Chocolate Adventure

Chocolate is the panacea for all mental illness.


It is important, when dealing with the bleak aspects of life, to eat chocolate. But also to remember that you are not the only one who is having a hard time. That is what I really meant to say. You are not the worst off person. That is why this chocolate adventure is important. And I don't mean the adventure of staying in my pj's all day and eating chocolate when I'm feeling down.

It's more of an investigative adventure, as I have been researching the ethics of chocolate--by eating it.

 But I have also been doing some reading.  Made in a Free World, for example, is an organization committed to ending modern slavery. They have stated on their blog that, "Unfortunately, many cocoa farms have been sites of child and forced labor. This has particularly been documented in West Africa, the source of around 70% of the world’s cocoa." That is a lot of potentially unethical chocolate.

One child named Yacou, CNN reports, says "I wish I could go to school. I want to read and write,” But, they say, he "hasn’t spent a single day in school, and he has no idea how to leave the farm." There are lots of children in his position, stuck growing chocolate with no way out. This is far too common.

When I found out about this, as a chocolate lover, I was crushed. But as someone who belongs to a religious faith that abstains from certain kinds of food, this struck me. It seemed like a food to think more deeply about. So, I had the hard, hard, very difficult, task of investigation. Clearly, a very difficult task.

 But it was something I felt I had to do. For the sake of humanity.

I started by going to my local grocery store. What I was looking for was chocolate with the fair trade logo. It looks like this.

 I was curious, for all the guilt the humanitarian organizations had instilled in me, how practical eating chocolate ethically actually was.

Sure enough, next to the organic food, I found Green and Black's dark chocolate; as well, I found Endangered Species. The latter did not have the fair trade logo but a claim that it was fairly traded. Alongside these, I bought a Hershey's bar.

What I found, predictably, is that chocolate that claims to be ethical is more expensive per ounce than Hershey's chocolate. The Hershey bar was only .57 cents per ounce. The ethical chocolate was $1.14 and $1.16 per ounce. The cost for fair chocolate then? It is fifty seven to fifty eight cents more expensive, per ounce, for more ethical labor.

That's all great and everything right? But is it edible? That's the real question.

Here is me eating fair trade chocolate.

And here is me eating a Hershey's bar.

The difference is huge, especially if you are like me and prefer milk chocolate. The fair trade chocolate was way too bitter for my sweet tooth! And good luck ever getting a child to eat this stuff. This caused me great inner turmoil. How can something so rich and savory be so unethical! It was time to go on a quest for ethical, delicious, milk chocolate.Which is why I turned to the most sage and all knowing entity I could fathom--the Internet.

I tried two more brands. I found solace in Equal Exchange and Divine Chocolate. Both of these offered milk chocolate solutions. After a few days, I received these over-sized boxes containing my chocolate bars.

This is me eating an Organic Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Candy Bar from Equal Exchange. It was a thought-provoking process.

My conclusion? Yuck! It was totally nasty. It does not taste anything like Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.

Then I tried the Divine Chocolate.

 Ohhh, it was heavenly. Please, if you want to eat ethically, eat Divine Chocolate! It is so yummy.

Also, the company has a beautiful back story. It was started by farmers in Ghana who wanted to help their country. It began as a company named "Kuapa Kokoo." Their website says, "Kuapa Kokoo - which means good cocoa growers - has a mission to empower farmers in their efforts to gain a dignified livelihood, to increase women's participation in all of Kuapa's activities, and to develop environmentally friendly cultivation of cocoa." Check out this link for more of the story.

My quest to buy ethically, practically, and enjoyably has just begun. There are many other resources for ethical chocolate. Ben and Jerry's is turning their chocolate into Fair Trade chocolate, for instance. Every once in a while, but not always, you can even find Cadbury that is fair trade. For instance, look at this chocolate bar. As it is now, it's difficult, even formidable, to shop ethically. But every dollar we spend toward chocolate that is Fair Trade certified is a dollar that goes toward changing the world. As consumers demand fair trade, it will become easier for manufacturers to supply it. And when you are sad and munching on chocolate, that is one more thing you can feel comfortable about.

Until my next adventure,

Namaste