10 best vegan and dairy-free chocolate gifts to make their hearts melt this Valentine’s Day

Best: Overall

Rating: 10/10

Are you thinking of popping the question this Valentine’s Day? This gift might just be the ultimate prop. Hidden within the most stunningly glossy red chocolate heart is a note, which can be personalised, for your love. The chocolate is dark and rich, with a minimum of 70 per cent cocoa for a sophisticated flavour. Meanwhile, the packaging is free-from plastic, and Melt even delivers its chocolates with an electric zero-emissions van.

This beautiful, handcrafted gift doesn’t only have to be used for life-changing questions. You can simply go with a standard “happy Valentine’s” message, an “I love you”, or something else unique to your relationship to show your sweetheart how much they mean to you for an unforgettable moment.

Best: Selection box

Rating: 9/10

If you’re buying for someone who struggles to make up their mind or loves a bit of everything, this gift from 100 per cent vegan chocolatiers Copperhouse gives them the luxury of choice. Nestled in a cardboard box with vibrant pink paper are boxes of brownies, caramel hearts, drinking chocolate and a slab of fudge.

The bakes, a generous hunk each of a dulche non-leche brownie, a raspberry blondie and a classic chocolate brownie, are dense, fudgy and oh-so indulgent. The caramel hearts have an oozy, sugary centre, which has notes of maple syrup, and the large block of fudge melts in the mouth, tasting and looking just like that made to a traditional recipe. Finally, there are two servings each of cinnamon rose, raspberry dream and Madagascar 61 per cent hot chocolate mixes, which dreamily melt into hot plant-based milk for a sumptuous, warming drink.

Besides everything tasting out of this world, we love that the brand uses predominantly recyclable cardboard and paper and the bags it does use are 100 per cent biodegradable. It also has impressive social responsibility credentials, using cocoa ethically sourced from small producers who pay farmers above fair-trade standards.

Best: Vegan marshmallows

Rating: 9/10

Cute packaging, sweet marshmallows and rich chocolate make this a perfect gift for someone who prefers sweets to chocolate alone. Included is a box of gooey, aromatic, cloud-like rose and raspberry marshmallows and a fun marshmallow lolly covered in thick Belgian chocolate with rainbow sprinkles.

Our favourite part, though, is the rose and raspberry round up – think a chunky, posh, vegan wagon wheel with vanilla marshmallow sandwiched between chocolate biscuits with a raspberry jam centre all covered in divine rose scented chocolate. It’s nostalgic and decadent. The quality of this gift is outstanding, and the marshmallows are made using only natural flavours, vegetable colourants and real fruit powders.

Best: Award-winning chocolate

Rating: 8.5/10

Things could heat up this Valentine’s Day with this spicy gift. Lift the lid on the thick, edible, 72 per cent Ecuador single origin dark chocolate heart-shaped gift box to reveal five splendidly designed chilli caramel gems. These award-winning morsels have a meltingly soft caramel centre that is more zingy than stingy – the perfect amount of chilli to sweetness ratio to hot things up. This product is made using a dairy-, gluten- and soya-free recipe, and we love that it comes in a plastic-free, fully recyclable gift box.

Best: Allergen-free chocolates

Rating: 8.5/10

Nono Cocoa’s chocolates are the kind that make you gasp at their beauty when you open the box. The attention to detail is exquisite; some of the chocolates are painted, and others carry leaf or pearl-like decorations. As well as looking good, they taste superb with several sublime flavours, including our favourites dark coconut cream, white rose and raspberry.

Better still, they are safe for people with a multitude of allergies because they are free from the top 14 allergens, including dairy, gluten, nuts and yeast. There are also no artificial colourings, preservatives, GMO ingredients or refined sugar, but they do include superfoods such as baobab and camu camu. Could this be considered healthy chocolate? It’ll definitely do some good.

Best: For a cosy evening at home

Rating: 8/10

Your love’s favourite restaurant was booked up before you had a chance to make a reservation, the cinema will be hideously busy, and you can’t even stomach the thought of facing a bar, so a cosy night in, cuddled up on the sofa, is just the ticket. Add in a good film and this gift, and it’s a perfect evening.

This bumper bundle of chocolate goodies is everything your sweetheart will need for that one night and several more to come. Included are six 100g dark, gloriously rich chocolate bars (two original, two with peppermint and two fiery ginger), four melting hot chocolate spoons, including two with orange, for luxurious warming drinks and four 135g bags of gigantic chocolate buttons, including two of peppermint. This is the ultimate gift for the vegan chocolate lover.

Best: Baked gift

Rating: 9/10

Some things are almost too beautiful to eat, then there is this handmade gift, cutting into which actually pained us. It is a fine work of artisanship, a masterpiece with its adorable illustration and seasonal organic edible flowers. And that is just the appearance. Beneath the stunning design is a super-rich double chocolate brownie slab ready to be cut into portions. The flavour is deep with 100 per cent sustainable cocoa, and the texture is fudgy with just the right amount of chew. The packaging is 100 per cent recyclable too. This is the most Instagrammable gift we’ve seen yet.

Best: Cheeky choccy gift

Rating: 8/10

A sense of humour is a must to survive most relationships, and cheekiness is almost always endearing, so put it to the test with this vegan chocolate bar. And like most jokers, it has a serious (seriously tasty) centre too.

The 80g bar is made with 55 per cent cocoa, which means it is far less bitter than a lot of vegan chocolates and is meltingly smooth. The best bit, though, is the decoration: vibrant pink and red dried strawberries and raspberries that offset the creaminess with a tart, fruity hit. As well as being vegan and dairy-free, this bar is gluten-free. Plus, all the packaging is 100 per cent recyclable, and the cocoa is sourced from certified sustainable farms.

Best: Classic box of chocolates

Rating: 9.5/10

Those vegans who shy away from bitter dark chocolate and prefer something that tastes as close to the conventional dairy stuff as you can get, will fall in love with this impressive box of chocolates. Hotel Chocolat has really nailed it with its nutmilk range. Inside the elegant white box are 33 heavenly titbits, including truffles, batons, pralines, salted caramels and a crunchy peanut buche (log when translated from French into English) centrepiece.

Our favourites are the zesty orange batons made with Valencian orange oil, the decadently rich gianduja and the pecan praline with its hint of sea salt. The texture of the chocolates, which are made with finely milled hazelnuts in place of dairy milk, is smooth and melting and among the creamiest of all the vegan alternatives out there. They’ll delight vegan and dairy fans alike.

Best: Truffles

Rating: 8/10

Nothing says “I love you” like a box of truffles, and this one is especially charming from the brand founded by James Cadbury, the great-great-great-grandson of the man who created the world-famous chocolate company.

Neatly arranged within a pretty pink and gold cardboard box are 18 artistically decorated truffles of six different varieties: coffee, orange, pineapple, raspberry, lime and – our favourite – bakewell. The single-origin chocolate coating each truffle is dark and rich but not too bitter and gives way to a satisfying crack when you bite into them.

We especially like that buying this product for a loved one helps Love Cocoa to plant a tree in Kenya – the company has planted one million so far.