On Valentine’s Day in the United States, $4 billion dollars is spent on Candy. Valentine’s Day is the fourth most popular holiday for candy, behind Halloween, Christmas, and Easter. Sales of candy makes up about 57% of consumer spending for the holiday. 58 million pounds of chocolate alone are purchased annually for V-Day. When it comes to eating candy, it’s important to choose organic and sustainably sourced confections.
Organic candies contain cane sugar instead of GMO sugar or high fructose corn syrup. They also use natural ingredients for color and flavors, natural waxes, and more heat stable oils as opposed to the red dye No. 3, bromated vegetable oil, potassium bromate, and propyl paraben found in conventional candy. This is especially important when buying candy canes.
Being certified organic also means it has other non-GMO ingredients which weren’t sprayed with any pesticides such as glyphosate. Additionally, the organic candy companies source their ingredients from farms where the workers are treated fairly and paid a fair price for their work.
When it comes to Valentine’s candies, I searched all of the organic candy businesses to see who had products which were related to the holiday in one way or another. One element I was looking for was ingredients associated with romance, such as strawberries, caramel, and chai. Another type of candy which could make my list are truffles, whose richness fits with the holiday. And of course, what would the holidays be without candy hearts?
In alphabetical order, here are the 18 best organic candies you can buy for Valentine’s Day:
Alter Eco
Alter Eco was founded in 2005 by fellow activists Mathieu Senard and Edouard Rollet with the goal of bringing the best tasting foods to consumers concerned with the environment and fair trade. In 2010, Alter Eco was able to offset all of their emissions as carbon neutral; partnering with Pur Project, which plants and protects trees in Central and South America. Next, they accomplished two first’s of any company with the commercially compostable wrapper on their chocolate truffles in 2013 and the commercially compostable pouch on their quinoa products in 2016. Most recently, in 2020, they formed the Alter Eco Foundation to further the cause of regenerative agriculture to fight climate change and inequality. Alter Eco’s mint flavored chocolates make great Valentine’s Day treats and can found in the options of their assorted truffle flavors, dark chocolate blackout bars, and truffle thins.
BOHO Chocolate
Before founding BOHO Chocolate, Charles Burke was working in a small New England shop with a lifelong dream of crafting his own chocolate. Charles’ passion lied within the whole bean-to-bar process. He planned to create award winning chocolate where he was involved in all stages, from the cocoa beans being picked to the chocolate bars being wrapped and sealed. One day, Charles and his good friend booked a flight to South America and were able to team with Taza Chocolate. The two learned about cocoa cultivation by visiting local farmers and cooperatives. Soon after, BOHO Chocolate was born. BOHO has a large number of small batch and single origin chocolate bars. In terms of Valentine’s candy, BOHO has their spicy chai bar.
Dr. Bronner’s 
Third generation German-Jewish soapmaker Emanuel Bronner. Known formed Dr. Bronner’s in 1948 with his liquid peppermint soap and health food seasonings. The soaps and seasonings both contained a label which said “We are All-One or None!” Over 70 years later, Dr. Bronner’s remains a family-owned business and continues with its founders vision of selling high quality socially and environmentally responsible products as well as donating their profits to various social and environmental causes. They make a wide variety of hygiene items, including soaps, hand sanitizers, tooth pastes, and balms. In the recent years, they’ve expanded into regeneratively grown foods. In 2018, along with The Rodale Institute and Patagonia, they co-founded the Regenerative Organic Alliance to certify products as regenerative organic. Dr. Bronner’s has the first Regenerative Organic Certified coconut oil. And most recently, they launched a line of regenerative dark chocolate bars in multiple flavors. For the holidays, Dr. Bronner’s introduces the golden milk chai bar.
Evolved
Rick Gusmano and Christine Cusano had both been able to reverse many of their lifelong health problems by switching to the paleo diet. After following the diet for a couple years, they one day attempted to concoct a paleo friendly dessert. The result was their first batch of truffles. Realizing there’s nothing else like this on the market, they decided to create Evolved. Evolved has many offerings of coconut sugar sweetened chocolate. Around Valentine’s Day time, a great choice of theirs are the dark chocolate strawberries & cream cups.
