Galaxy Is the First Mainstream Chocolate Bar to Turn Itself Vegan

It’s not from another solar system, it’s made of hazelnuts!

Mars will launch three vegan Galaxy bars in the U.K. in the next few months, according to the Guardian. The 100g bars — no singles — will be available in “smooth orange,” caramelised hazelnut, and salted caramel flavours, and use hazelnut paste and rice syrup to mimic milk chocolate’s texture. It’s another example of a vegan product taking the imitation route, rather than offering a point of difference defined by flavour or texture — the most prominent being the Impossible burger and Beyond Meat’s bleeding burgers.

Galaxy, whose advertising has morphed over its 60 year lifetime from “gives you a share of country goodness” to CGI Audrey Hepburn, and whose taste is more milk than chocolate, is likely to prompt other manufacturers to follow suit. Props to whoever gets to rename Dairy Milk. [Guardian]

And in other news...

• Thanksgiving 2019 is on 28 November, and the capital’s restaurants are pulling out the turkeys, pumpkin pies, and bourbon en masse. Here’s where to eat Thanksgiving dinner in London.
• If Brexit has a defining mood, it might be pulling pints of ambient ale in a country pub. Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage and JD Wetherspoon magnate Tim Martin have made photo-ops out of cask ale, instilling the Great English Pint — and its connotations of refreshment, sanctuary, and in their eyes (discriminatory) hospitality — at the centre of the Leave movement. Now, Boris Johnson is pulling pints in Wolverhampton, and he’s channelling that Brexit mood big time.
• Byron Burger wants to win back the public. After closing restaurants, trying to make “flexitarian” burgers happen, and turning workers over to the Home Office in a fake employee meeting, the embattled burger chain’s new menu majors in burgers and brunch. Will it work?
• London’s messiest burger chain, Patty and Bun, will reopen its Liverpool Street restaurant. It closed as part of redevelopment works, but will be reincarnated as a larger restaurant. [Big Hospitality]
• Nusret Gökçe, better known as Salt Bae, is considering selling a stake in his eponymous restaurant group. Gökçe, Mithat Erdem, and billionare backer Ferit Sahenk wish to sell a “combined stake or individual holding” in order to secure the value of the company. Salt Bae currently wants to open a London burger restaurant in Mayfair, and a Knightsbridge steak restaurant has been in the rumour mill for some time. [Bloomberg]
• Good tweet: