Our ultimate aim is to ensure that every bar of chocolate we make honours the cacao, its farmers and our own beliefs and preferences…This means making scrumptious dark chocolate that people enjoy and feel confident with every bite that what they are eating promotes respect, sustainability and health.
As chocolate makers, we often get asked: Why do you make vegan chocolate?
While one of our Founders, Jane, is vegan, the other half of Mason & Co, Fabien, is not. So as a company, we always try to find a balance and an approach that is respectful of each other’s beliefs. Personal prefrances aside, this is why we make vegan chocolate:
For the sake of the chocolate!
The way we view and make chocolate is different from mass-market chocolate. We don’t see chocolate as a sweet treat but as an expression of the different flavours of cacao. There are many different types of cacao, and the origin along with the farming practices will produce many different flavours. A great comparison is wine. Most of us have an appreciation–or at least an understanding–that different types of grapes and wine-making techniques will produce different varieties and qualities of wine. Now, imagine if all grapes were just thrown in together to make one mass-market wine. What a crime that would be! Taking it one step further, would you add water to a good glass of wine? I know some people that would add water to a bad glass of wine, to dilute the taste and make it more drinkable, but it would be unthinkable to do this to a good glass of wine! At Mason & Co, we see it the same way with chocolate. Why would we eat mass-market chocolate; which essentially throws in all the beans (good and bad) to produce bulk chocolate, when we can make and eat small-batch chocolate, working with quality beans and artisan processing to produce something really special? Adding milk to the chocolate is diluting the unique flavour of cacao. In fact, one of the reasons mass-market chocolate producers can get away with using bad-quality cacao beans to make their chocolate is because they cover up any bad flavours with excess sugar and milk.
For the sake of our health!
Cacao is classified as a superfood, which basically means that it is really high in health-promoting and/or healing properties compared to other foods. There are so many studies showing that cacao is good for us; it is known to be a weight loss agent and to enhance brain function, it is high in magnesium, antioxidants, iron and many more health-promoting agents. But the one thing all of these studies indicate in common is that the benefits only relate to cacao and dark chocolate. Milk chocolate can have as little as 10% cacao. Scientific research has shown that the same positive effects do not occur with milk chocolate. In our dark chocolate, we use less sugar than you would find in milk or white chocolate. Most of us know the damaging effects of white refined sugar on our health and unfortunately, almost all milk chocolate has high percentages of refined sugar. In fact, it can often be the number one ingredient in a chocolate bar. At Mason & Co, we have a policy of using minimal sugar and never use any sugar that is refined. All of our sugar is organic & unrefined.
For the sake of the animals!
As a vegan company, we also disagree with the unethical treatment of cows for mass-market milk production, something that we do not wish to be a part of. While Fabien is not vegan and he chooses to limit (but not exclude) dairy in his diet, he does enjoy his chocolate dairy-free! Our ultimate aim is to ensure that every bar of chocolate we make honours the cacao, its farmers and our own beliefs and preferences. This means making scrumptious dark chocolate that people enjoy and feel confident with every bite that what they are eating promotes respect, sustainability and health.