Right, so finding good gluten-free chocolate up here in Canada. It wasn’t something I ever thought about, honestly. Then my wife had to ditch gluten completely, doctor’s orders. Suddenly, everything we ate needed a second look.
Starting the Hunt
Chocolate was a big one for her. We figured, hey, chocolate’s just cocoa, sugar, milk, right? Should be fine. Turns out, not so simple. We started grabbing our usual bars at the grocery store, flipping them over to read the tiny print. That was the first surprise.
- Lots of bars had “may contain wheat” warnings. Cross-contamination, apparently. Useless for us.
- Some actually had barley malt listed! Sneaky stuff.
- Others just didn’t say anything clear, which made us nervous.
So, the easy grab-and-go chocolate habit died pretty quick. We had to actually look for stuff labeled “gluten-free”.
Trying Things Out
First stop was the regular big supermarket chain. They had a “natural foods” aisle. Found a few options there. Mostly dark chocolate, really bitter stuff sometimes. And the prices? Man, you pay a premium for that label.
We bought a few different kinds over a couple of weeks. Some were decent, tasted like actual chocolate. Others? Honestly tasted like sweetened wax. Really disappointing when you just want a normal treat.
Then we tried a dedicated health food store. Bit more variety there. Found some Canadian brands I hadn’t seen before. That was better. Seemed like the companies focusing only on allergy-friendly stuff knew what they were doing more often than the big guys just adding a GF option to their massive lineup.
Figuring Out a System
After a month or two, we kinda got the hang of it. We learned which grocery stores had a reliable section. We found a couple of Canadian brands that were consistently good and actually certified gluten-free, not just “may contain” free.
Reading the label is still number one, though. Can’t stress that enough. Even with brands we trust, we still glance at the ingredients. Companies change things sometimes, you know? Better safe than sorry.
It’s not as easy as just grabbing any chocolate bar off the shelf like before. It takes a bit more effort, checking labels, sometimes going to a specific store. But it’s doable. We found some solid options eventually. You just gotta put in the time to look around and figure out what works for you here in Canada. It’s definitely possible to get decent gluten-free chocolate, just gotta be persistent.