Valentine’s Chocolate Alternative
Americans spend more than $600 million on chocolate for Valentine’s Day alone, but only a tiny fraction of this money reaches the farmers who grow cocoa. In fact, most chocolate in the United States is purchased from cocoa farmers at a market price that is far below a living wage. For example, in Côte d’Ivoire – the country where 75% of American chocolate comes from – cocoa farmers received only 11 cents per pound of dried beans in 2006. More than 200,000 children of cocoa farmers have never attended school; many instead work as laborers on these farms. Cocoa-growing communities frequently face widespread poverty despite producing a commodity that yields annual sales of $13 billion. Given this picture, most Valentine’s Day chocolates are hardly sending a message of love. It’s with this in mind that two San Luis Obispo, California companies joined together to make SLO Chai Chocolate. SLO Chai and Sweet Earth Organic Chocolates, offer a blend of Sweet Earth’s award-winning 65% bittersweet Fair Trade chocolate and SLO Chai’s incomparably warm and spicy chai mix that not only tastes delicious but is helping to support cocoa farmers in West Africa. The ingredients in this deliciously sweet drink are Certified Organic, ensuring that no harmful pesticides were used in their production. Fair trade chocolate paired with cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, star anise, and other Indian spices make a truly delicious combination. By supporting 100% Fair Trade Certified you are helping to ensure that cacao farmers receive fair prices for their labor and participate in democratically-organized cooperatives that ban child labor, promote gender equality, and practice environmentally-sound farming and processing.
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on Wednesday, May 28th, 2008 at 1:35 pm and is filed under Chocolate general, Fair-trade chocolate products.
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July 30th, 2008 at 8:10 am
I’m really happy that I found this website. I learned a lot today.
July 30th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
Always happy to hear from Chocolatiers. My goal is to help consumers realize that they can be conscious about where they put their money. We always hope that other chocolatiers will be motivated to take a look at their chocolate sources and where their buying power is going as well. If you purchase organic, fair trade chocolate for your products, you will be supporting the small cacao farmers, the rainforests the cacao trees grow in AND allowing the farmer’s children to be in school rather than brandishing machetes on the large plantations. Thanks for your interest in my site.