Frequently Asked Questions

Ordering FAQs

• Do you offer quantity discounts?
• I want to ship to an address in the United States, but I live in another country. Can I still order?
• Do you do make custom gift baskets and chocolates?
• Do you ship chocolate outside of the United States?

Chocolate FAQs

• What kind of chocolate do you use?
• How long will my chocolate last?
• Do your chocolates have allergens in them such as soy, nuts, dairy, and gluten?
• Do your chocolates contain hydrogenated oils?
• What is the percent of cocoa in your chocolates?
• Are any of your chocolates kosher? Are they pareve?
• Are any of your products vegan?
• Do you have sugar free chocolates?
• Does your chocolate have caffeine?
• Is your chocolate alkalized?
• Is your chocolate fair trade?
• Are Lake Champlain Chocolates organic?
• Where does Lake Champlain Chocolates source its cocoa beans?
• Do you use refined sugar?
• What is the nutritional information for your 5 Star Bars?

Ordering FAQs

Do you offer quantity discounts?

Yes, when you order $500.00 or more. The discounts are as follows:

• $500 to $1,000 . . . . . . . .5% total discount
• $1,000 to $2,500 . . . . . .10% total discount
• $2,500 or more . . . . . . .15% total discount

I want to ship to an address in the United States, but I live in another country. Can I still order?

Absolutely! Call our Customer Service Center at 1-800-465-5909 and we will be happy to help you!

Do you do make custom gift baskets and chocolates?

For large volume orders, we can tie a customer-supplied ribbon or sticker, or include a customer-supplied item within one of our baskets. Lead time runs 3-6 weeks from time of approval. Contact our corporate sales department at corpsales@lakechamplainchocolates.com for more information.

Do you ship chocolate outside of the United States?

We limit our shipments to the 50 United States. Our experiences with international gift taxes and customs delays as well as refused and returned packages have forced us to institute this policy. Chocolate can also melt in transit, and this is more likely when shipped outside the United States.

Have a question about ordering that you don't see here? Submit your question to us using our General Request form, or call us toll-free at 1.800.465.5909.

Chocolate FAQs

What kind of chocolate do you use?

All of our chocolates are crafted from Belgian chocolate.

How long will my chocolate last?

When properly stored, solid milk chocolate will last approximately nine months and solid dark chocolate will last approximately one year. Filled chocolates, such as truffles and pralines, will last approximately two to four months.

Do your chocolates have allergens in them such as soy, nuts, dairy, and gluten?

All of our chocolates contain soy lecithin. The only exceptions are our cocoa products. Some of our products contain nuts, dairy, and gluten. It varies by product. We cannot guarantee that any of our products are entirely free of trace amounts of these ingredients. All of our chocolates are manufactured in the same factory with the same equipment, which could pose the risk of cross-contamination. We will be happy to assist you with the ingredients or nutritional information on any of our chocolates. Please email info@lakechamplainchocolates.com for assistance.

Do your chocolates contain hydrogenated oils?

Our chocolates are free of hydrogenated oils and trans fats.

What is the percent of cocoa in your chocolates?

Our standard milk chocolate has 34% cocoa, and our standard dark chocolate has 54%. The highest cocoa content is in our Small World Select Origin chocolates, which contain between 54% and 80% cocoa content.

Are any of your chocolates kosher? Are they pareve?

Our dark chocolate is both kosher and milk-free, containing only cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter (which is not a milk derivative), soy lecithin, and vanilla. We do not add milk to our dark chocolate. All dark chocolate & dark chocolate mint items (bars, hearts, squares, and coins) as well as the dark chocolate almond bars and the Select Origin dark chocolate squares, are dairy-free.

All of our products are certified Star-D Kosher by the National Council of Young Israel in affiliation with Star-K Kosher Certification, with the exception of our hot chocolate and unsweetened cocoa (which is certified by the Orthodox Union). You may check the full listing of our Kosher products on the Star-K website at www.star-k.org. Due to the manufacturing process, we cannot guarantee that any product is entirely free of minute traces of dairy, as there is a potential for cross-contamination. This prevents our products from being pareve.

Are any of your products vegan?

Our dark chocolate is milk-free, containing only cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter (which is vegan), soy lecithin, and vanilla. Put “vegan” in the search box on our website and you’ll get a list of vegan products. Please note that these items are all manufactured in the same factory and with the same equipment as our products which contain milk products. Equipment is cleaned between products, but we cannot guarantee that any product is entirely free of minute traces of dairy. Also, we use refined sugar in our chocolates, which some vegans avoid.

Do you have sugar free chocolates?

Unsweetened Cocoa is our only product characterized as sugar-free. All of our chocolates are produced with natural ingredients, never with artificial sweeteners, and contain no preservatives. As a general rule, the higher the cocoa content in chocolate, the lower the sugar content. Therefore, dark chocolate contains far less sugar than milk chocolate. We currently offer Select Origin Chocolates, which feature dark chocolates from around the world containing 54% to 75% cocoa content.

Does your chocolate have caffeine?

Cocoa Powder: 5 milligrams of caffeine per 8 ounce serving, or 0.002% by weight of the chocolate is caffeine (our Mocha Hot Chocolate and Mountain Mint Hot Chocolate are the exception, with 8.65 milligrams of caffeine per 8 ounce serving). Dark Chocolate: 1 ounce of dark chocolate has 20 milligrams of caffeine, or 0.07% by weight of the chocolate is caffeine. Milk Chocolate: 1 ounce of milk chocolate has 6 milligrams of caffeine, or 0.02% by weight of the chocolate is caffeine. For comparison, coffee has 47-164 milligrams of caffeine per 5 ounce serving.

