Ethical Chocolate Bar of the Week: April 29th

The Sweetriot 60% Dark Chocolate with Crunchy Cacao Nibs bar

Did you know that a large axolotl is worth 4 cacao beans (according to some ancient bartering system)? Not only can you brush up on your cacao exchange knowledge thanks to sweetriot, but you can also enjoy the fact that this delicious chocolate bar probably contains the equivalent of several turkey eggs, or perhaps even a small rabbit. It also tastes a lot better than all of those things. And it’s fair trade. So go get one!

Here’s where to find it.

Ethical Chocolate Bar of the Week: April 8th

The Endangered Species Intense Dark Chocolate with Cacao Nibs bar

Have some cacao with your cocoa. A dark chocolate lover’s dream is in this bar. What’s more, it’s all sourced ethically, produced responsibly for the environment and lends its voice and proceeds to species in danger of extinction, like the bat on the cover of this bar.


Here’s where to get it.

Ethical Chocolate Bar of the Week: April 1st

The Newman’s Own Organics Orange Dark Chocolate bar

Refreshingly sweet, this Newman’s Own bar brings a delicate hint of orange into a good balance between dark and milk chocolate. What’s more Newman’s Own chocolate is certified by one of my personal favorite labels, Rainforest Alliance, which follows standards set forth by the Sustainable Agriculture Network to ensure both fair labor practices (and prices for the farmers) as well as sustainable farming methods and a reduced overall environmental footprint. It’s win-win for farmers, planet Earth and you and I.


Here’s where to buy it!

Ethical Chocolate Bar of the Week: March 25th

The Chuao Caracas bar

Get a little nutty this week. A wealth of almonds, hazelnuts and pistachios swimming in rich milk chocolate makes for a grand adventure in the mouth. In fact, Chuao prides itself in their chocolate adventures, producing prime gourmet chocolate with crazy delicious twists. Even better, though Chuao doesn’t have a label certifying their cocoa fair trade, they ensure through their Aguasanta Growth Initiative that not only are their farmers receiving above market prices for their cocoa (and thus fair living wages), but also that the cocoa itself being grown remains extremely high quality (as Venezuelan cocoa is known for) through sustainable growing techniques.

See where to get a bar here.

Ethical Chocolate Bar of the Week: March 18th

The Alter Eco Dark Coconut Toffee bar

This week calls for something sweet, and sweet it is! With a guarantee of fair labor practices and excellent quality products and a local presence commitment to those producing their ingredients, Alter Eco is very sweet indeed. The bar’s good too, of course. So go out and get one, and do something sweet for others in the process!

 

Here’s where to find it.

 

Ethical Chocolate Bar of the Week: March 11th

The Sweetriot Pure 85% Dark Chocolate bar

Happy Daylight Savings Day! A momentous occasion such as this warrants a BRAND NEW ethical chocolatier to check out: sweetriot. A young NYC-based company on a mission, sweetriot’s got spunk, idealism and that important commitment to paying their partner farmers fair, supportive wages. On top of all this sweetriot uses each new bar and their website as an opportunity to promote up-and-coming artists, AND they’re all about recycling. Do you need anymore reasons to buy a sweetriot bar? Well, this one’s freaking delicious to cap it all off. Show these young, innovative chocolatiers some love by enjoying one of their bars! They deserve it, and so do you.


Here’s where to find one.

Ethical Chocolate Bar of the Week: March 4th

The Equal Exchange Orange Dark Chocolate bar

 

Equal Exchange not only has a super wide range of fairly traded and organically farmed products available, but they also emphasize their strong commitment to buying from small farmer cooperatives. With 25 years of experience and coop partners in 21 countries, Equal Exchange has truly mastered chocolatiering, among several other things. That’s why the Orange Dark Chocolate bar is so stinking good, a tang of orange in every bite. They even blog, which is so totally in.

 

Here’s where to look to find this and other great bars. —- to add to their little list of supermarkets, I get their bars from Wholefoods.

 

Ethical Chocolate Bar of the Week: February 26th

The Alter Eco Dark Chocolate Quinoa Midnight Crunch bar

Quinoa, the protein of Incan armies and cacao, the “food of the gods,” all in one rich crunchy bar. To make things even more excellent, Alter Eco ensures that the Bolivian-sourced quinoa and cocoa is fairly traded from farmer cooperatives to pay living wages, support community development and invest in sustainable farming practices. Buying this chocolate bar might just be the best decision you make all week.


It’s never a bad thing to remind ourselves why we should commit to buying only ethical (and much more delicious) chocolate. Check out these interesting statistics on Alter Eco’s web site.


Here’s where to buy an Alter Eco bar.

Ethical Chocolate Bar of the Week: February 19th

The Endangered Species Dark Chocolate with Raspberries bar

Animals. Let’s face it, those guys need someone to look out for them. And Endangered Species is pairing their obvious affinity for chocolatiering with a love for the environment and animal species that aren’t so adaptive to human-caused degradation. 10% of all Endangered Species’ net profit goes to their ESC Foundation (which also takes donations), focused on wildlife conservation efforts, environmental protection and human community development. This excellent raspberry-speckled dark chocolate bar is just one way to support a truly ethical business. Plus, Endangered Species claimed the URL chocolatebar.com, which is pretty cool. Who else gets to say their web site is chocolatebar.com? Well, obviously no one.

 

By working with farmer cooperatives to source the cocoa in their chocolate, Endangered Species ensures fair and humane labor practices as well as ecologically responsible farming practices. Check out their forest and human-supporting cocoa trade policy.

 

Here’s where to find Endangered Species chocolate.

 

Ethical Chocolate Bar of the Week: February 12th

The RAPUNZEL Organic Dark Chocolate with Hazelnuts bar

Another nutty chocolate bar on the dark side (55% cocoa). German-based and Swiss-produced, RAPUNZEL brings that special European chocolate vibe everyone seems to like, a delicious flavor and adds another very good factor: supporting the people producing what goes into it. Plus, its homepage features hippies and a colorful Volkswagen bus in a field of flowers.

Here’s where you can find RAPUNZEL chocolate in the United States (I found it at Wholefoods). If you live anywhere else in the world, check out RAPUNZEL’s international partners page to see who’s distributing it in your country.

RAPUNZEL’s unique because they created their own fair trade label, HAND IN HAND, which works with 14 farmer group partners in 11 different countries to produce certified organic materials traded ethically for their products. What’s more, RAPUNZEL’s HAND IN HAND Fund allocates 1% of HAND IN HAND raw material revenue every year to supporting non-profits and charitable projects focused on fighting hunger and poverty. All around, purchasing a RAPUNZEL bar is helping a lot more than just one or two people.