Can supermarket own brands compare to Lindt, Green and Blacks, Hotel Chocolat and Tony’s Chocolonely?
Chocolate is one of life’s greatest pleasures. But most shop-bought milk chocolate is high in added sugar and ultra-processed ingredients which can cause health problems if eaten regularly.
Too much added sugar can lead to obesity and spikes in blood sugar, which can lead to inflammation and chronic health problems over time. But perhaps even more importantly, the negative health impacts of ultra-processed ingredients like emulsifiers (which are used extensively in chocolate to create that smooth mouth-feel and prolong shelf life) are not fully understood but prominent scientists believe they are bad for us.
Fortunately, there is still a way to get that amazing chocolate hit without the unwanted extras. Dark chocolate contains all the amazing flavour of cocoa but far less added sugar or ingredients you’ve never heard of. Of course, cocoa is naturally bitter so without the added sweetness of sugar, dark chocolate can pack a powerful punch which you might find too much. The higher the cocoa percentage, the more bitter it is likely to be.
However, a well-made dark chocolate should still be delicious and indulgent, and be all the more enjoyable without the concern of the impact on your health or your weight. And even if eating it “neat” is too much, there are amazing ways you can enjoy it with a softer flavour, such as in a mousse, cake or cookies, or even alongside a cup of coffee, which can mellow the flavour considerably.
I have only recently started eating dark chocolate, having removed all ultra-processed food from my diet. I wanted to see how different brands compared. So I tried dark chocolate from Tesco, Asda and Lidl, as well as those from Cadbury’s and premium brands like Hotel Chocolat and Tony’s Chocolonely. I compared flavour, price and ingredients and scored each category out of 10. But first, let’s look at the benefits of dark chocolate.
Is dark chocolate good for you?
Dark chocolate has proven health benefits that can help reduce your risk of serious illnesses like heart disease, dementia and cancer. It is one of the best sources of antioxidants, can help lower cholesterol levels, improve blood flow and brain function and is a good source of fibre and healthy fats.
However, just because something says it is “dark chocolate” on the packaging doesn’t make it automatically healthy and you should still check the label for the ingredients and cocoa content. Professor Tim Spector of science and nutrition firm Zoe suggests that you should aim for a bar that is at least 70% cocoa. For this taste test, I chose chocolate bars with an 85% cocoa content, or as close to that as I could get.
1. Marks and Spencer Dark Chocolate 85%
This dark chocolate from Peru is towards the top end in terms of its price. It’s got no emulsifiers and is made only of cocoa and cane sugar. It’s a really delicious tasting bar with a really smooth, chocolatey flavour and just the right hint of gentle bitterness coming through. This is right up there as one of the best I tasted.
Taste: 8 out of 10
Ingredients: 10 out of 10
Price: £2.75 for 100g (£2.75 per 100g)
Overall Score: 8.5 out of 10
2. Green and Black’s Intense Dark Organic 85%
At 90g, this is smaller than the other bars, which pushes the price-per-100g up a bit and makes it one of the most expensive bars on the list. The bar is made up of lots of tiny squares, in contrast to the bigger squares of the supermarket bars. It doesn’t contain emulsifiers but does contain vanilla extract and “fat-reduced” cocoa powder. The taste is top drawer — it’s smooth, creamy and the sweetness of the vanilla comes through.
Taste: 9 out of 10
Ingredients: 9 out of 10
Price: £2.50 for 90g (£2.78 per 100g)
Overall Score: 8.5 out of 10
3. Lidl JD Gross Dark Chocolate 85%
JD Gross is Lidl’s own brand dark chocolate. I’m less thrilled about eating this one as it contains emulsifiers, though that is me being fussy and many people, including scientists and nutritionists, will tell you that you don’t need to worry about consuming an emulsifier at this kind of volume. What’s more, at 85% cocoa, it’s got a high cocoa content which only leaves so much room for other ingredients.
Taste-wise, it’s a big chunky square so it’s a big mouthful. It initially tastes smooth and creamy with a nice hint of bitterness. It’s got a nice mouth-feel to start too, though it did become a bit oily and cloying after a while, perhaps even feeling a bit artificial. It compares very well to the others in terms of price.
