Valentine’s Day is a great time to make the shift to organic fair trade chocolate. Take advantage of holiday sales to try a new flavor or stock up on your current favorites. Plus, use your spending power to send a message to companies that still produce chocolate the mean way that, if they want your love, they’ve got to show more love to their workers and the planet.

For Valentine’s Day, here’s our first annual review of organic fair trade chocolate you can easily buy in stores or online.  Brands that are “Big Green Purse approved” are non GMO, Fair Trade, and organic.  In our Amazon store, we also list brands that are organic and Rainforest Alliance Certified, but not necessarily Fair Trade. Sorry for the complication — but don’t blame the messenger! The Rainforest Alliance certification includes good criteria pertaining to the treatment of workers, but it’s not as focused on small farmers as the Fair Trade certification. (NPR explains the differences between the two certifications here.) Our top recommendations go to brands that are Fair Trade certified, as well as organic. Many are non-GMO, as well.

Note: In some cases, we’ve linked the chocolate to where you can find it in our Amazon store. You may also be able to find it in your local find co-op, natural foods grocery, or elsewhere online. If you want to skip to our Amazon store to see most of our recommendations in one place, here’s the link. 

Big Green Purse-Approved Organic Fair Trade Chocolate

Salazon – Cacao beans grown under the shade of canopy fruit producing trees in the Dominican Republic lend this chocolate their delicious taste. In addition to sea salt, Salazon flavors its chocolate with spices like cayenne and pepper, an adds crunch with coffee, almonds and coconut. Plus, it’s vegan.

Nibmor – Nibmor stands for Nibble More, and they won’t have to twist my arm. Available in dark chocolate, almond dark chocolate, mint, crispy with rice, and extreme dark chocolate with cacao nibs.

Endangered Species Chocolate – This is often my go-to chocolate bar of choice. It’s often on sale, is easily available online and where I shop, and there are lots of flavor combos to choose from. In addition to the dark chocolate with sea salt & almonds pictured here, you might like dark chocolate with raspberries, forest mint or espresso beans. You can get a variety pack of 12 flavors if you want to try all the options available. 

Theo – Theo’s is a reliable go-to for delicious and flavorful chocolate. In addition to bars, they sell caramels, confections and gift collections that include peanut butter cups. Looking for drinking chocolate? Choose between the chipotle spice or the rich dark mixes. Want to pair your favorite wine or beer with something equally decadent? They offer that, too.

Equal Exchange – Equal Exchange continues to make delicious chocolate even as it sets the bar high for organic and fair trade products. Like dark chocolate? You’ll love their “very” dark options. The bars infused with orange and mint are a treat, too! But don’t stop there. If you like nuts, you have hazelnuts and almonds to choose from – or that other nut, coconut. On the milk chocolate side, try the salted caramel and for more crunch, there’s a bar studded with coffee nibs. Can’t decide? Get a sampler box and try a few. Equal Exchange also sells bite-sized chocolates in a nifty dispenser.

Green & Black’s – Green & Black’s is pretty mainstream. My local Whole Foods and food co-op carry it, but so does my nearby Safeway. Try the milk chocolate toffee, dark spiced chili, or Maya gold for starters. They sell baking cocoa, too, in case you want to use their cookbook to make your sweetheart a decadent dessert.

Taza – Taza employs a stone-ground process based on traditional techniques used in Oaxaca, Mexico, where the cacao beans are grown. Cinnamon is one of four interesting flavors they work into their wheels.

 Alter Eco – These chocolates from Switzerland include individually wrapped dark and milk chocolate truffles, plus four kinds of bars that include almond, mint, sea salt and cacao, a dark blackout bar, a dark quinoa bar, and a dark brown butter bar. Yum!

Sjaak’s – Try this yummy assortment of 9 European chocolates, one of the only organic and fair trade brands that comes in a gift box. Don’t miss their vegan assorted chocolate box, either.

Dagoba – Like cranberries. One of Dagoba’s bars includes them, along with other flavors. Don’t want to eat a whole bar? Try the choco drops. And if you’re in the mood for hot chocolate or a chocolate cupcake, Dagoba sells unsweetened drinking chocolate as well as baking cacoa.

Do you have a favorite organic fair trade chocolate? Please let us know.

And remember, you can see our complete list of organic chocolate that’s either Fair Trade or Rainforest Certified here.

The post Best Organic Fair Trade Chocolate – Annual Review appeared first on Big Green Purse.

Why not Hershey’s? The company has been under fire for years from international organizations that monitor child welfare. Most of the world’s cocoa is produced in West Africa, where cocoa farmers typically live in poverty and where forced labor, especially among children, and human trafficking, are tragically common. Reports from concerned humanitarian groups describe how children often work long hours on cocoa farms performing hazardous work like using machetes, carrying heavy loads, and coming into close contact with toxic pesticides.

Several non-profit groups organized a “Raise the Bar” campaign to ask Hershey to take meaningful steps to combat child, forced and trafficked labor in its supply chain, and an online petition drive generated over 100,000 letters to the company asking it to improve its cocoa sourcing practices.

