- I found myself at Whole Foods the other day jonesing for a chocolate bar so I went and checked out their chocolate section, which I've mostly found disappointing the past year or so, since they stopped carrying some of the higher end varieties and focused instead on the fair trade and organic stuff. I have nothing against fair trade, organic chocolate--really I don't--but the varieties I like the most just don't fall in these categories. Besides, I find it hard to believe that you can make a truly fabulous artisan product with exploited labor and cut rate beans. Maybe I'm deluding myself, but I like to think that I can taste the difference, and I don't need a marketing label to tell me what to choose.
I noticed this line of chocolates made by Alter Eco, and I was intrigued because I'd bought some of their green tea a few weeks ago and thought it was really tasty. I got the one with almonds because it was the darkest variety on the shelf, and I was quite pleased with it. I was also impressed that this company has been able to market both good tea and good chocolate. It made me want to try their other products. I checked out their website and learned that they're French, which may help to explain their high standards.
Speaking of chocolate: the Mars company announced today that they're working with the governments of 14 African nations to develop a plan for sustainable cocoa farming on the continent. That's great news as far as the ongoing quest to take sustainable food mainstream. At the risk of sounding like a chocolate snob, though, it does validate my feeling that there's more to great chocolate than a fair trade label (although I'll bet that we'll start to see some higher quality chocolate from the Mars company.) I wonder if they'll be processing their sustainably raised cocoa with sugar from genetically modified sugar beets.
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