Cocoafeliz
I saw the range of chocolates that are made by Cocoafeliz when I attended VegFestUK. What a sight! My eyes didn't know where to look and I was bursting with excitement re the range of chocolates that they made! I had to make sure you knew about them too, so you'll find an interview style post with them below.
What inspired you to create Cocoafeliz?
We wanted to do something positive to promote veganism and we thought a great way to do this would be to offer fabulous vegan food that everyone could eat. We love chocolate, but hadn't been able to find a choice of tasty vegan chocolates in dark, milky and white chocolate (except a few dark chocolate truffles), so we made our own.
Initially, we made them for us to enjoy and to share with friends and family. They were really popular, so we started to make them to sell, and it has grown over the last year to the point where we now have over 100 different organic handmade chocolates!
Cocoafeliz is an unusual name - how did it come about?
Feliz means happy in Spanish, which is what our chocolates are all about! Vegan chocolates cause less suffering to animals and the planet, as well as, being enjoyable to eat, so happy seemed appropriate! We chose Spanish as this is the language of most of Central and South America, which is the home of the cocoa bean. It is also the language of the cocoa bean growers who we visited in Ecuador.
In this video, Sarah from Cocoafeliz talks about the range of chocolate that they sell now, compared with when they began which was about 10 months ago! The amount that their range has grown is amazing!
What's new with Cocoafeliz?
We have just launched some special hearts and flowers collections for Valentines day, and we are currently working on our Easter collection, including chocolate eggs for adults and children, and bags of solid chocolate eggs and bunnies.
We will soon be launching a range of wedding favours, with a wide choice of packaging which people can select to match their wedding colours, and, of course, couples can choose exactly which chocolates they would like in their favours.
Last year, our chocolates had a very good reception with non-vegan audiences, and this year we are continuing to take our chocolates to lots of non-vegans, including company fairs, speciality food events, and chocolate shows. Hopefully, people will switch if we can convince them that vegan chocolates are as tasty - or better - than non-vegan chocolates, and this will be better for animals and the environment.
Where can one buy Cocoafeliz chocolates?
You can buy our chocolates online and you can also find us at various vegan festivals around the country. You can find out where we will be on our website, and on facebook and twitter.
What do I need to know before I purchase Cocoafeliz chocolates?
Vegans have a selection of things that they can buy to eat, so offering choice is really important to us.
We also wanted to avoid the dampener of the typical scenario - being left with two chocolates that no-one really likes. That's why we decided to offer people the chance to select exactly which chocolates go in their box. You can choose the size of your box, and then choose any of the chocolates from our range - all the same, all different, or any combination!
Fancy getting a box of chocolates for yourself or as a gift? You're in some luck, because Cocoafeliz are offering a discount of 20% off any full priced product ordered from their website before 26th February. To get the discount, enter 'plantshift' at the checkout.