Sjaak’s Organic Chocolates Review

I am a chocoholic. Chocolate has always been a big part of my life, especially during my childhood.

Growing up in Czechoslovakia during Communism was not easy, but there was always enough good quality European chocolate for me to enjoy. We had some delicious chocolate that was made in Prague, and also my grandma (who emigrated to West Berlin in Germany) would bring me some chocolate from there. She would always bring some candy and chocolate that she sneaked in to Prague when she came to visit us for the holidays (Easter,

Mikuláš on the 5th December and Christmas),

birthdays and name days. She would bring the best chocolate, including funny shaped choco bunny lollipops. It was very special since you could not buy anything like this in Prague. I also enjoyed the

chocolate advent calendar for Christmas that she would bring. I loved milky, creamy chocolates but hated any dark

chocolate. I would always pick out dark chocolate from any chocolate gift box and I would give it to my parents who loved dark chocolate. I didn't like the bitterness of dark chocolate and the weird taste that it left in my mouth.

I had a favorite chocolate brand, that had the cutest logo ever, a lilac Alpine cow (Milka). As a child I believed that there was a purple cow somewhere in the Alps that was milking liquid chocolate :-)

When I became a vegan three years ago I was little worried that I would miss milk chocolate and that I would never enjoy eating dark chocolate. I though that eating chocolate would become a struggle instead of a joy so I gave up chocolate for a while. I decided to try to like dark chocolate for its health benefits and soon I started to like it for its taste, too. My taste buds had to adjust to dark chocolate. But I still missed the taste of creamy milky chocolate.

Thankfully, there are some great vegan chocolate alternatives that aren't just plain dark chocolates.

There are several "milky" chocolates that I tried and liked a lot. Most of them use rice milk to add creaminess. There are also some flavored dark chocolates that aren't bitter or weird.

The nice folks at Sjaak’s Organic Chocolates were kind to sent me some delicious chocolate to review (with no obligation to write a positive review). I have been eating their chocolate for a week now and I love it. It reminds me of the chocolate that I loved as a child.

Sjaak’s Organic Chocolates have a great selection of vegan chocolate products, including fancy gift boxes and velvety smooth chocolate bars. They use non bone char sugar.

I had a chance to try their Chocolate Bites in several flavors.

Hazelnut Butter Bites were my favorite. The creamy hazelnut centers that were covered in

rice milk chocolate

melted in my mouth almost instantly. It reminded me of Nutella hazelnut chocolate spread that I loved in my pre-vegan days.

Almond Butter and Peanut Butter had nutty creamy centers that were covered in smooth dark chocolate. I was not thrilled with this one, but it might be just the fact that I was never a big fan of peanut butter chocolate combination. The almond butter was very similar.

Orange Bites had smooth dark chocolate shells that were filled with yummy fruity centers that reminded me of orange jam.

Raspberry Bites

had smooth dark chocolate shells that were filled with yummy fruity centers that reminded me of raspberry jam.

Caramel Bites were

ooey, gooey, caramel goodness covered in smooth dark chocolate.

The Chocolate Bars were almost like a big version of the Chocolate Bites. I tried the Raspberry, Creamy Caramel and Almonds.

The combination of almonds and velvety smooth dark chocolate was amazing! It was a much better taste than the Almond Butter Bites.

I left the

Organic Fair Trade Nuts & Chews Chocolate Assortment

box for the last day. There were nice pieces chocolate candies that were fancy, delicious, meltingly soft and chewy. The assortment was

: coconut caramel, almond crunch, pistachio caramel, peanut caramel, pecan caramel, nugget, mocha caramel, cashew cluster, and chocolate caramel.

I am in love with

Sjaak’s

decadent, meltingly smooth and delicious chocolates! I am going to order some for Christmas as a selfish present for myself and maybe for some other people as well. I just have to make sure that I don't eat it all before I have a chance to give it to anyone as a present :-)