionery in the years to come.
