Any1 Choco’s Approach (Part 1)：About Our Ingredients – What’s a plant-based chocolate?
Everything you need to know about chocolate and Any1 Choco’s unique approach to the chocolate making process.
Plant-Based and Dairy-Free?
In this article, we discuss Any1 Choco’s ingredients.
What does plant-based mean? What are chocolates typically made from?
At Any1 Choco, we create chocolates that can be enjoyed by anyone, with anyone.
Our chocolates are 100% plant-based, meaning we strive to create delicious chocolates using purely plant-based products. When we mention that our ingredients are plant-based, people often ask, “Isn’t chocolate made from cacao, and isn’t cacao a plant?”
If you’re curious about the ingredients in chocolate, look at the back of a chocolate package. In addition to cacao mass, sugar, and cacao butter from cacao beans, you’ll also find ingredients like “whole milk powder.” This “whole milk powder” is created by dehydrating milk and is often used in both milk and dark chocolates. Traditionally, milk has been essential for creating smooth, creamy, rich chocolates.
However, Any1 Choco doesn’t use any dairy products (dairy-free). To ensure that people of various needs and preferences can enjoy our chocolates — including those who cannot consume dairy — we make our dark chocolate, milk chocolate, and white chocolate without using milk, depending purely on plant-based ingredients.
Not only are our chocolates accessible and gentle on the body, but they also have a refreshing aftertaste and are exceptionally delicious. Any1 Choco offers a new take on plant-based chocolates.
What’s the difference between Any1 Choco and traditional plant-based chocolates?
Of course, plant-based chocolates do exist around the world. Although still relatively new, there are plant-based or “vegan” chocolates in the market. These chocolates are also dairy-free and are usually crafted using soy-based ingredients like soy milk. However, soy, like dairy, is also considered an allergen in many countries, making it a tricky ingredient to work with. Additionally, soy has a distinct flavor profile so it can be difficult to create delicious chocolates with it as a base ingredient.
Overall, Any1 Choco’s ingredients are not too different from traditional chocolate, in that we use carefully selected cacao mass and cocoa butter. However, we use white kidney beans and whole-grain rice instead of milk or soy. Using original technology, we break down white kidney beans and whole-grain brown rice to the molecular level. This approach helps to minimize the distinctive flavors often associated with plant-based ingredients and allows us to recreate the smoothness found in dairy-based chocolates. This feature is unique to our chocolates.
However, the secret to Any1 Choco’s flavor isn’t limited to the use of these new ingredients or new technology. Any1 Choco was created by a team of professionals, including a renowned pastry chef who has won international confectionery competitions. The team worked on prototype after prototype, piecing together carefully selected ingredients in search of the perfect balance of flavors, smoothness, and texture unique to chocolate.
One of the biggest challenges during this extensive prototyping process was achieving a richness similar to that of milk. It’s been thought that the richness of milk can’t be recreated using plant-based ingredients in chocolate making. However, our chocolate has a balanced richness by adjusting the ratio of cocoa butter, white kidney beans, and whole grain rice with other ingredients.
Additionally, while additives like emulsifiers are sometimes used in traditional plant-based chocolates to enhance richness and flavor, we created plant-based chocolate using only natural, simple ingredients.
Choosing Ingredients That Are Dairy-Free, Gluten-Free, and Delicious!
Furthermore, at Any1 Choco, in order to make our products accessible, we focus on cutting out ingredients that aren’t absolutely necessary for our chocolates. This doesn’t stop at using non-dairy ingredients. For example, all of our chocolate products are entirely gluten-free. Additionally, typical chocolate uses an emulsifier called lectin to make it easier to stir the chocolate, but this lectin is often either soy-based or anima-based. However, our original technology allows us to create products that are free from these additives.
Our approach to ingredient selection doesn’t stop at making our products “free” of certain elements. For example, cacao is the basis of every tasty chocolate. Our cacao is carefully selected from regions known for chocolate making, such as Vietnam and Ghana. We’re committed to using high-quality ingredients for our flavors, such as high-brand Japanese teas from Niigata Prefecture, specifically Murakami tea, for our green tea flavored chocolates.
Our chocolates are for sharing with loved ones – after all, sharing delicious things makes them even more enjoyable. At Any1 Choco, we will continue to develop delicious chocolates that inspire one to share it with others.
*We use a hydrolysis technique to break down white kidney beans and whole-grain rice. This method allows us to break down ingredients at the molecular level and create delicious foods without using any chemicals or acids. This technique, developed by a Japanese company, allows us to make additive-free products that enhance the potential of our sourced ingredients, ensuring our products are safe to consume.
We hope to explore this somewhat complex technology in more detail in our next article.