Friday, August 23, 2013

Chocolate Analysis

One of the dilemmas that I have encountered with the rules of my project is chocolate. Can I have it? Today I will exam 3 different chocolate bars that my mother mailed to me.

Green & Black's Organic Dark Chocolate (70% Cacao)
  • Ingredients: Organic bittersweet chocolate (organic chocolate, organic raw cane sugar, organic cocoa butter, soy lecithin (emulsifier), organic vanilla extract)
  • cocoa, cane sugar, vanilla are traded in compliance with Fair Trade Standards
  • certified organic by the California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF)
  • Fair Trade Certified

Theo Organic Fair Trade pure 85% dark chocolate
  • Ingredients: Cocoa beans, sugar, ground vanilla bean (all organic and fair trade)
  • Made in Seattle
  • Certified Organic by QAI
  • Certified Fair Trade by IMO
  • Non GMO Project Verified



Endangered Species Chocolate - natural dark chocolate with forest mint (72% cocoa)
  • Ingredients: bittersweet chocolate (*chocolate liquor, cane sugar, *cocoa butter, soy lecithin, vanilla), natural mint flavor 
  • *cocoa comes from rainforest alliance certified farms
  • Rainforest Alliance Certified cocoa
  • Non GMO Project Verified
  • 10% of net profits are donated to help support species, habitat, and humanity
Most important to me is the amount of ingredients, which Theo wins hands down with the simplest list. I also want no GMOs in my food, so Theo and Endangered Species are better in this regard. I value fair trade over organic, therefore Theo is better than Green & Black in this respect. I like how the Endangered Species chocolate donates 10% of their profits towards helping the environment through the Rainforest Alliance.Of all the chocolate I was given, Theo was the best for the criteria of my project. It is also made in the USA. I am going to go ahead and eat all 3, chocolate should not go to waste and it is much better than Hershey's. A girl needs her chocolate. :)

What do you think? What kind of chocolate do you like? Do you think I am bending my rules to far? Are there any of these certifications that you would like to know more about?
Posted by at
Labels: , , , , , ,

3 comments :

  1. Jenny R. SherrillAugust 24, 2013 at 10:19 AM

    First, way to go, Gail, for sending Chris down this path.
    I think by your standards any of the three work well (once again, good job Gail), and I like your logical consideration. And yes, a girl needs her chocolate.
    And I don't think you're bending the rules. I think one needs to consider all types of food for a project like this, because this is what real people eat. If you're exploring a far-out diet, that would be different.
    Are you going to consider the cost for something like that -- I realize these were a gift but I am sure there will be future chocolate consumed. Oh! Do you have a way to keep track of "gift" costs -- close amounts they would have cost had you bought them -- to include in your accounting?

    ReplyDelete
  2. stdfghjkAugust 24, 2013 at 1:48 PM

    So far I had not plans for calculating costs for gifts. The cost tallying part of this project is already a monster of its own. I can keep a separate list of gifts and approximate values, but my theory is all college students receive free food or gifts at some point, and it will even out.

    ReplyDelete
  3. MicheleAugust 24, 2013 at 2:25 PM

    I would choose the Theo chocolate since it is the one that is soy free. I've heard that soy often contains GMOs. How do we know that the soy from which the soy lectin was made was not genetically modified.?

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments ( Atom )

ShareThis