We love companies with a conscience, so we ask nucao about their chocolate, their business ethics and we also have 1000 bars to give away to Wellbeing readers.
What’s different about your chocolate bars?
nucao is a bar with a climate-positive purpose, made using only responsibly sourced ingredients. It’s chocolate with a conscience. Our nucao bars are 100% organic, vegan and naturally nutritious, wrapped in plastic-free packaging, now available in five flavours varieties in Sainsbury’s, Holland & Barrett and Planet Organic, and online at www.the-nu-company.co.uk
What’s more, for every bar sold, the nu company will plant a tree in partnership with Eden Reforestation Projects. With over 10 million trees planted to date, our goal is to plant one billion trees by 2030.
We’re chocolate with a conscience. Eden works with local communities in various countries to plant forests on a large scale, creating local jobs and protecting ecosystems. In doing so, we make a major contribution to mitigating climate change. So, if you ever needed an excuse to buy chocolate – there it is.
Do they taste like ‘normal’ chocolate?
Like all vegan chocolate, we taste slightly different to regular chocolate but consumer feedback has been great; they love the taste! nucao is a great, healthier and ethical alternative to chocolate, and every bit as tasty. It’s made with cocoa beans and cocoa mass, and our nucao ‘L!KE MILK’ is creamy chocolate as you remember it, but with a clear conscience.
Choose from crunchy nougat and raspberry crisp nucao white, almond sea salt, creamy noisette and crisp and crunch – all available in Sainsbury’s.
What does nucao contain?
nucao is made from organic chocolate with hemp seeds and roasted hazelnuts. Plant-powered by nuts, seeds and acerola (a cherry-like berry with several health benefits), we sweeten with just a pinch of coconut blossom sugar. There’s no milk powder, yet our bars are still unbelievably creamy.
It’s what it doesn’t contain that’s also of interest. nucao has 65% less sugar than other comparable chocolate bars. We rely solely on sustainable, natural, unrefined sugar; coconut blossom sugar. Coconut blossom sugar is low on the glycaemic index and has key nutrients including magnesium and zinc. It is not lower in calories than industrially produced sugar but is generally less processed.
Hemp contains no THC or CBD and is one of the most nutrient-rich foods in the world. Hemp seeds have around 20-25% protein content; in comparison a steak has 25% protein. They are also rich in omega-3, magnesium, iron, potassium, zinc and vitamin E. Hemp fields can also bind astonishing amounts of CO2 and do not drain the soil or require artificial fertilisation. It’s a win win for plant-based.
Our recipe is different. We wanted to do something new and ingenious. It’s vegan chocolate the nu way – no compromise on taste or the planet.
Where do your ingredients come from?
All the cocoa beans and cocoa mass that we buy from our importer comes from the Naranjillo farmers’ cooperative in the Huánuco region of Peru. Our single origin cocoa is not mixed with cocoa beans from other regions. We go out of our way to make sure the farmers receive a good price; 30% more pay for their cocoa beans than the global average price.
Our cooperative has the Control Union (CU) Fair Choice certification. CU is a recognised testing institute that carries out audits under a variety of different standards. The certification guarantees that a company is committed to sustainable development and improvement of social conditions, and all companies along the supply chain must be certified.
How important was it to you as a brand that you developed something ethical?
It is vital to us. It is our mission to make every beep at the checkout a signal for a healthier and greener world. We believe that consumption can and should have a positive impact on the planet. What’s more, we’ll be publishing our Impact Report soon, where customers can do a deep dive on what we are doing as a company and what we want to accomplish in the near future. The report includes everything, from production to our reforestation project, and even the sourcing of our cacao beans.
For every product we sell or sample, we plant one tree in collaboration with our NGO partner, the Eden Reforestation Project. Reforestation has proven to be one of the most effective methods to counteract climate change as trees are extremely efficient in sequestering carbon. The focus of Eden Projects is also not only on the restoration of the rainforests, but also on helping local communities and economies – employing local workers to plant the land and maintain the forests. Our key pledge is to plant one billion trees by 2030.
Since the company’s inception, we have always committed to improving packaging options. Our packaging is 100% plastic-free, made from home compostable cellulose film, a thin cover of starch blend and paper. Our wrappers can also be placed in home composting bins and we hope, in the future, organic waste bins, but the existing infrastructure won’t permit this. Where you don’t have home composting, you can dispose of the packaging in general waste, where it will be burnt; in this process it leaves a tiny bit of carbon but no toxic gases, so it’s still a better variant than regular packaging.
