Carob vs chocolate: sugar, caffeine and 7 carob products compared

Carob is vegan, and it swaps for cocoa only if you cut the sugar. USDA lists carob flour at 49 g of sugar per 100 g and unsweetened cocoa at 1.75 g. Plain carob powder is one ingredient; the chips and coatings we read add palm kernel or palm oil, hydrogenated in Country Life’s chips.

NOW Foods prints No Added Sugar on its carob powder, and the nutrition panel agrees: 0 g added, 7 g total sugars in a 15 g serving. The sugar comes with the pod. Swap a cup of carob powder (103 g) for a cup of cocoa (86 g) and the recipe gains about 49 g of sugar, by our arithmetic from USDA’s figures. NOW’s own advice, 1.5 to 2 parts carob for every part cocoa, adds more, and it says you may need to cut the sugar the recipe calls for. No Added Sugar is true and still answers a different question than the one a baker is asking, the kind of label line our guide to reading a food label takes apart.

Carob vs chocolate, side by side

Carob powder is made from the pods of Ceratonia siliqua, the carob tree, dried, roasted and ground. Cocoa comes from a different plant altogether.

Per 100 g	Unsweetened cocoa powder	Carob flour
Total sugars	1.75 g	49.08 g
Fat	13.7 g	0.65 g
Fiber	37 g	39.8 g
Calcium	128 mg	348 mg
Caffeine	230 mg	0 mg (assumed)
Theobromine	2,057 mg	0 mg (assumed)

Figures from USDA FoodData Central, where carob’s sugar figure is imputed rather than measured. USDA records carob’s caffeine and theobromine as assumed zero rather than measured, and NOW and Frontier both say their carob has no caffeine. Calcium is about 2.7 times cocoa’s (our arithmetic). Fat is the big gap, and every carob chip and coating on our list adds one.

The seeds take a different route. Locust (carob) bean gum, a stabilizer and thickener, is primarily the macerated endosperm of the carob seed, so it is plant-derived like the powder.

How to swap carob for cocoa

The makers disagree. NOW says 1.5 to 2 parts carob powder for every part cocoa, because carob is milder than chocolate but sweeter. The Australian Carob Co. says to use its roasted powder 1:1 in place of chocolate or cocoa. Frontier only says its carob needs little added sweetener. Our line: start at 1:1 by volume, cut the recipe’s sugar, and taste the batter before you add more carob. Tara and I use carob when we make chocolate-like desserts, and we have got so used to it that we reach for it before chocolate.

Chips are simpler, because the maker has already added the fat. Country Life says its carob chips can replace chocolate chips in almost any recipe. They also soften in heat. Country Life won’t ship items of 20 lb or more by FedEx or USPS from May to September because of the risk of melting.

Seven carob products, read from the label

We read each maker’s or seller’s page in October 2026. Prices are what the page showed and will move.

NOW Real Food Carob Powder

Our pick for baking. One ingredient, carob powder (dry roasted), with a Vegan badge, Kosher (Triangle K) and Non-GMO Project Verified, a product of the USA. A 15 g serving has 35 calories, 0 g fat, 6 g fiber and 7 g of sugars, none added. NOW says it is made in a peanut-free facility, which matters if you are baking for a peanut allergy. At $6.99 for 12 oz it costs about 58 cents an ounce (our arithmetic). Skip its 1.5-to-2 ratio if you are watching sugar.

Frontier Co-op Medium-Roasted Carob Powder

The ingredient list is one word, “Carob.”. It is kosher, its origin is listed as the United States, and the 1 lb bag at $9.32 also works out to about 58 cents an ounce (our arithmetic). Frontier counts about 4 cups to the bag. The page carries no vegan label, which with a one-word list changes nothing.

Frontier Co-op Lightly Roasted Carob Powder, Organic

This one lists “Organic Carob.” and gives its origin as Australia, Austria and Morocco. Frontier’s own description says carob has more sugar and much less fat than cocoa, which matches the USDA table above. It costs $16.76 a pound, about $1.05 an ounce (our arithmetic), so it is worth it only if organic matters to you.

The Australian Carob Co. Pure Carob Powder, Roasted, Organic

Sold in the US through Missy J’s at $6.95 for 7 oz, about 99 cents an ounce (our arithmetic). The page tells the farm’s story, a parcel in Booborowie, South Australia, bought in 2000, and gives the 1:1 swap above.

Country Life Carob Chips, Unsweetened

Carob powder, hydrogenated palm kernel oil and sunflower lecithin, and the page marks it Vegan: YES. Unsweetened means no added sugar, not none: 5 g of naturally occurring sugars per serving. It is packed in a facility that also handles nuts, peanuts, soy, sesame and wheat, and costs $6.95 for 12 oz, about 58 cents an ounce (our arithmetic). The page marks it Kosher: NO, while the sweetened chips below say YES. The vegan chip to buy if a hydrogenated fat doesn’t bother you.

Country Life Carob Chips, Sugar Sweetened

Sugar comes first, then partially hydrogenated palm kernel oil, then carob powder and sunflower lecithin, and the page marks it Vegan: YES and Kosher: YES. FDA determined in 2015 that partially hydrogenated oils are not generally recognized as safe, and for most uses June 18, 2018 is the date after which manufacturers cannot add them to food. We can’t tell from the page whether that ingredient line is current. Don’t buy this one until the bag in your hand says otherwise.

Missy J’s Organic Carob Covered Raisins

Organic raisins coated in Australian carob powder, palm oil, inulin and sunflower lecithin, with cinnamon and salt, and the page calls them vegan. Missy J’s says it uses no hydrogenated oils. The allergen line names coconut as a tree nut although the ingredient list doesn’t mention coconut (a line higher up the page mentions coconut oil), and the raisins are made on equipment that also processes peanuts and tree nuts. An 8 oz bag is $7.95, about 99 cents an ounce (our arithmetic). Read the bag if coconut matters to you.

Is carob vegan?

Carob itself is a plant, so plain carob powder is vegan, and so is locust bean gum. None of the seven lists an animal ingredient, and NOW, both Country Life chips and Missy J’s raisins also carry a vegan label. What changes from bag to bag is what goes around the carob: the sugar, the fat and what else runs on the same equipment. If you are swapping carob chips into a recipe that already uses a vegan butter, our roundup of vegan butter for baking compares the sticks.