The Essentia Blog

Organic chocolate is grown in small plots under the shade of the rainforest canopy.  Mass-produced coffee grown on sun plantations not only destroy the rainforest in order to grow their chocolate, but use huge amounts of pesticides and fertillizers to do so.  As can be expected, this affects the taste and quality of the chocolate.

As with any other green product, you have to be careful when choosing the most environmentally friendly chocolate.  “Fair Trade” chocolate is not necessarily grown on a shade plantation in organic conditions.  Economic arrangements have been made with the owners of the farm in this case that pay them a living wage for their coffee and even this label is suspect to a certain extent as there is no third party governing the transactions.

In order to be truly “organic”, chocolate must come from a shade plantation and be grown without the use of pesticides or fertilizers.  Most companies that walk the walk also participate in ecological programs designed to restore the rainforest or help the area where their chocolate is grown in some way.  Here are some examples:

Dagoba Organic Chocolate
Sweet Earth Organic Chocolate
Newman’s Own Organics

Dagoba in particular has won a number of awards for its products, particularly its organic dark chocolate.