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Equal Exchange Chocolates

By Bryn Kirk on May 30, 2011 | Comments (0)

The Equal Exchange Co-op sells organic, fair-trade, premium chocolate bars. The chocolate is purchased from small-scale farmers and their families. The chocolate is made in the Swiss tradition from co-operatives in the Dominican Republic, Panama, Peru, and Ecuador.

You can go online to buy their products but chances are you will see them being sold as fundraisers for faith-based organizations, at community events, holiday bazaars and fairs, and even in farmers’ markets.

Equal Exchange - mini 55% I was given a mini-sized 55% dark chocolate bar for a tasting sample at a volunteer fair last week. It was delicious! (I bought a full-size 71% dark for later!)

I’m impressed with the outstanding flavor from the Equal Exchange chocolate. The bar was a blend of Dominican and Peruvian chocolate with a velvety smooth texture packing a bold, intensely chocolate punch. The lingering finish was nutty with a hint of spice and vanilla.

I’m impressed with the positive impact Equal Exchange is having on food, families, and our global environment.

I’m impressed with the assortment of chocolates and other consumables they offer and have been offering for over 20 years. Their commitment to quality products, fair trade practices, and future vision for sustainable agriculture is solid.

You’ll be impressed, too. Check out their website: www.equalexchange.coop. And, don’t forget to enjoy the chocolate – it’s really good!!

Categories: chocolate review
Tags: dark chocolate, Dominican, Equal Exchange, fair trade, Peruvian

Honest CocoaNova

By Bryn Kirk on March 15, 2011 | Comments (1)

I enjoy chocolate and tea. I don’t mean hot tea with a chocolate pastry (which I’m not opposed to) but today I mean chocolate covered tea flavored chocolates like dark chocolate Early Grey truffles or Chai milk chocolate bars.

But this new product by Honest Tea company is innovative and well, a bit strange sounding. Introducing Honest CocoaNova, a product line of brewed cocoa infusion beverages.

Each Honest CocoaNova drink contains 50 mg of theobromine and other antioxidants. The drink is made with USDA Certified Organic and Fair Trade Certified™ cacao beans.

According to the website, www.honesttea.com, Honest CocoaNova “provides a light, satisfying taste for a guilt-free treat with only 50 calories in a 10 fl. oz. bottle. It is cocoa as you’ve never known it.”

The cacao beans are ground into a natural cocoa powder (processed without an alkalizing agent) which is then made with a patent-pending process to create the chocolate brew.

Honest CocoaNova comes in three varieties; Mint Cacao, Mocha Cacao, and Cherry Cacao.

Honest Tea is an organic bottled tea company that started in 1998. The mission of the company is to make truly healthy organic beverages sweetened with less sugar and fewer calories than other bottled drinks.

Categories: chocolate in the news
Tags: chocolate drinks, fair trade, organic chocolate, tea, theobromine

Trader Joe’s Swiss Milk Chocolate

By Bryn Kirk on February 14, 2011 | Comments (0)

It’s Monday and time for another review of a store brand chocolate bar. This time I chose Trader Joe’s Swiss Milk Chocolate.

Trader Joe’s started out as a small chain of convenience stores in the 1950s under the name of Pronto Markets. In 1967 they changed the name to Trader Joe’s.

I like the line up of chocolates under the Trader Joe’s label. They are made in the European style but have a price tag of American value.

The Swiss Milk chocolate bar I bought was only $1.99 for 100g. The bar was smooth and creamy, with a balanced chocolatey baseline highlighted by caramel flavor notes. The lingering finish was a very pleasant soft buttery taste.

This particular chocolate bar is certified Fair Trade to “help contribute to a better way of life for farmers and their families. This method of buying cocoa beans and sugar offers small-scale growers a fair price for their harvest.”

I give this store label chocolate both thumbs up; you get great taste at a great price. I keep a Trader Joe’s Swiss Milk Chocolate in my chocolate drawer as one of my “staples.”

Categories: chocolate review
Tags: chocolate bars, fair trade, grocery product, milk chocolate, Trader Joe's

Ending Child Labor on Cocoa Farms

By Bryn Kirk on September 17, 2010 | Comments (0)

It’s sad but true… Sometimes children are sold or tricked into forced labor on cocoa farms.

In 2001, stories about the lives of children forced to work on farms instead of going to school started to emerge from West African countries. Investigations into this problem drew the attention of Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa, and Rep. Eliot Engel of N.Y.

After much time and effort, Harkin and Engel announced on Sept. 13, 2010, the U.S. government and the chocolate industry pledged $17 million to help see an end to child labor.

The plan is to reduce unacceptable child labor by 70% by 2020. (Hmm, that means 30% remains.)

The money will be used for building schools and supporting families in two of the African countries that produce most of the world’s cocoa supply; Ivory Coast and Ghana.

The idea is to provide more income for these families so they don’t have to rely on their children’s wages for survival.

The Hershey Company is one of the major participants in the Harkin-Engel Protocol.

Many human rights groups are happy to learn that Hershey is stepping forward to help but would like an even greater commitment. They call for Hershey and other large chocolate companies to put Fair Trade labels on their products. These certificates would help consumers identify which chocolate comes from farms with fair labor practices in place.

Read more about what’s happening in the fight against child slave labor:

http://www.kansascity.com/2010/09/13/2221137/us-industry-pledge-millions-to.html

Categories: chocolate in the news
Tags: fair trade, Hershey Company

Does Fair Trade Chocolate Taste Good?

By Bryn Kirk on June 24, 2010 | Comments (0)

What is Fair-trade chocolate, and does it taste as good as non-fair trade chocolate?

The Fair Trade chocolate model is intended to ensure cacao farmers receive a fair price for their harvest. Fair trade seeks to create more trade links between farmer and buyer with the intent of eliminating the “middleman.”

It is about sustainability, responsible farming, and supplying a community of growers with better education, health care, and the elimination of child and slave labor. It all sounds like good stuff.

You know the chocolate you are buying is fair trade certified when you see it on the label.

Importers and manufacturers have the opportunity to buy from Fair Trade certified
farms. The number is still small, but it is growing.

To be certified fair trade, a farmer or co-op must comply with certain standards and inspections. In return, the farmer or co-op gets a better price for their beans. Getting cacao farms to comply, and manufacturers to source only certified beans, is not a quick and easy process.

Imagine for a moment that you commit to eating only certified organic and fair trade foods. Your commitment would bring about a change in where you buy your food, the amount of money you spend on the food, and the availability of certain foods. Perhaps your choices would be limited so there is a change in diet. Some of your favorite foods may not be on the “list.” Clearly your commitment would not be easy.

It is similar in the chocolate world. Committing to Fair Trade is not impossible, but it requires changes in the way things are done.

When the process changes, the end product can change. Perhaps that is why a common complaint I hear is that the flavor gap between fair trade and non-fair trade chocolates is noticeable. Sometimes it is enough to discourage purchasing of that fair trade item.

To the credit of the fair trade effort, I believe this gap has been decreasing over the years, and flavor improvements have been vast.

I do believe that chocolate companies, large and small, do commit to one thing: sourcing good quality ingredients to make the best chocolate possible. In the future, I hope that commitment includes fair-trade practices.

Categories: chocolate education
Tags: chocolate facts, fair trade

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