Expo West Highlights: Review of Lily’s Sweets
Attending Expo West this year as a member of the press to cover the vegan scene was definitely a fun, informative and overwhelming experience!
Although I made a game plan to check out as many booths, companies, and new products as possible while attending the various events scheduled, there was so much to do and see that I definitely fell short in some areas.
However, I did have the pleasure of meeting many wonderful people and companies doing great things, and was able to see and sample a plethora of new or upcoming vegan and cruelty-free products. One of those companies was Lily’s Sweets, whose booth I visited at Connect to Press, and was happy to see a wide range of products free of animal products (with more coming!).
What immediately stood out about Lily’s Sweets—beyond them offering samples of delicious vegan chocolate—was that the company uses no refined or processed sugars in their products, instead using stevia. They kindly offered to send me some samples post-Expo and I was definitely excited to use their products in a few recipes:
While I love chocolate, seeing “extra dark” and “extremely dark” to describe the bars was a little concerning to me, as I assumed based on past experiences with very dark chocolate that both would be very bitter. I was happily proven wrong. While both taste like dark chocolate, the stevia perfectly balanced them out, without that dreaded aftertaste commonly associated with stevia-sweetened products. When I asked the team at Lily’s Sweets about their decision to use this specific sweetener, they stated:
“We purposefully chose to botanically sweeten our products with stevia because it comes from nature, and works amazingly well in chocolate recipes. Stevia is derived from the plant called Stevia Rebaudiana, which is a perennial native to Brazil and Paraguay, where people have been using it for more than 1,500 years, particularly to sweeten their yerba mate tea. Using stevia means Lily’s Sweets are made with a naturally-derived, low glycemic type of sweet, without the sugar.”
Knowing that the stevia did not adversely affect the taste of the chocolate, I decided to make my favorite vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe, using the chocolate chips the company sent to me in place of the regular sugar-filled ones I usually use. As expected, the cookies came out perfectly and I could not tell the difference from these baking chips and conventional chocolate chips:
I’m definitely looking forward to trying more from Lily’s Sweets, particularly this upcoming vegan product:
-
Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups (MSRP - $5.99/3.2 oz pouch) - Sometimes the best ideas comes from your fans. After seeing lovers of Lily’s Sweets Dark Chocolate Baking Chocolate time and again create peanut butter cups, the Lily’s team figured, why not make their own? The new Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups will come in a convenient pouch with five single-serving cups ready to satisfy daily cravings.
As the company notes, according to Mintel more than 80% of Americans are looking to cut down their sugar intake. Lily’s Sweets is definitely a great way to do just that while satisfying sweet cravings!
You can learn more about the company and their range of products here.