Happily, the company announced recently that it will commit to sourcing independently certified cocoa for its Bliss line by the end of 2012. However, Hershey’s produces many products that contain chocolate, including Almond Joy, Kit Kat, Whoppers Malted Milk Balls, and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. What about responsibly sourcing ALL the cocoa it uses in all these products? Eighth grader Jasper Perry-Anderson has created a follow-up campaign on Change.org to ensure that the Hershey Company expands its commitment to certified cocoa to all its products in the future.

Which gets us back to alternatives to Hershey’s Kisses for Valentine’s Day. Look for chocolates that are certified both fair trade and organic. Fair trade helps protect kids, and organic helps protect the environment. Here are some yummy options you should be able to find in your grocery store, at food co-ops, and at chains like Whole Foods that have made a commitment to carry more sustainably produced products.

Dagoba – Ironically, Hershey owns this company, which was already organic and fair trade when it was acquired. Dagoba sources cacao, the primary ingredient used to make chocolate, from Latin America, South America and Madagascar. Their entire line of drinking chocolate, syrup, and cacao powder has been certifed Fair Trade by Transfair. You can buy a box of “bites” or choose full-fledged bars.

Endangered Species ORGANIC DARK CHOCOLATE CHIMP MINTS They’re certified organic, vegan, gluten-free, kosher Non-GMO and the cacao is sourced from Rainforest Alliance Certified  ethically traded cacao farms ensuring fair trade, responsible labor practices and sustainable farming. Plus they taste good!

Wei of Chocolate –  This organic and fair trade chocolate, also certified by the Rainforest Alliance, is infused with “energetic” flower essences that they claim lead to greater tranquility, peace and joy. They’re beautifully wrapped; a box-ful would certainly enhance my peace and joy, at least as long as they lasted!

Lake Champlain Chocolates makes some delicious organic chocolates – but they’re NOT Fair Trade: Organic Chocolate Truffles from Lake Champlain Chocolates –  or organic chocolate squares in flavors that include cinnamon, sea salt and almonds, milk, and dark.

Then there’s Ghirardelli. It promotes some of its bars as “100% all natural,” but offers no explanation of what that means. There’s no mention of Fair Trade or organic on its website, either. What gives?

If you prefer chocolates from these companies, please go to their websites and encourage them to adopt certified fair labor and organic practices.

 RELATED POSTS:

Fill Your Heart With Organic Chocolate

Environmental In-Box: Seeds of Change Chocolate

Later this year, look for Hershey’s Bliss® products made with 100 percent cocoa from Rainforest Alliance Certified farms. Rainforest Alliance Certified farms have met comprehensive sustainability standards that protect the environment and ensure the safety and well-being of workers, their families and communities. Hershey’s Bliss® chocolates are available to U.S. consumers at more than 35,000 retail outlets. Meanwhile, you can read more about Hershey’s sustainability plans here.

What Did I Miss?

If you make an organic, Fair Trade chocolate we didn’t mention here, please leave a comment with all the pertinent information. If you love an organic, Fair Trade chocolate we failed to notice, please let us know! Thanks.

The post Think Twice Before You Buy Hershey’s Kisses for Your Valentine appeared first on Big Green Purse.

That’s particularly true if the cocoa is produced organically. Cocoa powder is derived from cacao seeds that grow in pods on the cacao tree. The tree’s botanical name, Theobroma cacao, means “food of the gods,” nomenclature with which I wholeheartedly agree. Cocoa “beans” are only called that once they’re removed from the tree. What does any of this have to do with the environment? The cacao tree grows in the rainforest. Ideally, cacao trees will be grown on small farms, in the shade, to keep rainforests intact and reduce pesticide use.

Even better is organic cocoa that is also produced according to Fair Trade principles, ensuring that farmers are paid a decent wage for their work and no child labor is involved. In countries like Cote d’Ivoire in West Africa, children are being used like slaves to produce cocoa, with profits going to fund the country’s civil war.

Online, at natural foods stores and food coops, and increasingly at local grocery stores, you can find organic, fair trade cocoa and chocolate. Here are some brands to look for:

* Dagoba

* Divine Milk Chocolate

* Endangered Species Organic Chocolate

* Equal Exchange

* Green & Black’s

* Theo

But which of these tastes best?

I asked the moms over at Green Moms Carnival for their faves. Here’s what they recommend:

Jess Trevelyan, who blogs at The Green Phone Booth, raves, “I love Divine first and foremost for the flavor (both dark and milk).But also cause the HQ is here in DC so I can support a local business.”
Jess

Lynn Miller of OrganicMania.com, has her favorite, too. “Diane, I love Green & Black’s and Divine. Divine is fair trade from Ghana and is based here in DC. Black’s is often on sale at places like Giant (yay!).

Anna over at www.green-talk.com, did some serious research on the subject. “I went to the NYC chocolate fair this year and reviewed many of the organic chocolates,” she reports. “I preferred dark chocolate with about 70-85 percent cacao. What I liked about the show is that the chocolate was not all
offered at your local health food shops or was not made into bars. See the bark one or toffee one. I especially liked the foodie chocolate where it was infused with an herb or food ingredient. Try rosemary and chocolate some time. It is amazing.” See Anna’s articles, including “Organic Chocolate Never Tasted So Good.”

Got an organic or fair trade chocolate you love? Let us know!

The post Fill Your Heart with Organic Chocolate appeared first on Big Green Purse.