About Us
Vermont Nut Free Chocolates is committed to providing quality chocolates and treats that are safe for those with tree nut and peanut allergies.
The Vermont Nut Free Chocolates factory is located at 146 Brentwood Drive in Colchester, Vermont. Our facility includes multiple candy kitchens, a warehouse, and a factory storefront.
We run a 100% peanut and tree nut (including coconut) free facility. Our raw ingredients are also sourced from dedicated nut free facilities with robust allergen safety standards. All our products have a 100% nut free guarantee.
While it is not advertised in our name, our facility is also free from sesame and egg allergens.
We take pride in making our chocolates the old-fashioned way, by-hand, using the freshest ingredients. We truly believe that those with and without food allergies will find our gourmet chocolates to be among the finest they have ever tasted.
Visit our Factory Store
Our shelves are well stocked with our nut free confections and we cannot wait to see your smiling face. Come visit us and experience being "a kid in a candy store" for the first time.
Open Monday - Friday | 8am - 4pm
Confections Made The Old-Fashioned Way
Watch a behind-the-scenes video of our talented chocolatiers making allergy-friendly sweets in our facility in Vermont
Our Story
Founded by the mother of a little boy with a life-threatening peanut allergy, we have been crafting fine, artisan chocolates in a peanut and tree nut free facility since 1998.
From Crisis to Creation
Vermont Nut Free Chocolate's founders Mark and Gail Elvidge watched their son Tanner suffer a severe allergic reaction to peanut butter at only 8 months old.
Tanner was later diagnosed with a life threatening peanut allergy after his first birthday. Mark and Gail started to look for products that were safe for their child.
They quickly discovered that nut free chocolate and candy were the hardest items to find. They called companies to ensure the candy was not only nut free, but not cross contaminated with peanuts or tree nuts from shared production lines and facilities.
Frustrated with a lack of options and not wanting Tanner to miss out on the sweet things in life, Gail began making homemade chocolate that was guaranteed safe.
Sharing the Joy of Chocolate
Gail was exceptional at developing new recipes and was told by friends and family to open a confectionary business of her own.
She realized that other families may have a hard time finding safe sweets for their littles ones, so she and Mark decided to start an online business out of their home in Grand Isle, Vermont.
And in 1998 Vermont Nut Free Chocolates was born!
Kid in a Nut Free Candy Store
Our online sales were booming, as more families and individuals with allergies discovered our brand. This allowed us to move away from our founder's home and into a real manufacturing facility in South Hero Vermont.
This facility had a small storefront so we were able to offer our customers the unique experience of being a kid in a candy store. We loved having folks from all over the U.S. and Canada stop by to shop our nut free treats.
kind of a big deal
We were the first confectionary company to operate a peanut and tree nut free facility on purpose. We started our company with the intention of serving an overlooked population, one that was growing larger every day.
And people took notice! In the Fall of 2000, People Magazine visited us in Vermont to share our story with the world.
This article introduced our brand to thousands of new customers and we outgrew our South Hero facility within a few years.
business is booming
In 2003, we moved to Grand Isle Vermont to continue our operation in a larger facility.
Our new facility allowed us to continue to grow our product offerings, adding new seasonal items to our catalog, as well as hire more staff.
We take pride in making our chocolates the old-fashioned way, by-hand, using the freshest ingredients. While we continue to grow and update our manufacturing processes, we try to still make everything in small batches using the utmost care.
Expanding to Safe Snacks
Our customers expressed interest in expanding our nut free line to include healthier snack options.
We developed our nut free TANABAR® Granola Bars in 2010 and a nut free Trail Mix in 2012.
They were extremely well received and are still some of our best-selling items to this day.
Nut Free Dupes
In an effort to ensure our nut-allergic customers do not have to miss out on any of the fun sweets, we started making nut free 'dupes' of popular candies.
We made our first batch of Sun Blossoms® (sunflower butter filled chocolate cups) in 2015. They are the ultimate peanut free alternative to a peanut butter cup. We rebranded and reformulated these cups in 2021, lending to an improved texture and taste.
moving out of the islands
By 2018 we outgrew another manufacturing facility! We moved our 25 employees from the Champlain Islands to the mainland in Colchester Vermont.
Going from a mere 7,500 sq feet to 18,000 sq feet with multiple production kitchens and a storefront.
We were able to make our products more accessible for those with multiple allergies by splitting our production kitchens by allergen. One of our kitchens works with wheat/gluten ingredients, while the other does not. This allows a selection of our products to be safe for those with wheat allergies or those who have celiac disease.
Find Us in Stores Near You
Moving to a larger facility has allowed to us increase production and store more items. We are now able to sell our products to stores across the U.S.
We are not in every major grocery chain yet, but we are working hard to get into stores near you.
You can find stores in your area, using the store locator on our website.
If your favorite grocery store or small business is not yet listed, you may be able to change that! Next time you shop ask for the manager on shift and request Vermont Nut Free Chocolates by name, emphasizing your desire and need to buy our products at their store. We have found that when customers ask for our products directly, we are able to get into more locations.
Let us know where you want to see our products, too! Send in your requests for stores and we will follow up with these stores directly and keep you updated through social media and e-newsletters when new stores bring in our products.
Email your recommendations to: sales@vermontnutfree.com
Egg-citing Times
In January 2024 we announced our transition to being a 100% egg free facility.
We have many customers who have an egg allergy as well as a peanut or tree nut allergy and have not been able to enjoy the full range of our products.
We realized that there were only a few items that contained egg as an ingredient and with some reformulation, we could make the same sweets egg free and remove that allergen from our facility altogether.
In the summer of 2024 we sold the remainder of our products containing egg. We cleaned and sanitized our production kitchens, testing all equipment for any presence of egg. Once we were positive everything was clean, we started making egg free versions of our sweets.
We're happy to report we were able to remove egg from all our recipes without impacting the taste or texture that you have come to love.