My family and I don’t tend to eat much chocolate for the simple reason that caffeine is so incredibly addictive and who needs more strain on already stressed out adrenals in this crazy day and age?
When we go out to a movie as a family, however, I usually make an exception and pick up a bit of quality chocolate for us to nibble and enjoy during the show.
Have any of you noticed that good quality chocolate is getting increasingly hard to find these days?
My husband and I first started to notice that American chocolate was going to the dogs about 20 years ago. Upscale American chocolates like Russell Stover, Godiva and others started to add artificial ingredients and cheapened the quality of the chocolate with milk powder, vegetable oil instead of cocoa butter and even artificial flavors!
To avoid these cheap imitation chocolates, we started to buy chocolate only at a small British shop where we could procure European chocolates like Cadbury’s (only made in the UK – the USA Cadbury’s was bad quality), Lindt and others.
Now it seems the European chocolates have followed suit and gone downhill in quality as well. At our recent family movie outing just last week, my husband could not find a single brand of European chocolate at our local Fresh Market that was free of additives, artificial flavors or rancid vegetable oils.
It seems our only choice for decent chocolate now is at the health food store. Organic brands have so far held the line on cheapening their product. Starbucks used to have quality chocolate as well but I haven’t checked the ingredients list there in a while as I don’t drink coffee and so don’t shop there very often if ever.
I’ve found that even if a brand is ok one day, it might not be the next so frequent checking and rechecking of ingredient labels is necessary to ensure that quality is still intact.
What chocolate brands are you using these days? If you have discovered a brand that is free of garbage ingredients and doesn’t include soya lecithin, please post about it in the comments section.
Since I only eat chocolate now and then, I insist that my chocolate experience be a quality one!
Equal Exchange…love their Mint Chocolate: organic choc. liquor, organic raw cane sugar, organic cocoa butter, perppermint crisps (organic cane sugar, organic peppermint oil) organic unrefined whole cane sugar, organic ground vanilla beans.
http://www.equalexchange.coop
dogoba or however it’s spelled
Lovechock is organic and made trough RAW processing. only coconuts blossem nectar sugar is used to sweeten it. it comes in 3 variants.
I had one more to share but we already ate it all and didn’t save the wrapper. next time I go shopping @my organic food store I’ll write it down for u…. And take some to go 😉
Ditto on the Theo. I took a tour of their factory last fall and they are a great company worth supporting. They are the only truly fair trade, organic chocolate factory in the US, meaning they roast the whole beans and make the chocolate on site. This is why they do not need soy lecithin, which is added because most factories recompose chocolate in certain percentages after it has been roasted and separated at another location.
unbelievable : http://chocovivo.com/
Kombucha has caffeine in it and we still drink it.
I started picking up Theo chocolates in a local store and I really like it and it is fair trade, organic, and without any artificial ingredients.
I make a chocolate “fudge” with raw cocoa, butter and honey. Best fudge ever. I got the recipe from a nourishing tradition blogger but can’t remember which blogger.
then you have to share it here! don’t be a tease! 🙂
Davao White Chocolate… *drool* now I want some 🙁
http://www.theochocolate.com/
Not on the priciest end of the organic chocolate bar scale and some great combos! So far one of the only chocolates I know of that doesn’t use soy lecithin.