MOVING TOWARDS JUSTICE IN THE CHOCOLATE INDUSTRY

Q: What is your shipping policy?

Warm weather policy starts April 19, 2021: We want you to receive your chocolate in perfect condition and as quickly as possible. In warm weather, we ship on Mondays and Tuesdays (and Wednesday if the destination is close enough to guarantee arrival before the weekend). We add insulation and an ice pack at no charge, and we strongly encourage you to choose an expedited shipping method if your order is traveling outside of New England. We cannot be responsible for chocolate that is heat-damaged when you open it, so please have someone be home when your package is expected to arrive or provide a safe, cool delivery spot. We may need to delay shipment altogether if the weather is too hot here or there, and will notify you if this happens. You will receive an email when your package ships. We do not ship internationally at this time.

Q: What is your return policy?

Your chocolate is shipped in perfect condition and, as described above, we take every precaution to make sure it arrives in perfect condition as well. If it is damaged in transit, we will gladly replace it but cannot refund shipping costs. We cannot accept the return or exchange of chocolate that was received intact. Having said that, if you are unhappy with your order, we hope you will reach out to us. Our products are created for you, and we want to hear if we need to make changes to our product, our shipping methods, or anything else in order to keep you as a happy customer.

Q: How should I store my chocolate?

Best is to keep it between 65 and 70 degrees and in low humidity (less than 55%) and darkness, like a pantry or cupboard. Refrigeration is a good choice as long as you first put it in something else with as little air as possible such as a baggie with the air forced out. Please let it come to room temperature before enjoying it. Hot temperatures as well as big swings in temperature make chocolate “bloom” or go out of temper, meaning the cocoa butter separates from the cocoa solids. When this happens, although there is nothing wrong with the chocolate, it will have chalky whitish/greyish patterns (that’s the cocoa butter) and a different mouthfeel. When stored in ideal conditions, your chocolate can be enjoyed long after you got it, but we like it the most when it’s as fresh as possible.

Q: What does 70% mean?

It refers to the percentage of cacao by weight in the finished chocolate. Because Tangle Chocolate has only two ingredients, you know that our chocolate consists of 70% cacao and 30% sugar.

Q: Do you make other kinds of chocolate besides 70% dark?

Not right now...but what do you think we should make next? Please let us know!

Q: What's the big deal about Tangle Chocolate being freshly made?

Some foods improve with age, such as wine and many cheeses. Others lose some of their taste over time. We find that the flavors in chocolate mellow. Now, this may not concern you, and you may have been perfectly content your whole life with chocolate that arrived in a shop perhaps many months before you purchased it. But we invite you to try our chocolate and see if you notice a difference in the number and quality of distinct flavors straight from the cacao bean that you can taste.

Q: Is Tangle Chocolate single-origin? And what does that mean?

Yes, Tangle Chocolate is single origin. That means that all of the cacao beans used in our chocolate are from the same region. Those cacao trees experience the same soil, weather, altitude and so on that contribute to the distinct flavor of the chocolate. Tangle Chocolate uses cacao beans from a single region of Guatemala, the Cahabón region.

Q: What's the difference between bean-to-bar and craft or artisan chocolate?

These words, along with other ones like "small batch" and "handcrafted," are used in an attempt to differentiate specialty chocolate from large-maker industrial chocolate. However, none of them has a legal definition in the U.S., so their presence on a label doesn't necessarily guarantee anything, which can be confusing and even misleading. Bean-to-bar chocolate means that the maker started with cacao beans, did all of the roasting and refining in house, and ended up with the finished chocolate. That describes Tangle Chocolate. Very large companies technically can be bean-to-bar chocolate makers too, but the term is generally used to describe small chocolate makers like us. The terms “craft” and “artisan” imply that the chocolate was made by a small company with lots of human involvement in the process, whether or not the chocolate is bean to bar...but again, without a legal definition, it's hard for us as consumers to know what "small" is. Industrial chocolate makers have noticed consumer interest in craft products, and some now use words like "craft" and "artisan" on their labels. In addition, while some “craft” or “artisan” chocolate companies are also bean to bar, others buy ready-made chocolate, melt it and perhaps add special touches, and then remold and package it with their label. If you're unsure about a chocolate company's label language, call them and ask any questions you have.

Q: Is your chocolate certified organic?

Not at this time. Although the cacao beans and sugar that we currently use are certified organic, we have chosen not to go through the process to be certified organic as a company. This enables us to keep the door open in the future to using non-certified organic beans that we love. We understand that sometimes a farmer can't meet the costs and administrative duties associated with getting and maintaining organic certification even though their products are up to organic standards.

