Monday, January 19, 2009

Sweet Tooth


Sunday is usually our day to go grocery shopping around here, so my cupboards are now stocked full of yummy treats.  This chocolate is one of my very favorite!  Since becoming vegan 6 months ago I have desperately missed really great chocolate.  But I finally found this delicious morsel that is 55% cocoa and has pieces of of almond in it and now I must have at least a few bars in my house at any given time.  


Why is a good chocolate so hard to find?  Well, first off for me because I need dark chocolate (most dark chocolate is usually vegan and much better for you...if chocolate can be better for you) and then there's the matter of getting it fair-trade and organic.  Now most of the time things I do around here to help us and the planet end up saving us quite a bit of money.  This is one thing I have to splurge on.  


Buying fair-trade chocolate means that you are making sure that the farmers who farm the cocoa and make the chocolate get paid a fair price for the product they produce.  It also ensures that there is no (often unpaid) child labor being used to produce the chocolate.  

Buying organic means that the cocoa and other ingredients weren't smothered in pesticides and other chemicals before reaching your cupboard.  It also usually means that the beans were shade grown, not only preventing chemical use, but providing necessary habitat for hundreds of types of animals and insects.

So whether you are buying your sweetie goodies for Valentine's Day or just feeding your own sweet tooth, make sure you indulge responsibly.  Ultimately that's always the most satisfying way.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

so vegan means no dairy, right?! i'm nursing matthew, who has a super bad dairy intolerance so i've been dairy-free & therefore chocolate-free for 3 months now. and chocolate-free is no fun :( i bet i could eat that!!!!

Willo said...

Yeah, Emilie, vegan means no animal products...so no dairy. And you could TOTALLY eat this!!! No dairy whatsoever and way yummy! They have different flavors too. I have a mint one I am dying to try. Give it a shot! I bet you'll love it!

Daphne Gould said...

Not being vegan and loving milk chocolate makes it more of a challenge to find the right bar. The good part of the bar is the cocoa solids. I finally found my perfect one. The Endangered Species milk chocolate bar. 52% cocoa solids (unheard of in other milk chocolate). They have an organic version; it is what they call ethically traded, which seems to be one step farther along the path than just fair trade (they also look at how it is grown); and even their facility is LEEDs certified. The best part is that it is the best chocolate I've ever had and I'm a horrible chocoholic. I've tried just about everything.

Willo said...

Thanks for the info Daphne. I have had the Endangered Species line, unfortunately they don't sell the organic versions at my health food store. But the Panther bar is really good for some EXTREME dark chocolate. Talk about antioxidants! I feel like that could be the fountain of youth! :)

Owl and Fox said...

Great blog! I've been making my own chocolate, it works out a tiny bit cheaper, and is really fun too :)

Here's the link to where I get my stuff - definitely worth a look!
http://www.powersuperfoods.com/cacaopower/index.html

I've been putting chilli in the recent batches, if you haven't have dark chocolate with chilli you're missing out!