Treets Taps ChoViva’s Cocoa-Free Chocolate for New Vegan Peanut Dragées

Planet A Foods has partnered with Katjes International to launch a cocoa-free, plant-based version of the famous Treets peanut dragées.

Katjes International is bringing out a cocoa- and dairy-free version of Treets Peanuts, thanks to a partnership with German alt-chocolate producer Planet A Foods.

The new dragées – which feature Planet A Foods’s ChoViva chocolate alternative and vegan pastel shades – will be available in German supermarkets from the end of the month, accompanied by a large marketing campaign by Treets.

“I am particularly proud to launch a joint product with such a strong and well-known brand. Treets’ strong sense of sustainability and naturalness aligns perfectly with our values at ChoViva,” said Planet A Foods co-founder and CEO Maximilian Marquart.

“I am excited to offer consumers a new and delicious cocoa-free alternative with the Treets Peanuts Vegan,” he added.

Treets Peanuts goes cocoa-free

First introduced by Mars in the 1960s, Treets originally consisted of chocolate-coated peanuts with a hard outer shell, in the style of a dragée. They were discontinued in 1988, replaced by Galaxy Minstrels and peanut M&Ms.

In 2009, Mars reintroduced Treets, but by 2017, it let the property rights expire. Katjes acquired the brand a year later and permanently reestablished Treets in the European market. The range has since expanded to include peanut butter cups and spreads too.

While the dragées have had a vegan pastel coating since Katje relaunched them, now, the whole product is plant-based. To amp up its sustainability credentials, it’s also free of cocoa, opting for an alternative made from sunflower seed and grape flours.

The vegan Treets Peanuts will roll out at locations of all major supermarkets in Germany this month, including Kaufland, Globus, Famila, Tegut, Edeka and Rewe.

Aside from the aforementioned seed flours, they comprise sugar, peanuts, palm and shea fats, rice starch, emulsifiers, maltodextrin, glucose syrup, carnauba wax, and natural food colouring. Per 100g, the dragées contain 30g of fat (10g saturated), 48g of sugar, and 12g of protein.

This is the latest in a growing list of partnerships Planet A Foods has established for ChoViva. The alt-chocolate has been part of over 20 products launches since entering the market 12 months ago, including with Lindt, Griesson-de Beukelaer, Peter Kölln, Lufthansa, and Deutsche Bahn. It has also been part of private-label offerings from retailers such as Rewe and its subsidiary Penny, Edeka, Lidl, and Aldi.

Planet A Foods to launch semi-sweet ChoViva and enter UK in 2025

Planet A Foods uses a proprietary fermentation process to turn its ingredients into chocolate-like products with a “melt-in-the-mouth texture” and “full-bodied chocolate flavour”. With 30% less sugar, they can be used as both a 1:1 replacement of conventional chocolate or in hybrid formulations.

One of the key challenges it is addressing is climate change. Dark chocolate is more polluting than pork, chicken and farmed fish combined, releasing more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than every other food except beef. Cocoa itself is linked to mass deforestation, which is why it is part of anti-deforestation bans coming to the EU and the UK.

Meanwhile, climate change itself is decimating cocoa production: extreme weather events have destroyed yields, leading to all-time highs in cocoa futures. Longer term, a third of cocoa trees could die out by 2050. As per an independent life-cycle assessment, ChoViva’s cocoa-free offering has a carbon footprint of 1.3kg of CO2e per kg, representing 83% fewer greenhouse gas emissions than vegan chocolate.

But Planet A Foods is also working on alternatives to palm oil, aiming to create a fermented ChoViva Butter by converting single-cell oils, agricultural sidestreams and local feedstocks like beet sugar into a fat resembling cocoa butter. Pending regulatory approval, the company aims to bring this to market by 2026.

In the short term, it plans to launch more products in Germany, including a semi-sweet version of ChoViva. Speaking to Green Queen after raising $15.4M in a Series A round earlier this year, Planet A Foods revealed it was making a play for the UK market.

This is on track, with a UK product expected in 2025, followed by rollouts in several other European countries. Additionally, it is also exploring the US and Asian markets.

Planet A Foods is among a number of companies working on climate-friendly chocolate and alternatives, including Italy’s Foreverland, London-based Win-Win, US startup Voyage Foods, and Israel’s Kokomodo.