Fine & Raw 
Fine & Raw originates out of a loft in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn. Artist Daniel Sklaar tried his hand at making chocolate and sharing it with his friends. He then began delivering the chocolates on his bike to local shops. Sustainability has always been important to Daniel. He has a direct relationship with farmers co-ops in Ghana and Ecuador. He supports farmers committed to fair labor and making positive contributions to their communities. Plus the farmers are involved in organic and sustainable land management practices. Fine & Raw sells limited releases throughout the year. For Valentine’s day, they have their truffle boxes, truffle hearts, and chocolate bars with heart themed wrappers.
Goodio
While working as game developer at Rovio, the company best known for Angry Birds, Goodio founder Jukka Peltola was looking at ways to eat healthier. As he tried to find alternatives to sugary and salty snacks, he added raw cacao to his diet and removed dairy. By consuming it raw, the cacao remained all of its nutrients. This resulted in him feeling livelier, lighter, and more energetic. After telling his friends, family, and colleagues about his new diet and lifestyle, they wanted to build a company which value purpose over profit. The cacao is sourced from farms in South America and Africa. It’s then stone ground in Helsinki, where Goodio is based. They have regular chocolate bars and bars with oats known as ChocOat bars. Goodio’s Valentine’s provisions are their love collection, which includes flavors such as strawberry, salted caramel, raspberry, and strawberry shortcake. Goodio also has a customizable double chocolate bar with a choice of two flavors.
Hammond’s Candies
Hammond’s Candies dates back over 100 years ago when founder Carl T. Hammond Sr. opened Hammond’s Candy Factory in Denver, CO. Carl started it as a small family business committed to quality. The first candy he created was Carl’s Honey Ko Kos, which were chocolates topped with shredded coconut. What began as a one man business soon developed into Carl hiring a manager to run the store while he traveled throughout the west selling candy to other retailers. Several generations of the Hammond family ran the company from Carl’s son Carl T. Hammond Jr. to Carl Jr.’s son-in-law Emery Dorsey. In 1995, Williams-Sonoma purchased a number of their products and Hammond’s became a national name. The company was sold in 1999 to three veterans of the candy industry who expand Hammond’s from a small business to 10 employees to a factory twice as large with over 60 employees. In 2007, candy lover Andrew Schuman purchased Hammond’s. Having a similar background in retail and enthusiasm for entrepreneurship as Carl T. Hammond Sr., Andrew eventually expanded the company to 300 employees and into the snack foods arena. For the Valentine’s, their organic options include a chery heart lollipop.
Lake Champlain
Lake Champlain founder Jim Lampman bought fancy chocolates every year as holiday presents for his Ice House Restaurant staff in Burlington, VT. One year, his pastry chef said the chocolates Jim bought weren’t all that great, so Jim dared him to make better ones. His chef took him up on the challenge and the two started making hand-rolled creamy truffles together. Today, Lake Champlain has a wide variety of chocolates which are all fair trade certified and GMO free. Many of their products are also certified organic. They remain a multi-generational family business which sources from local and sustainable partners. Lake Champlain has a wide variety of organic Valentine’s Day candies with everything from chocolate hearts to raspberry dark chocolate bars.
Lovely
The Lovely Candy Co. started when Jackie Nakamura asked her husband Mike to bring her home a candy free of artificial ingredients, GMOs, and gluten. Soon after, Lovely was born. With the Lovley, their candies are perfectly suitable for Valentine’s Day. The organic products they produce are chewy candy, lollipops, and hard candy.
Raaka Chocolate
Raaka Chocolate prides itself on transparent trade. They purchase cacao directly from cooperatives and grower organizations who value quality, sustainability, field support, market access, and premium prices for farmers. They always purchase cacao premium prices which are higher than the commodity market and fair trade prices, in addition to making sure the prices will remain stable. Every transaction of Raaka makes can be found on their website. For Valentine’s, they offer the chocolate bars raspberry waffle crunch, rose cardamom, and strawberry & cream.
Sweet Apricity
Tonya Butts founded Sweet Apricity as an answer to the question “Can I ever eat something fun again?” Tonya first made dairy free caramel as a graduation gift to her best friend who has autoimmune disease. Her friend was undergoing the autoimmune protocol (AIP) which provides strong relief for those with autoimmune disease and eliminates gluten, grains, chocolate, dairy, eggs, and refined sugar. As that meant her friend couldn’t consume any story bought sweets or snacks, Tonya saw promise in a business which caters this group. All of Sweet Apricity’s products are grain and dairy free. They also contain a natural sweetener of either coconut sugar, honey, or maple syrup in place of any refined sugar. Sweet Apricity’s line has grown since inception now ranges in everything from sea salted caramels to caramel puffs to caramel sauce to grass fed marshmallows of different flavors. Their sea salted caramels make wonderful Valentine’s Day gifts.
