Over 2 million children work as unpaid slaves on cocoa farms that supply cocoa to chocolate giants like Hershey's, Nestle, Mars Global, Barry Callebaut, Cargill and others. https://www.slavefreechocolate.org/
Since learning this, I have been on a hunt for slavery free ethically sourced and made chocolate. I couldn't be MORE PLEASED to introduce you to Shola and his family owned company My Sweet Sweet World!
Shola is based in Ontario, Canada. His Father, who is a retired agriculture teacher, is the one who sends him the cocoa from Nigeria! It gets better, Shola's Father works with farmers in his Mother's village to source the cocoa. This is called DIRECT TRADE and is often better for farmer's than trying to get the expensive Fair Trade label.
With direct trade, farmers are able to set the price themselves! These are small scale farmers who cultivate and harvest the cocoa plants. Shola tells me there is no slave labour or child labour, other than the kids who have to help their parents after school!!!! OH WE LOVE THAT!
So not only can you feel good about how the chocolate is sourced you can also feel good about how they are made. All of these bars are made with:
- NO preservatives
- NO lecithin or emulsifiers
- NO colourants
- NO artificial flavours
- NO aroma enhancers.
These bars have the fewest ingredients I have ever seen in a chocolate bar. Plus all ingredients are simple English words!
CHECK THIS OUT! INGREDIENT LIST:
Milk Chocolate - cocoa butter, whole milk powder, sugar, cocoa nibs & vanilla bean!
100 grams
SHIPPING & STORAGE: We apologize shipping on chocolate is crazy! Any package thicker than 20 mm in Canada must be sent expedited with tracking. These prices start around $15 for even 1 bar. I have subsidized the cost as much as I can. For some reason it's cheaper to ship to the USA!
If you live around Olds, Cochrane, Carstairs, Didsbury, Rocky or Sundre you can pick up locally at THESE STORES! Thank you for understanding.
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT CHILD LABOUR IN THE COCOA INDUSTRY WE RECOMMEND THESE RESOURCES:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0g5RFtcx4MIQhxSfeyvV6x?si=bf9a1880917f4a97
Documentary: The Dark Side of Chocolate
List of slavery free chocolate brands. The two companies I source from have not applied to be assessed by this company but have passed by interrogation and scrutiny.