Inside Lovo’s quest to rethink plant-based milk chocolate
"The new brand from the founders of Pascha makes almond, oat, coconut and hazelnut milk the star ingredients, leaning into what consumers love about the popular alternatives.
Simon Lester knows plant-based milk chocolate doesn’t have the best reputation among consumers.
While most of today’s plant-based chocolates are dark, Lester said, confectioners are missing a huge piece of the market. Nearly half of U.S. consumers prefer milk chocolate, according to YouGov.
Lester and his wife, Courtenay Vuchnich, who started allergy-friendly chocolate company Pascha a decade ago, want to fill this market white space. After all, Lester said, plant-based milk is hugely popular, with sales growing annually. What is the problem with plant-based milk chocolate?
Then, Lester said, he finally figured it out.
“What we’ve been doing was the polar opposite of what we should be doing,” Lester said. “We’re trying to make this product taste like milk chocolate, without the flavor of the plants. Turn it upside down, and that’s not actually what people do with the plant-milk category. You don’t get an oat milk latte or cappuccino thinking it’s gonna taste like dairy milk. You expect a hint of the flavor to come through because it’s supposed to be oat milk.
“So why is that not happening in chocolate?” he continued.
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