Comments on: New Yorker White Boys

By: I love Tcho Chocolate, part two « resistance is fertile

I love Tcho Chocolate, part two « resistance is fertile — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 03:45:51 +0000

[...] and I told him my little secret: Most organic chocolate stinks. And he agreed. And I mentioned Dagoba and all the rest and he talked about how hard Tcho was working to change the perception of truly [...]

By: Ruby

Ruby — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 13:15:23 +0000

I haven’t had Endangered Species in a while but I used to eat it in college until I realized they always left my mouth feeling waxy and my throat thirsty.

By: lagusta

lagusta — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 06:35:49 +0000

Yeah, I like Endangered Species too! They don’t make wholesale chocolate though, alas. Art Bar is the same–love them too. I’ve looked into Theo in the past, I don’t think they make big bars either, but thanks so much for the tips, everyone!!

By: Josey Willow

Josey Willow — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 20:26:13 +0000

Wow. That really creeps me out. I never really got into Dagoba, but I’ll sure as hell be staying far away now!

For retail chocolate I LOVE Endangered Species. It has organic available and I really think it’s one of the most ethical chocolate companies out there.

By: NickT

NickT — Tue, 27 May 2008 11:43:16 +0000

To add to the record, Theo Chocolate in Oregon is also organic and fair trade certified. Most of the chocolate is good, although I have had a couple bars that were a bit over conched. I rather like some of there single origin bars, the Ivory Coast (absolutely fair trade certified) is amazingly flowery.

Now if you really want to try something new, check out Chocolate Alchemy, also in Oregon. Another “alchemist”, but seems to be quite the different one from Dagoba. The guys there will show you how to make your own chocolate, offer many cocoa beans and pretty cheap (in the scheme of things) machines to make the chocolate. Many of their cocoa beans are organic and or fair trade. Talk about very old school.

By: MhD

MhD — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 18:00:01 +0000

For the record Art Bars are both organic and fair trade certified… and very tastey. I was stunned to learn that they don’t use any lechithins (sp?); neither soy nor other binding chemicles in their process. Apparently, they do it old schoold by conching (stirring) the chocolate for up to three days — old school. I dare say regardless of their certifications, this is one of the best chocolates on the market today!

By: wellspout

wellspout — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 22:41:15 +0000

dude:
pardon my unpunctilious response, but i’m feeling and hearing bitter-sweet backlash toward mr schiller and his dagoba debacle, (only the latest sell-out to corp(ulent) interests), but obviously he is no neo- hippie sir! but rather a venture capitalist par excellance, obsequiously nodding to his chocolate god (“i appreciate culture and religion…”) lol all the way to the bank. indeed, a farce explicated in true new yorker fashion, however to those of us whom have never sold out, it should come as no surprise really, 5 million dollars or so is raison d’etre, n’est pas?

By: NyerWbW: October 29 and November 5 « resistance is fertile

NyerWbW: October 29 and November 5 « resistance is fertile — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 03:40:29 +0000

[...] Another truly dreadful glass ceilingy week. The fiction was awesome though. I discussed the Buford-Dagoba chocolate nightmare here. [...]

By: lagusta

lagusta — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 02:29:21 +0000

Heya Kinnari. The sad, sad truth is that there is no organic AND F/T chocolate bar that I like. I personally use a mix of 1/2 organic and 1/2 fair trade Callebaut chocolate for my truffles, but I buy it in 44 lb cases and the organic one is not f/t and vice versa and I am pretty positive they do not sell it in retail bars!

Because I use gigantic amounts of chocolate, I have not seriously researched retail organic and f/t bars.

A reader once mentioned this company: http://www.lasiembra.coop/ but I haven’t tried it myself. I also like Art Bars (made by Ithaca Fine Chocolates) but am not sure if they are both organic and f/t.

I once tried out Sweet Earth Organic Chocolates, from California. They are super nice people and their chocolate is super p.c. – organic and fair trade and everything good. It wasn’t the perfect chocolate for my truffles however…it was a little plasticky. But the company seems awesome, and they make cocoa powder!

As for chocolate mix, can I let you in on a secret? Just melt chocolate! And add water! It’s my favorite kind of hot chocolate. A tiny amount of mint extract is nice too. I’m not a huge fan of cocoa powder. I think Green & Blacks makes an organic one though?

Also, I talk about my own Chocolate odyssey here:
http://www.lagustasluscious.com/truffles.html#ingredients

A good rule of thumb is that higher-quality chocolates like Scharffen Barger and especially Valhrona tend to treat their workers far better than typical Hersheys crap chocolate companies (though Scharffen Barger is now owned by Hersheys). I’ve had good success talking to company representatives at trade shows (the Scharffen Berger company rep at this year’s NYC Fancy Food Show was very well informed and I had a good talk with him about why their chocolate is not certified fair trade but he feels their standards are just as good or better. He seemed convinced that their parent company wasn’t going to change anything in that area. They used to have a great essay about this on their site, but when they sold out to Hersheys the essay disappeared.)

By: kinnari

kinnari — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 21:39:01 +0000

ok you are fucking brilliant!

i was eating dagoba thinking i was doing some good. but i didn’t know they’d sold out.

fuck!

what organic fair trade chocolate do you recommend to a new reader??

i live in san fran so i adore trader joe’s.

and i can get some fair trade organic hot chocolate mix there for my kids so that’s good.

but i haven’t found an org/ft choc bar i really like.

help!!