Transparent & Fair Trade Cacao

Fairtrade certified chocolate bars not as fair as you think. As well, the certified bars you see at your local grocery store are still made with mediocore or poor quality bulk commercial cacao beans.

The bars here are different. They don’t have the costly certification on the bars, which takes money out of the hands of the farmers and out of the hands of the small-scale chocolate makers. Instead, the bars here are made with rare fine cacao beans of superior quality. As well, the chocolate makers or the brokers who purchase this fine cacao from the farmers, purchase it at above standard Fairtrade prices. Some bars are made with cacao from local farmers and some bars are made with cacao purchased directly from a farmer!

If you wish to make a difference in the world, don’t rely on certifications that make you “feel” as though you are doing good. Look into it and see if the manufacturer is transparent about where they are getting their cacao.

The chocolate bars here are made with cacao purchased at above fair-trade prices and use only fine cacao. Something you will not likely find in bars sold at local grocery stores. Here you’re paying for fair trade and higher quality cacao beans, which result in a higher quality and more flavourful chocolate bar that actually does good in the world.

Sustains Ecological Diversity

What makes fine cacao and fine chocolate different is mainly the quality of the cacao bean. Most cacao in the world is considered “bulk” or “commercial” cacao. It can be good to poor, but always has a very basic “cocoa” flavour to it and not much else. The poor quality also is much more bitter and astringent.

All the bars here are made with high-quality and very rare fine cacao beans. These beans have much more flavour, which results in bars as you see here with a wide ranging flavour that goes beyond just “cocoa”. The simple dark chocolate bars here have a much more profound and interesting flavour than any commercially available dark chocolate.

These rare cacao varieties are being replaced by what is essentially a monocrop of mediocre cacao beans. There are many genetic varieties of cacao, and even more sub varieties and cultivars. However, fine cacao beans require more work to grow. Fine chocolate makers support the farmers who grow fine cacao by paying them more for the higher quality cacao. They are paying a fair price, and also paying for the work involved in growing fine cacao. By supporting fine chocolate makers, you are supporting a system that encourages the growth, propagation, and preservation of rare varieties of cacao.

If you respect the idea of preserving the diversity of plants and trees, you will appreciate that the fine chocolate industry does just that in regards to cacao.

Encourages Quality Craftsmanship

The reason I built this website was to highlight and showcase fine chocolate makers around the world. Believe it or not, it’s quite rare to be a bean-to-bar chocolate maker. Just like most crafts, chocolate maker is a skill and craft in and of itself. It’s a skill and craft that requires our support to preserve and share. It offers people with this passion and skill a livelihood they are in control of. A livelihood which sustains a respectable craft, that sustains relationships between makers and fine cacao farmers, and encourages respect and preservation of quality food in our lives. It is extremely important at this time in the world to preserve the idea of sovereignty over our food, what is grown, who can grow it, and how it is processed. Much of our food is being reduced down to monocultures and controlled by profit-driven corporations who often have strong backing of self-serving arms of our government. If you appreciate the work of the chocolate sold here, you can also appreciate that this work does not just appear out of no where. There is a great deal of hard work that goes on to sustain these crafts and the relationships between those involved.

Truly Natural & Simple Ingredients

You can read for yourself the ingredients listed on the product page and take a look at the images of the products themselves. Most dark chocolate on the market has vanilla or “natural” or artificial flavour enhancers to improve the flavour of mediocre to poor quality chocolate. The dark chocolate here has none of that. The flavour is profound, and comes from the simple 2 or 3 ingredients (cacao bean, sugar, and sometimes cocoa butter which is a little extra fat that comes from the bean itself).

“Natural” flavour which appears on most food products today is not natural in the way you think it is. It’s not a real food ingredient. Is a flavour enhancer processed in a manufacturing facility that came from what once was a natural living organism (be it animal, plant, organism) that may or may not have anything to do with the flavour of your product. The flavours in the bars here come from the cocoa beans themselves, or the real ingredients listed on the bar in regards to flavoured bars.

Supports Small Businesses & Farms

The beautiful branding on many of the products here may make you think that they are produced by very large manufacturers. Not likely. Most of these are as small as 1 or a few people or a dozen or so just like your local artisan bakery or café. Many of these are family-run or run by friends who have a passion and the skill to make fine chocolate.

As well, the cacao produced comes from small-scale farms from different parts of the world. Many of these farms are family and locally run, and sustain local families who grow fine cacao.

Bean To Bar World as well is a small business, run by yours truly. This is why I keep tons of the content here free, keep my prices as reasonable and fair as possible, and developed the free Bean To Bar World Map & App. My goal is to make enough to support my life, but also not take more than I need so I can help support the makers, growers, and all those connected to this wonderful industry.

Organic Ingredients Where Viable

Keep in mind that when you see organic cacao and/or chocolate in your local grocery store, 99% of the time it is still made from commercial or bulk cacao. You’re paying for the fact that it may be organic (which means less pesticides or less harmful pesticides, but not necessarily none). This is all well, but it is still bulk cacao, which is poor in quality, flavour, and does not sustain cacao biological diversity. Organic is not synonymous with higher quality food or ingredients.

In the online shop, you can select for products that do contain organic certified cacao beans. These products do use both organic and high quality fine cacao beans. There are many products which are not using organic certified cacao. This is because they may not be able or willing to pay for the certification at the growing level, or they are not defined as organic due to some products used by the farmers.