Low-Sugar Chocolate That Tastes Good? Whims Solved This Snack Dilemma

How do you make a candy bar that’s low-sugar, plant-based, gluten-free, and still tastes good? To find out, we asked Leanne Viola, the cofounder and chief snacking officer at Whims. She and her husband Jesse Barruch solved this office snack conundrum.

The Secrets to a Delicious, Low-Sugar Candy Bar for the Workplace

Whims makes peanut butter cups and chocolate bars in fun flavors like Caramel Cookie and Peanut Nougat. You can often find them in The FruitGuys’ office snack boxes. They’re creamy, chewy, and sweet, but with just one gram of sugar per bar. (That’s about one-fifth the amount in a mini Twix, Snickers, or Milky Way!) Here’s how they did it.

• Monk Fruit – Whims sweetens its treats with monk fruit (a type of melon grown in China) instead of cane sugar. “Monk fruit is 100–250 times sweeter than sugar,” Leanne explained. It’s also zero-calorie because our bodies don’t absorb it—it passes right through us. 
• Oat Milk-Based Chocolate – Whims’ bars and cups are coated in a custom-made, oat milk-based chocolate sweetened with monk fruit and other clean ingredients. “We worked with a fifth-generation Swiss chocolatier to make our own chocolate,” Leanne told The FruitGuys. Whims’ head of product, a classically trained pastry chef, also helped develop the recipe. 
• No Problematic Ingredients – Whims doesn’t use sugar alcohols (which can cause digestive issues for some people) or palm oil (which is often linked with deforestation). Swapping a Whims bar or cup for a typical candy bar is an easy way to cut back on sugar at work, and over time, those healthy swaps add up.

“We’re so proud that we’ve already reduced 25,000 pounds of sugar in the American diet since we started,” Leanne said.

See how Whims’ chocolates are made in this behind-the-scenes video.

Leanne’s Story: How Alopecia Inspired a Chocolate Company

Leanne and Jesse are helping office workers everywhere with Whims, but that wasn’t their original goal. At first, Leanne just wanted to help herself.

“One day six years ago, I woke up with a burning sensation on my scalp, which was weird. I was like, ‘Oh, maybe I just pulled my hair or something,’ but it escalated to a burning, searing pain that never left,” she said.

Then, Leanne’s hair started falling out. Doctors diagnosed her with Lichen Planopilaris, a rare kind of hair loss that causes alopecia. She had a bad reaction to the first medication she tried, so her doctor offered a different one—with a 50% chance of vision loss.

“I was like, ‘Are you serious?’” Leanne remembers, “‘Let the hair go, I’ve gotta see things!’”

In 2019, she decided to pause medication and try changing how she ate instead. She and Jesse switched to a plant-based, gluten-free, low-sugar diet. And it worked! That meant searching for sweet treats for their new lifestyle.

“We were looking to find something we could consume and enjoy that was super clean, but we couldn’t find anything on the market. It was a choice between something healthy and something delicious. Why couldn’t we find both?” she said.

Leanne knew a snack could walk that line. She’s Chinese Canadian and grew up eating Chinese baked goods that were wonderful without being too sweet, so she set her sights on creating something similar. When she took her first bite of a Whims oat milk chocolate bar, she said, “I got back to that joy.”

Why Whims’ Chocolates Are Great Snacks for Work

According to a FruitGuys survey, employees in more than 92% of offices want snacks with low, no, or natural sugar. More than 60% also want gluten-free snacks, and Whims’ bars and cups check both boxes. They pair great with coffee (a workplace staple) and give employees a late-afternoon energy boost without a big spike in blood sugar.

“You have this pure bliss of enjoying this indulgent treat in that moment, and you don’t have that crash the next day or next hour. You just feel good,” Leanne said.

Tasty Ways to Eat Whims in the Office

Whims’ chocolate bars and cups are delicious straight from the wrapper, but you can make your office snack break even more satisfying with the right pairing. Here are a few of our favorites:

• Whims Oat Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups + Yogurt and Fruit – Dice up a few cups and add them to your yogurt bowl for extra protein and pizzazz.
• Whims Carmel Cookie Bar + Pretzels – Pair a bar with a bag of pretzels for a salty-sweet moment.
• Whims Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups + Coffee or Tea – This is Leanne’s favorite way to eat Whims, either in the morning or late afternoon.
  
• Whims Peanut Nougat Bar + Oatmeal – Make your oatmeal feel more indulgent by sprinkling on chunks of a sweet, nutty Whims bar.

Of course, savoring a bar or cup on its own can be just as sweet. Leanne and Jesse picked the name Whims because, like a whim, the deliciousness of their chocolates might surprise you.

Want a Taste? Order Whims’ Chocolates from The FruitGuys

We love working with small, family-owned snack companies like Whims and helping them reach more healthy eaters. If you want to try their better-for-you chocolate bars and cups, we can deliver them to your office in bulk or in our curated snack boxes.

“The FruitGuys is such a huge champion of us as a brand, and we’re so grateful for their partnership,” Leanne said.

Our Thoughtful Snack Box, which changes every week, is our most popular option for offices that want healthy snacks delivered. It’s full of treats from emerging brands like Whims that are low-sugar, high-protein, and high-fiber.