Plant based chocolate brand Lovo working to reimagine milk chocolate.
The company says it recently launched in the US with the first and only
line of milk chocolate bars made with a variety of plant based milks.
Well, the bars are also made entirely of vegan gluten free and non GMO ingredients.
So joining me now is Simon Lester and Courtney
Busick, uh co founders of Lovo.
Thank you both for coming. Uh Monday chocolate treat. Always good
at this time of the day, Simon, we'll start with you.
How does the taste compared to normal chocolate?
Well, that's a great question um because I'm, I'm talking to you as a,
as a long milk chocolate lover and
it's if you imagine milk chocolate and try and make it a
little bit a little bit better but a little bit the same.
It's got to be similar but, but, but just as good.
So you add a little hint, you retain all the texture, all the benefit,
all the the
things you like about milk chocolate,
but just add a little hint of different flavors of different plant based milks.
That's sort of what it is.
It's uh just a just a hint of the, the different nuts and oats that we use,
uh but not enough to sort of totally change it
away for being very clearly a creamy delicious milk chocolate,
Courtney. I wanna bring you in here.
Um, as well. What are those particular nut milks that you use in these chocolates?
And basically, what are they swapped in for?
I would assume things like milk and dairy um, that are not plant based.
Absolutely.
We've taken out the dairy milk and we've, we have four bars that we've launched with
um almond milk,
coconut milk,
hazelnut and oat milk.
A variety of different ones. We're showing them on the screen there.
It says it's Swiss made Simon talk to me more about this.
This is based in Switzerland.
Well,
it's uh if you think about where the best milk chocolate in the world comes from.
And I'm originally British.
So I've got a bit of a bit of a bias there, but, but most people would
accept that the Swiss really do have some outstanding expertise.
Milk chocolate was actually invented in Switzerland.
So we were trying to put this product together.
We needed to tap into that Swiss expertise
because they understand how to get that creaminess,
that texture, that, that overall sensation of wonderful milk chocolate.
So they just,
we just needed to add the plant piece in and
get them to really expand their thinking around that.
And uh we're delighted with the results,
Courtney, how can consumers get their hands on this?
And what are your expectations for sales?
Well, we've just started so our expectations really are developing as every day,
but we're so thrilled to see that people are going on
to Amazon and going onto our website Lovo chocolate dot com.
We're selling a four pack of variety pack as well
as you could buy four of the same bars.
Um So we've started with the consumer uh direct to consumer strategy.
And as we evolved, we hope to be in uh bricks and mortar retailers near customers.
Is there a competitor that you're looking to take on in this space,
Simon as you look to disrupt, of course, the chocolate business.
Well, we're doing things a little differently, so nobody's doing it the same way.
The traditional approach to a plant based milk is to use a single ingredient,
typically rice milk.
Uh increasingly some people using oat,
you know, our approach is different, which is,
which is to look at the the plant milk category and say,
what are people drinking when they go into a store to buy, you know,
their latte with a, with a plant milk and they're not looking for a single one,
they're buying a whole variety.
So we are the only people
this variety, this range approach to the category.
So it's gonna be very interesting to do people bring over
their sort of plant based beverage approach into the chocolate world.
We think there's a taste advantage and a and a choice advantage.
So let's hope that plays out.
Uh Monday afternoon, I think a good time to enjoy chocolate no matter where you are,
Simon Lester and Courtney.
But
thank you so much for coming on the show, co-founders of Lova.