Q: Is Tangle Chocolate Fair Trade?

No. We are committed to paying more than the Fair Trade price standards and to meeting or surpassing any ethical standards you can think of. We buy our cacao beans from good people who know their many small farmers (average farm size: 2.5 acres) and are super transparent about their practices and finances.

June 11, 2020

Although I’ve loved eating chocolate my whole life, what made me commit to the business of chocolate is the opportunity it offers to contribute to social, economic and climate justice in cacao-producing countries. I’ve written other articles here about the ethics of Tangle Chocolate, and I’ll continue to write more, but as a micro business, our practices don’t have the kind of impact that the policies and practices of the biggest chocolate players in the industry do. (The top 10 chocolate companies are listed at the end of this article.) Those companies have been moving towards correcting some age-old injustices little by little, whether because consumers are demanding change or because the businesses genuinely want to make the changes themselves. But last fall, in perhaps a watershed moment, cacao-producing countries of West Africa took matters into their own hands by instituting a radical policy. This article places this development in a historical context, explains what the policy is, and touches on the impact that one of the major chocolate industry players anticipates it might have.

HOW DID THE INJUSTICE BEGIN?

The chocolate trade between what we now call Central and South American countries and Europe began in the sixteenth century when Hernan Cortez violently conquered the Aztec empire and began, along with other European explorers, to include cacao beans in their homebound cargo. From that time until today, the history of chocolate documents domination, slavery, and the constant pursuit of better and cheaper ways to grow and harvest cacao and make chocolate. (The craft chocolate movement, which dates to the late 1990s, is proudly known for its much more elevated ethics.) The quest for good, cheap chocolate eventually meant that West Africa became the top-producing location for cacao, which remains true today.

THE SITUATION IN 2020

More than 60% of the world’s cacao beans are grown in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire, and a full 70% come from those two countries plus neighboring Nigeria and Cameroon. Mistreatment of workers, both children and adults, includes starvation wages, long hours, and dangerous work conditions. This reality has been quietly accepted for decades among big chocolate companies and people further up the supply chain than the cacao growers.

However, worldwide public outrage over this injustice in West Africa has been growing. Media reports dating back to 1999 began to expose industry conditions, and consumers wanted to see change. In response, in 2001, the eight largest chocolate companies signed the Harkin-Engel Protocol, pledging to end “the worst forms of child labor” by 2005. Achieving this goal requires that companies be able to trace where the cacao they are buying comes from. The date for meeting the goals of ending child labor and attaining traceability has been extended several times. As of this writing, June of 2020, the commitments have yet to be fulfilled.

“THAT’S NOT GOOD ENOUGH!” SAY GHANA AND COTE D’IVOIRE

In the fall of 2019, the governments of Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire took matters into their own hands and implemented a premium on the cost of cacao in order to raise the pay of their farmers. The $400 per metric ton premium is supposed to provide a living wage for the notoriously impoverished cacao farmers of West Africa, and Ghana has implemented the premium in full. The only accommodation Ghana is offering to chocolate companies is charging a lower price for lower-quality beans.

HOW HAVE BIG CHOCOLATE COMPANIES RESPONDED?

Lindt & Sprungli, the giant chocolate company perhaps best-known for their colorful, individually-wrapped truffles, buys 80% of its cacao from Ghana. Chief Executive Officer Dieter Weisskopf warned on March 3, 2020 that prices for Lindt products will be rising. There are many countries which have not implemented a premium, so Lindt could stop buying from Ghana and instead buy from somewhere else. But sourcing cacao beans that do not have the new premium attached would force Lindt to change its tried and true recipes for its chocolate and confections, which would be a massive expense. The alternative, which is what led Weisskopf to make his price increase announcement, is to stick with Ghana and the beans it has always bought.

Weisskopf counts Lindt among the chocolate corporations that support higher prices in principle and are aware of consumer demand for better treatment of growers. He says, though, that higher prices could prompt chocolate makers to opt for cocoa alternatives while also enticing farmers to grow more beans.

“Sooner or later that could lead to decreased volume demand for cocoa and on the other hand, of course, also lead to oversupply,” Weisskopf said. The threat if that were to happen is that the growers would be right back in the position they are currently in, forced to accept low wages and inhumane treatment if they are to have a job at all.

Top 10 Chocolate Companies by Net Sales, April 14, 2020