This week I decided to try a new brand of chocolate. Well, new to me anyways. I bought a bar of Endangered Species Chocolate, Supreme Dark 72% Cocoa. I was enticed by the cute chimpanzee on the wrapper and the note: “10% of net profits donated to support species, habitat and humanity” Check out the site:
I mean what’s better than that? Eat some awesome chocolate AND help a monkey while you’re at it? I’m all for it.
I make a point of incorporating dark chocolate into my diet (only a little at a time, of course, because I’m trying to manage my weight as well). I’m no food snob, and enjoyed Hershey’s growing up, but recently in my adult life I started become more interested in chocolate brands.
In my search for awesome chocolate, I found out a little more than most of us want to know. The thing is, chocolate has a dark, disgusting secret. The major chocolate companies of America (read: Hershey’s and Mars) buy cocoa that comes from plantations that use child slave labor.
Do you really want some innocent kid to suffer just so you can have cheap chocolate? Now really, I’ve never been a hippie, and I’m not one of those soapbox, boycotting types. But I’m all in favor of, as much as possible, replacing my “blood chocolate” with better tasting, higher quality chocolate that is also free of slave labor.
I’m glad to read that Hershey’s has been taking steps in the last 10 years to limit their indirect participation in child slave labor chocolate, but if there are a dozen other companies that can go 100% slavery-free, why can’t Hershey’s do it too?
The Cheese Log 