Is your chocolate alkalized?

The alkali process, or Dutch Process, is used to neutralize the acidity normally found in chocolate. The process produces a powder with no cocoa butter by pressing the pure cacao paste at very high pressure to produce a fat free powder. We only use alkalized cocoa in our hot cocoas. If alkalized cocoa is used in any product, it must be stated in the ingredients.

Is your chocolate fair trade?

Lake Champlain Chocolates produces all-natural, preservative-free chocolates, supports overall human health and wellness, and champions efforts to eliminate any form of exploitation connected to the production of cocoa products. We share the belief that no one should be harmed in cocoa farming.

In West Africa, about one million small family farms account for about 50% of cocoa production. Concerns have been raised regarding the practice of using child and slave labor on these farms. The chocolate industry has questioned these practices and created programs that offer support for cocoa farmers, their families, and their communities. Sustainable growth and ethical trading are common goals of everyone working to establish and enforce appropriate labor standards.

As a member of the World Cocoa Foundation. Lake Champlain Chocolates takes our responsibility to these families seriously, and we are fully committed to implementing positive change in the social, economic, and environmental development of cocoa farming communities worldwide. We source our chocolate from one of the largest cocoa processing companies in the world -- a company that takes full accountability for all its activities throughout the trading and production chain.

Building awareness and conscientious support for cocoa producers and their families is the first step toward reform in the industry. Also underway is the establishment of a certification process that monitors and improves the socioeconomic conditions of cocoa farms, especially in West Africa.

Lake Champlain Chocolates recognizes that to achieve real change means working in partnership with other industry-supported programs to eradicate questionable labor practices in the growing of cocoa beans. To learn more about the work being carried out by our industry, and how you can become an active part of the solution, please visit www.responsiblecocoa.com.

In conclusion, we would like to stress that Lake Champlain Chocolates strongly condemns slavery and hazardous labor practices. We confirm that no such practices have been reported nor will be tolerated.

Are Lake Champlain Chocolates organic?

Cacao trees, the source of all chocolate, grow in the shade in rainforests. Nothing is wasted in this environment, as a wide variety of plants, animals, and insects provide a complex, natural pest-management system. On family farms, pesticides are expensive to buy and difficult to apply to cacao trees, making most cacao farms organic by default.

While organic certification verifies farming practices, it does not ensure the quality of the cacao or the fermentation of the beans, two factors which significantly influence the flavor of chocolate. So far, Lake Champlain Chocolates has only found enough organic chocolate that meets our high quality standards for the products in our Organic Chocolate line.

Where does Lake Champlain Chocolates source its cocoa beans?

Lake Champlain Chocolates is a third tier producer, meaning we buy prepared chocolate rather than the raw cocoa beans. Our high quality standards include taste, making a blending of cocoa beans from multiple locations the only way to achieve them. Bean origins can vary slightly from month to month and year to year.

Do you use refined sugar?

We are a third tier chocolate producer, meaning we buy prepared chocolate rather than the raw cocoa beans. The chocolate we purchase already contains refined sugar by the time we buy it. We are aware of the concerns over refined sugar, and where possible we use organic evaporated cane juice.

What is the nutritional information for your 5 Star Bars?

The labels on our 5 Star Bars are too small to fit all of the nutritional information, but all our ingredients are fully disclosed and available from our offices. The nutritional information for each of the 5 Star Bars is listed here:

Five Star Caramel Bar 2 oz.

Ingredients:

Milk and dark chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, cocoa mass, milk powder, milk fat, soybean lecithin, and vanilla), almonds, sugar, heavy cream, corn syrup, honey, vanilla extract, and soybean lecithin. Contains milk, soybean, and tree nuts. May contain traces of peanuts and wheat.

Five Star Fruit & Nut Bar 1.9 oz.

Ingredients:

Milk and dark chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, cocoa mass, milk powder, milk fat, soybean lecithin, and vanilla), natural hazelnut paste, pecans, raisins, and dried cherries. Contains milk, soybean, and tree nuts. May contain traces of peanuts and wheat.

Five Star Hazelnut Bar 1.8 oz.

Ingredients:

Gianduja and milk chocolate (sugar, natural hazelnut paste, cocoa butter, cocoa mass, milk powder, milk fat, soybean lecithin, and vanilla), unsalted hazelnuts, wheat flour, whey powder, salt, barley malt flour, and baking soda. Contains milk, soybean, tree nuts, and wheat. May contain traces of peanuts.

Five Star Peanut Bar 1.8 oz.

Ingredients:

Milk and white chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, cocoa mass, milk powder, milk fat, soybean lecithin, and vanilla), natural salted peanut butter, roasted salted peanuts, milled rice, and peanut flour. Contains milk, soybean, and peanuts. May contain traces of tree nuts and wheat.

Five Star Granola Bar 1.9 oz.

Ingredients:

Dark and milk chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, cocoa mass, milk powder, milk fat, soybean lecithin, and vanilla), almond butter, salted roasted almonds, dried cranberries, granola (rolled oats, maple syrup, brown sugar, canola oil, and cinnamon), and salt. Contains milk, soybean, and tree nuts. May contain traces of peanuts and wheat.