Chocolate prices have skyrocketed due to factors including extreme weather in West Africa, where cocoa is grown, and inflation.
Yet demand for chocolate remains high, leading several startups to attempt to develop similar sweet treats — minus the cocoa.
How would that work?
While chocolate substitutes, such as carob, already exist, these startups are looking to replicate chocolate’s unique taste and texture.
Adam Maxwell, CEO of Voyage Foods, told Food Dive that cocoa seeds don’t taste like chocolate until after processing, and that those same molecules exist elsewhere.
Voyage — which also makes a peanut-free spread and a beanless coffee — offers cocoa-free chips and melting wafers that it claims have a flavor profile similar to milk chocolate using vegetable oil, cane sugar, sunflower protein flour, and grape seed.
You wouldn’t eat them like a candy bar, though. Voyage partnered with food corporation Cargill to sell them dessert manufacturers to use in their products and reduce reliance on cocoa.
What else?
Ardent Mills — a partnership between Cargill, Conagra, and CHS — offers a wheat-based solution for commercial bakers that can sub up to 25% of cocoa powder in various baked goods.
Celleste Bio is an Israeli company making cocoa butter and powder with cell culture — essentially only using one bean to replicate cocoa many times. They’re hoping to have a commercial version ready by 2027, and are backed by Mondelēz International’s SnackFutures venture arm.
Charlie Chappell, innovation of R&D at Hershey, told Confectionery News that they’re exploring treats that don’t use as much chocolate, such as caramel-filled Hershey squares designed for s’mores, cinnamon toast-flavored Kisses, and a PB&J Reese’s Cup.
And what about consumers? Well, Innova Market Insights found that there is a demand for sustainable chocolate. Of course, it would also have to taste... well, like chocolate.
