The chocolate category has certainly changed over the years. Today, many big name brands are cutting corners when it comes to low-quality ingredients and unnecessary additives (corn syrup, anyone?).
We are talking about chocolate here, so just to level set expectations, you will see sugar on most ingredient labels. But while source of sugar is important, it’s also important to look at the source of the chocolate. Today, many companies are using chocolate short cuts like chocolate compounds. Chocolate compound is a combination of cocoa powder and vegetable fat, while real (pure) chocolate is made of cocoa mass and cocoa butter (which is more expensive than vegetable fat).
Chocolate compounds are also known to contain more sugar than pure chocolate. Most chocolate connoisseurs would tell you they can immediately taste the difference between confections made with chocolate compounds and those made with real chocolate. In our humble opinion, real chocolate is just sweet enough to satisfy our late night cravings, mid morning breaks and 3pm slumps.
You won’t ever see chocolate compounds on an AWAKE label, we use only premium, Fairtrade chocolate in our delicious bites and bars!