Taza Chocolate
While traveling through Oaxaca, Mexico, Taza Chocolate founder and CEO Alex Whitmore took his first bite of stone ground chocolate. His trip then inspired Alex to open a chocolate factory back in his hometown of Somerville, MA. He began sourcing direct trade cacao and hand-carved granite mill stones to make less processed chocolate. In 2005, he officially launched Taza with his wife, who serves as Chief Design Officer. Taza prides itself in its sourcing. It’s the first U.S. chocolate maker to establish a third-party Direct Trade Cacao Certification program. Their holiday chocolate bars are raspberry crunch, deliciously dark, chocolate cookie crunch and toffee almond & sea salt.
TCHO
The name TCHO is the phonetic spelling of the first syllable of chocolate. The company originated with the mission to both produce the best chocolate and produce it in a way which makes the world a better place. All of their ingredients are sourced with methods to benefit the farms and taste delicious. TCHO looks for farms around the world which treat their growers fairly, source ethically, and reduce their carbon emissions. They created an in-house program called TCHOSource, which partners with cacao farmers, cooperatives, and research organizations in cacao producing countries in order to get the best cacao beans. TCHO’s Napa Noir; a mix of fudgy dark chocolate, cacao nibs aged in red wine, and sea salt, is perfect for that special somebody on Valentine’s Day.
That’s It.
That’s It. was founded in 2012 by Dr. Lior Lewensztain. While in medical school, Dr. Lewensztain observed that only one third of people in the United States were consuming the daily intake of fruit needed in their diet. So he became determined to raise the numbers in this statistic. Dr. Lewensztain developed a passion for food as preventative medicine and creating snack options made with simple minimal ingredients which were good for on-the-go. That’s It.’s Valentine’s Day products are their truffles with the choices of banana, fig, date, and espresso truffles.
Theo Chocolate
oe Whinney and Jeff Fairhall created Theo Chocolate was created in 2005. Joe had previously formed the first company to manufacture and supply organic cocoa and chocolate products in bulk to the U.S. food industry. Jeff was one of the founders of The Essential Baking Company. Joe & Jeff’s goal with Theo was to make high quality chocolate from scratch from the cocoa bean to the chocolate. Their practices also include using third parties to verify that everybody they work with is being truthful in their claims, negotiating stable prices with their farm partners, and having full transparency with everybody they work and trade with. Theo makes four different Valentine-themed chocolate bars in the flavors of crème brûlée and sweet & spicy.
Torie & Howard
Torie & Howard is named after its founders Torie Burke and Howard Slatkin. The two were interior designers who checked out all types of cuisine and restaurant and visited farmers markets while they traveled around the world for their work. Along their journey, they both had to change their ways of eating. As Howard ate healthier to lose 100 pounds and Torie changed her diet due to food allergies, it became a lot harder to find snack food which would satisfy them. So they felt this was the time to start their own snack food company focusing on candy. Torie & Howard specializes in chewy and hard candy. They have Valentine’s Day offerings with sour cherry and lemon raspberry lollipops plus chewie fruities in pouches with a “to”/”from” heart label.
YumEarth
Two young men had been living organic lifestyles. After both becoming fathers, they felt it was time to start an organic candy business. YumEarth began with lollipops and then expanded to hard candy, gummy bears, gummy worms, jelly beans, and licorice. Their Valentine’s candies include gummy hearts, lollipops, choco yums, and sour littles.
Zazubean
The origins of Zazubean start with a group of women on a bike trip at an island off the coast of British Columbia. Coincidentally, everybody in the group brought their favorite chocolate to keep their energy up as they pedaled along on the journey. All of the women then delved into a conversation about quality chocolate with the question of whether chocolate could follow ethical standards and be both healthy and tasty. After returning home, Zazubean co-founder Tiziana Ienna began concocting high quality chocolate with super powered ingredients. As her background was as a physiologist, she wanted to develop nutritionally dense recipes which promote a balance lifestyle. Co-founder Tara Gilbert soon joined Tiziana and brought her passion for social justice and sustainable business practices along to Zazubean. The two working together led to creating fair trade chocolate bars which are good for the environment, the chocolate growers, and people’s health. Zazubean’s Valentine’s Day chocolate bars can be found in the names of bestie, vixen, nakid, flirt, smooch, and hottie.