Hu Salty Dark Chocolate topped Tasting Table's 16-bar ranking and earned Sporked's pick for Best Vegan Dark Chocolate. That dual endorsement from two of the most respected food review outlets is hard to argue with.
Sara Klimek at Tasting Table described it simply: 'Every bite was balanced with salt.' The visible salt coating on each piece of 70% cacao chocolate creates a consistent sweet-salty interplay that most competitors miss. Chocolove came close at #2, but its salt was an afterthought rather than a feature.
The ingredient list is short and clean: organic cacao, organic cocoa butter, organic coconut sugar, and sea salt. No soy lecithin, no palm oil, no emulsifiers. Hu's whole brand identity revolves around removing those common additives, and you can taste the difference in the cleaner cocoa flavor that comes through.
Hurry The Food Up's Lora O'Brien recommended the brand for its 'energy-boosting' profile and noted the coconut sugar delivers 'a less buzzy sugar high' compared to refined sugar. Alicia Silverstone's The Kind Life called Hu flat-out 'the best.' When a professional food reviewer, a celebrity vegan advocate, and a structured taste test panel all converge on the same brand, that's consensus worth trusting.
What It Won't Do
The bar is small. At 2.1 ounces, you're paying roughly $2.04 per ounce, which makes Hu one of the most expensive everyday chocolate bars on the market. Tony's Chocolonely gives you three times the chocolate for a similar price. The salt-forward profile also limits its appeal; if you prefer sweet or milk-style chocolate, this bar will taste aggressively dark. And while Hu is available at Target, Whole Foods, and Amazon, it's still absent from many regional grocery chains.
Tony's Chocolonely Dark Chocolate Almond Sea Salt is the rare vegan chocolate that's both genuinely good and absurdly generous. At nearly 7 ounces per bar, it's roughly three times the size of most premium competitors. That translates to about $1.07 per ounce, compared to $2.04 for Hu.
Tasting Table ranked it #3 of 16 bars, noting 'soft, sweet, creamy despite no added milk' with 'plentiful, coarsely chopped' almonds throughout. The Kind Life's Alicia Silverstone included it as one of only five recommended vegan chocolates. This isn't a budget pick that sacrifices quality; it placed above Lindt, Ghirardelli, and Lily's in Tasting Table's head-to-head.
Tony's mission is the other half of the story. The company exists specifically to fight slave labor and child labor in West African cocoa supply chains. Every bar uses 100% traceable cocoa beans. For a vegan audience that already makes purchase decisions based on ethics, that traceability isn't a marketing gimmick; it's verifiable through their annual FAIR reports.
The chunky, unevenly divided bar is intentional. Tony's designed it to represent inequality in the chocolate industry. It also makes the bar feel like a shareable treat rather than a personal indulgence, which matters at this size.
What It Won't Do
The sea salt is barely there. Tasting Table flagged 'minimal sea salt contrast' as the bar's biggest miss, and it's true: the name promises salt that the flavor doesn't deliver. The bar is also hard to break into clean pieces because of its intentionally uneven design, which sounds charming until you're trying to share it without making a mess. Compared to Hu's clean two-ingredient simplicity, Tony's ingredient list is longer and includes soy lecithin.
Who Should Buy Which
Hu Salty Dark Chocolate
Four ingredients, zero compromises, and salt that actually shows up
- You read ingredient labels and want the shortest, cleanest list possible: organic cacao, cocoa butter, coconut sugar, salt
- You prefer dark chocolate with a pronounced salt accent, not sweet or milky profiles
- You're buying chocolate as a personal treat rather than sharing, and the 2.1 oz size fits that use case
- You shop at Whole Foods, Target, or Amazon and can absorb the premium price point
Tony's Chocolonely Dark Chocolate Almond Sea Salt
Three times the chocolate, a mission worth chewing on
- You want the most chocolate per dollar without dropping to gas-station quality
- Ethical sourcing and cocoa traceability matter to your purchasing decisions
- You're buying for a household, office, or sharing situation where a 7 oz bar makes sense
- You prefer chocolate with nuts and want generous, well-distributed almond pieces throughout