Luisa’s Vegan Chocolates

Nottingham, United Kingdom

Once upon a time, Luisa was a textiles teacher who always carried chocolate in her bag. Now, Luisa & her daughter Isabella handcraft award winning chocolate from bean-to-bar at their small batch, ethical chocolate makery in Nottingham. 

 
Luisa makes all her chocolate with love from the beans all the way to the bar, with autonomy over every step of the process. This begins with directly sourcing the finest quality cacao from conscientious farmers that truly look after their crops and manage their business in the most ethical and sustainable way. The team has been out to meet the farmers to ensure ethical conditions, a premium standard of cacao cultivation, and build strong and powerful relationships. This has made a significant difference to communities across the globe. All Luisa’s products are free from dairy, gluten, palm oil, preservatives, and colours. 

 

They trust in sourcing the best, paying farmers more, and working together to create the world's finest chocolate.They believe that chocolate should not be seen as a cheap commodity, but should be appreciated more and seen as one of life's pure and simple pleasures... as the Mayans said, chocolate is the Food of the Gods. As a female-led business, we are passionate about empowering female farmers by bringing them education and support to make their businesses viable in the largely male-dominated industry. One of their cacao farmers from Colombia, Carmen, described how “women still find challenges constantly”, due to farming “typically being seen as a man’s role, and women being perceived as weak.” Carmen explained that “in Colombia, farmers are not traditionally well paid for their work or product. The gains we have had are much higher than what we used to get before we started this process with Luisa.

All our chocolate contains no refined sugar, is soy free, gluten free, dairy-free, preservative free, sulphites free, and vegan, with absolutely no compromise on the exquisite taste. We are multi award-winning chocolate-makers based in Nottingham, and won the title of UK Rising Star 2019, as well as a Gold Academy of Chocolate Award, alongside a Great Taste Award. I hand-make all my chocolate using the traditional artisan bean-to-bar process in small batches. Another unique point of my small business is the ethical ethos - we have a direct trade policy with our farmers, which cuts out the middle man, thus allowing us to pay our farmers more than fair-trade price. My business partner and I have travelled to meet our farmers all the way from the Solomon Islands to Colombia, making it truly an ethical business.” 

—Luisa 

Luisa’s uses a range of plant based milks from cashew, hazelnut to tiger nut. She carefully matches the nut milks with each cacao creating a synergy that elevates the overall cacao flavor providing a delightfully vegan milk chocolate experience. 

Given her deep devotion to health and the environment it is not surprising that no detail is left out. All their packaging is 100% plastic free, biodegradable, and compostable. Every detail comes full circle. The future is very bright for this young company. We are honored to add their uniqueness and fine chocolate to our collection.