Taste: 7.5 out of 10
Ingredients: 6 out of 10
Price: £2.39 for 125g (£1.91 per 100g)
Overall Score: 7 out of 10
4. Hotel Chocolat 85% Dark Chocolate Slab
This one is by far the most expensive bar on the list, coming in at £5.45 for a 100g bar, so it’s more than twice as expensive as lots of the other bars on this list. So I’m hoping for great things, despite the ingredients list including an emusifier. Sadly, although it’s perfectly nice, it doesn’t live up to the expensive billing. The flavour takes a long time to come through. When it does, it’s nice, it’s creamy and it does leave a pleasant aftertaste. But if you’re charging twice as much, you need to make sure it’s twice as good and it’s not.
Taste: 7 out of 10
Ingredients: 6 out of 10
Price: £5.45 for 100g (£5.45 per 100g)
Overall score: 6 out of 10
5. Tony’s Chocolonely 70% Dark
Tony’s Chocolonely is by far the best-looking bar and its chunkiness makes for the most satisfying bite. I wanted to include the Chocolonely brand in this test but 70% is as high as they go with their cocoa content. That means this bar has way more sugar than most of the other bars in this test. In fact, it has 27.1g of sugar per 100g, pretty much twice as much as most of the others. It tastes great, as you’d expect from a Chocolonely bar — but a lot of that will be down to all the sugar! However, despite being a premium brand, this is one of the cheaper bars on the list when it comes to price per 100g.
Taste: 8 out of 10
Ingredients: 4 out of 10
Price: £3.50 for 180g (£1.94 per 100g)
Overall score: 6 out of 10
6. Waitrose No1 Dark Chocolate 80%
This one has a slightly lower cocoa percentage, which may account for its gentler taste. It’s still a very tasty bar but it’s got noticeably less flavour than most of the others. This could be perfect for those who prefer a lower cocoa count.
Taste: 7 out of 10
Ingredients: 6 out of 10
Price: £2.75 for 100g (£2.75 per 100g)
Overall score: 7 out of 10
7. Lindt Excellence 85% Cocoa Robust Dark
Lindt’s milk chocolate is known for its distinctive creamy style and its famous round Lindor truffles. This creaminess definitely translates to this 85% dark chocolate bar. The chocolatey hit comes through quickly in the taste, more quickly than most bars, but it’s still really smooth and has a lovely mouth-feel. It’s got no extra UPF ingredients, just sugar and vanilla added, so it scores really highly for ingredients too. Excellence indeed. I used to eat the Lindt 99% version, but this is great too.
Taste: 9 out of 10
Ingredients: 9.5 out of 10
Price: £2.98 for 100g (£2.98 per 100g)
Overall score: 9 out of 10
8. Cadbury’s Bourneville
This is a totally different chocolate bar to the others in this list. But Cadbury’s is a huge player in the chocolate world and this is their classic dark chocolate offering so I wanted to include it to see how it stacks up. I really was not looking forward to trying it given, unlike all the other chocolate bars on this list, its main ingredient is sugar. In fact, it has 58g of sugar per 100g.
It also contains an emulsifier, palm oil and skimmed milk powder. And given I don’t eat ultra-processed foods, I’m really not happy about putting it in my mouth.
Taste-wise, it’s not unpleasant in itself. But it’s unpleasant when compared to what dark chocolate should taste like. It’s extremely sweet and tastes like sweet milk chocolate more than dark chocolate to me. So if that’s your thing, you may well quite like it. It’s not for me. For price, however, it’s the cheapest bar on the list per 100g.
Taste: 4 out of 10
Ingredients: 1 out of 10
Price: £3 for 180g (£1.67 per 100g)
Overall score: 2 out of 10
9. Tesco Finest Peru Dark Chocolate 85%
This one doesn’t contain an emulsifier but does contain “flavouring” and I’m not sure what that means, given this isn’t a flavoured chocolate. However, beyond that it’s just cocoa and sugar so, ingredients-wise, it’s not too bad. This one is slightly more bitter than the others, not unpleasantly so, but it lacks the smoothness of its competitors.
Taste: 7 out of 10
Ingredients: 7 out of 10
Price: £2.40 for 100g (£2.40 per 100g)
Overall score: 7 out of 10
10. Asda Extra Special 85% Ugandan Dark Chocolate
The quality of this is the standout surprise of this entire test. There are no ingredients other than cocoa and sugar so it scores really well on its ingredients. I wondered whether this might affect the taste but it is probably the best of the lot. It is rich and chocolatey while still being smooth and mellow and not at all bitter. This will be my chocolate of choice from now on — and it’s also one of the cheapest. What a find!
Taste: 9.5 out of 10
Ingredients: 10 out of 10
Price: £2.15 for 100g (£2.15 per 100g)
Overall score: 9.5 out of 10
