These little candies eluded me at Expo West, but I finally found them at Sprouts grocery stores! The brand, Little Secrets, has several other varieties of candies that are vegan (the Raspberry and Dark Chocolate), but my heart belongs to these Salted Peanut Dark Chocolate Candies, which are pretty much an exact vegan dupe for Peanut M&Ms, which I loved in my pre-vegan days!
As many other bloggers confirmed directly with the company at Expo West, the confectioner's glaze used in this particular product is vegan as it is derived from coconuts rather than bugs (which is where confectioner's glaze usually comes from, yuck)! I hope more and more companies start using coconuts rather than bugs for confectioner's glaze (Trader Joe's is already doing it in some of their products). In addition to being vegan, I also adore that these candies are Fair Trade Certified and most contain 55% Fair Trade cocoa! Plus, they don't contain any artificial colors, flavors, additives, corn syrup. Just simple, yummy ingredients.
Nutritional info and ingredients - plus their packaging is cute!
As noted above, they do have a few flavors that aren't vegan (the Toasted Coconut, Peanut Butter, and Spiced Pumpkin Pie candies contain dairy or dairy by-products, blegh), but I hope that after the positive response they have received from the vegan community that they consider switching some ingredients so all their products are vegan! I mean, they shouldn't tease me with a Spiced Pumpkin Pie candy but then put dairy in it (they definitely lost some points with me there). Go 100% vegan,, Little Secrets!
However, for now I am seriously nuts about these Salted Peanut Dark Chocolate candies, which are conveniently available to order on Amazon (who doesn't want chocolate delivered directly to their door?!) as well as in grocery stores like Sprouts or Whole Foods for around $4.99 for a 5 oz. bag. Yes, it is a little pricey, but once you taste them you will understand!
Check out all their flavors with full ingredient lists on the Little Secrets website!