Ethical Chocolatiers to Support This Holiday Season
The holiday season is currently underway and that usually means a rise in chocolate consumption. Whether you’re purchasing chocolate for yourself or as a gift, it’s always good to be an ethical chocolate consumer. That means considering the following: Do you know where the cacao beans in your chocolate came from? Did they come from an area where farmers are paid fairly? Was child labor used to source the beans? Did the beans come from an area where cocoa farming isn’t legal and is contributing to deforestation?
Many don’t factor in these ethical considerations before cracking into their favorite chocolate bar. As chocolate lovers who care about great-tasting chocolate and the chocolate industry’s pressing issues of deforestation and child labor, we’d like to highlight some of our favorite chocolatiers who are doing things right.
You can feel good about supporting all the companies on this list if ethical chocolate is important to you but first let’s talk about some chocolate terms—generally used by craft chocolatiers— that you may or may not find familiar.
What is Bean-to-Bar Chocolate?
Bean-to-bar is similar to farm-to-table but since most chocolatiers cannot locally source their cacao beans, the term refers to the control that craft chocolatiers have over the origins of their beans, as well as the entire chocolate-making process. The best craft chocolate makers choose cacao beans the way farm-to-table chefs choose their ingredients — by often visiting the farms where the beans are grown to seek the cacao that will elicit the most unique and exquisite flavors. For some this means traveling to Madagascar or Tanzania, for others this means forging relationships with cacao farmers in a specific area to ensure that the beans used in their chocolate reflect the terroir of that location and were not farmed unethically. In the case of beans being sourced from one particular farm or area, you might also hear the term “single origin.”
What is Single Origin Chocolate?
When you see the term “single origin chocolate,” it simply means the cocoa beans in that chocolate are from one country, geographic region or even a single plantation (in which case the term single-estate chocolate is often used. If only one type of bean is used in a chocolate product, it can be easier to pick out a specific flavor profile. This is one of the reasons why why high-end craft chocolate became so popular.
Supporting single origin and bean-to-bar chocolatiers is crucial in mitigating harm caused to farmers due to rampant unethical labor practices in the chocolate industry. We’ve enjoyed the fruits of the craft chocolate movement in our local grocery stores for some time now, and a portion of the population has acquired a taste for high cocoa percentages and has gleaned the ethical importance of how cacao is sourced.
While the issues of child slave labor and deforestation are still glaring ones when it comes to the chocolate industry as a whole, we’d like to celebrate those who emphasize transparency in their chocolate production. Here’s our list of chocolatiers whose products you can feel good about giving this holiday season.
1. Beyond Good
With a focus on chocolate’s supply chain issues, Beyond Good emphasizes that 93 farmers in Madagascar earn premium prices selling cacao directly to them. These 93 farmers all have small profiles with images and a fun fact about each on the company’s website. An extensive list of creative recipes that can be made with Beyond Good’s chocolate is also offered on the site. Buy some of their 6-bar single origin dark chocolate bar sets online or find them in a store.
2. 9th & Larkin
San Francisco, California’s 9th & Larkin are the epitome of small-batch, bean-to-bar, single origin chocolate. Starting with raw cacao beans, the two-person team of Brian and Lan carefully select, sort, roast, winnow, grind, refine, temper, mould and wrap each bar by hand. Some of their offerings include cacao beans originating in Vietnam, Peru, Fiji and Dominican Republic.
3. White Label Chocolate / Mutari Chocolate
A two-time winner of the International Chocolate Award in the Americas category, White Label Chocolate offers single-origin dark and milk chocolate bars with cacao sourced from a multitude of locales. Owners Katy Oursler and Stephen Beaumier, a chef with a pedigree from Michelin-star restaurants, are also behind craft chocolate label Mutari. Both brands can be purchased in-shop in Santa Cruz, California at Mutari Chocolate (a separate entity from the same chocolatiers behind White Label). Mutari focuses on craft drinking chocolate, which is perfect for these colder months.
Made in Santa Barbara, California, Mike Orlando turned a curiosity about chocolate making into a professional small-scale artisan operation. Sourcing high-quality cocoa beans from estates, plantations and co-ops in Tanzania, Madagascar, Dominican Republic and Bolivia, Orlando puts as much care into selecting his cocoa beans as he does moulding each chocolate by hand. Twenty-Four Blackbirds’ colorful truffle selection makes a dazzling gift for fellow chocolate lovers.
5. Madhu
Mixing flavors from traditional Indian cuisine, such as coriander, fennel and clove with cacao sourced from the Tumaco region of Colombia, Madhu presents their own spin on single origin chocolate. Based in Austin, Texas, Harshit Gupta and Elliott Curelop started Madhu in 2018 and have been gaining notoriety in the craft chocolate space for the unique palette of their product, as well as, their gorgeous packaging inspired by Indian textiles.
6. Askinosie
Askinosie Chocolate pledge their commitment to fairness, sustainability, minimal environmental impact and high-quality chocolate —and they certainly seem to take this pledge seriously in all aspects of their business. Having been in the bean-to-bar chocolate space for nearly two decades, the family operation based out of Springfield, Missouri, has had a lot of time to make an impact. In 2019, they published a transparency report, placing emphasis on how much they were actually paying the Ecuadorian, Tanzanian and other farmers they work with to source cacao. The report found as of September 2019, we have profit shared more than $100,000 with farmers. Askinosie is also transparent about the way they make their chocolate, with many videos on their website showing every step from bean to bar.
7. Divine
While most of the chocolatiers mentioned on this list are small, craft operations, Divine is included because of their unique business model and commitment to ethics. On a mission to end exploitation in the chocolate industry, Divine was founded in 1998 in the UK and asks their chocolate consumers to “join the chocolate revolution.” They are a Fairtrade chocolate company, meaning a rigorous process is undergone to ensure that the ingredients and farming practices used by the company are fair trade certified. Not only is Divine a certified Fairtrade company but they are also co-owned by cocoa farmers in Ghana. Their chocolate products can be found readily at many retailers.
8. Cloudforest
Formerly Cocanu, chocolatier Sebastian Cisneros launched his first bar featuring single-estate Ecuadorian cacao and decided to change the company’s name in honor of his life-changing experience visiting one of Ecuador’s cloud forests at age five. Like many bean-to-bar operations, Cloudforest controls all steps production from processing dry beans to roasting and conching the chocolate. The Portland chocolatier is known for special ingredients, such as bee pollen, palo santo and pop rocks. Their unique packaging with bold colors also makes them a great gift.
Focusing on sustainability in all facets of the chocolate-making process, Ritual specializes in organic sugar, recyclable/compostable packaging, and of course, organically-grown and ethically sourced cacao. The Park City, Utah based company even organizes their factory to reduce energy use as much as possible. Sourcing cacao from farms in Belize, Ecuador, Peru and Madagascar, Ritual focuses on heirloom genetics and co-ops/farms that provide sustainability for the farming community. Offering single-origin bars, cacao nibs and even chocolate granola, you can be sure the chocolate you’re getting from Ritual is sustainable to its core.
10. Cocao Loco
Cocao Loa know the importance of giving cocoa farmers a fair wage for their crop. They get their cocoa beans from a community of small-scale farmers from the Dominican Republic who are supported and certified by the Fairtrade Foundation and Soil Association. They have some fun holiday offerings, including their milk chocolate elves christmas pudding truffles and hot chocolate spoons.
We know that are so many ethical chocolate companies out there that we are barely scratching the surface with these ten. For a more extensive list, visit slavefreechocolate.org.
Let us know on Twitter, Instagram or Linkedin who we should highlight in our next round-up of ethical chocolatiers!