We are also part of the Circular Packaging Initiative – a collective of five companies ensuring more transparency about the disposal of compostable packaging and the potential of this. Since cellulose has the best degradation properties compared to other biodegradable plastics, including PLA, we have identified cellulose film as the best alternative to conventional plastic for us at the moment. Because our packaging is biobased as well as home compostable, it was certified with the ‘plastic free standard’ by ‘a plastic planet.’
Tell me a little bit about the company and its founders?
The nu company was founded in 2016 by three friends, Mathias Tholey, Christian Fenner and Thomas Stoffels, who were all studying engineering at the time. One day in the university library, they wanted a snack but they couldn’t find a healthy one which hit the spot. They found there was nothing available which fitted all of their criteria in terms of sustainability, plant-based and organic.
Growing up, Mathias often suffered from stomach pains, which impacted on his daily life. Eventually, he realised he had to prioritise his personal wellbeing and transitioned to a vegan lifestyle, combined with regular fasting and exercise, and now he feels great.
Like Mathias, Thomas suffered from illness for much of his youth, which took him on a quest to find out more about nutrition. During his studies, he realised that superfoods and nutrition made more sense to him than the technical engineering topics he was studying. He and Mathias were finishing their masters degree in England when their idea to establish a food start-up crystallised.
In mid-2017, Christian completed an internship programme at a German car manufacturer. Stuck in a job which he was told would be good for his CV, he was contacted by his fellow co-founders, saying they had an idea they wanted to develop and needed more hands on deck. The idea involved hemp seeds, raw cacao and healthy nutrition.
He believed that if he could develop a product for people to promote healthy nutrition, it would mean so much more to him than helping a luxury car manufacturer with a facelift.
In 2017, they began manufacturing the nu company products in Germany, with a focus on organic ingredients and plastic-free packaging from the start, and the rest is history.
Is nu a well-established brand in Germany?
We are a relatively new company, having been founded in 2016. We are based in Leipzig, Germany, and we have representatives internationally-based too, to help us with our global mission. In the UK we are in the process of setting up our new team…watch this space!
Is wellbeing at the heart of the business in general?
Yes, very much so. It is at the heart of everything we do as a company. First of all, we operate a holacracy company model. In its purest form it is an organisation run with a totally flat structure, with decentralised management and organisational governance, where its people form distinct, autonomous, teams to accomplish tasks and company goals. Simply put, you take full control and ownership of your area of responsibility and how you deliver.
We care about our people and put their wellbeing at the forefront of our company philosophy. As such, at our head office in Germany, the team is served with a vegan, organic lunch every day and have yoga & mindfulness classes , as well as sport sessions.
Once a year, we also plant trees as a team event. In 2021, we helped plant 2,400 young trees with local initiatives in Germany.
What are future plans for the brand? More distribution in major supermarkets?
Our current focus is on making our first grocery listing in Sainsbury’s a huge success, whilst continuing to build on our success in Holland & Barrett and Planet Organic and on our nu ecommerce site.
As a relatively young company, our key focus will be on supporting the success of nucao, our chocolate bars, and from there we’ll see!
Do you think we will see a growth in vegan snacks and chocolate in the UK?
With more and more people adopting a more ethically-aware diet, the future is, most certainly, plant-based. The sector is one of the fastest-growing areas of the food industry right now – and for good reason. Eating a more plant-based diet is better for our planet. But that’s not to say our nucao bars are just for vegans; they are a great snack to grab and go, if you are consciously trying to reduce the amount of animal products you consume, or if allergies mean you can’t eat dairy, for example.
The consumer appetite for plant-based food continues to grow, with one in five British people cutting down on their meat consumption during the Covid-19 pandemic and 15% reducing their dairy or egg intake during lockdown, according to the Vegan Society. Add to that, the industry is growing at a much faster rate than ever before and it is estimated that by 2025, vegans and vegetarians will make up a quarter of the British population and flexitarians just under half of all UK consumers, according to Sainsbury’s Future of Food Report.
We look forward to introducing more of our product range to the UK and global markets, as the demand for ethical and plant-based products continues to grow.
