Does Fair Trade Chocolate Taste Good?
June 24, 2010
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.
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wouldn’t it be nice if the world was cadbury