Equal Exchange have worked hard to produce an imaginative range of beautiful chocolate. Here’s how they describe it…
Organic dark chocolate caramel crunch with sea salt
Here’s the bar to satisfy both your sweet and salty cravings! Crunchy caramel bits serve as the perfect complement to mouthwatering sea salt crystals. They work together to bring out the complex flavors of the smooth, fruity chocolate. This unique dark chocolate bar is already one of our favourites!
Organic dark chocolate orange (65%)
A mouth-watering blend of smooth dark chocolate and ripe, refreshing orange. This bright citrus bar is sweet, fruity and slightly sour, with a deep chocolate flavour.
Organic Ecuador dark chocolate (65%)
This chocolatey, silky origin bar is reminiscent of baked brownies fresh out of the pan. Highlighting the work of cacao farmers in Ecuador, the bar’s sweet, fudgy richness is balanced by hints of citrus and floral notes. With its clean, refreshing aftertaste, this dark chocolate bar will leave you wanting more.
Organic lemon ginger chocolate with black pepper (55%)
Sweet and citrusy, the surprising combination of lemon and ginger with dark chocolate is well-balanced and refreshing. The bar finishes with a hint of black pepper, rounding out the spiciness of the ginger.
Organic milk chocolate with a hint of hazelnut (38%)
A milk chocolate that emphasises the chocolate! This rich, creamy milk chocolate is malty, with flavours of warmed milk, vanilla and caramelised sugars. You’ll love our take on this classic bar.
Very dark chocolate (71%)
Our original dark chocolate bar! A blend of Peruvian and Dominican cacao beans, this rich and complex bar features notes of fruity pipe tobacco in the aroma, and bright red fruit and chocolatey, baked brownie in the flavour.
The core of Equal Exchange’s commitment to ethical production is their relationship with small farmer organisations. They say:
Equal Exchange sources from small farmer organisations because we believe they are the heart and soul of the Fair Trade movement.
Through partnership with co-ops, small-scale farmers gain crucial market access they wouldn’t have otherwise. The co-ops are democratically run by the farmers, so that together they decide how to invest in their communities. When they work together as a co-op, they become owners of a business. They have economic and political control over their lives. They have access to quality trainings and processing equipment. And, they can positively influence their communities by investing in school supplies, women’s programs, clean drinking wells, or other social development projects.
Equal Exchange has been engaged in this effort to change trade through supporting small-scale farmers since our founding in 1979. Fulfilling our mission means that as we grow and source ingredients from over 20 countries around the world, we seek out fairly traded ingredients from small-scale farmers who are members of co-operatives. That commitment is evident in our chocolates and cocoa, where not only the cacao is Fair Trade, but also our sugar and vanilla. Our goal is always 100% Fair Trade ingredients in our products, but when that isn’t possible due to the complexities of multi-ingredient products, we still maintain 70% or more Fair Trade content by weight for these products.
This is not the case for the majority of the chocolate market. The industry is increasingly consolidated, slow to move toward sustainable and socially responsible cacao, willing to sell products with as few certified ingredients in a recipe as possible, and plagued by the problem of unjust child labor. We are proud to support a small-scale farmer and co-op alternative. It’s been part of our core identity from the beginning, and continues to guide us moving forward.
You can find out much more about Equal Exchange’s approach to fair trade chocolate production by visiting their website!