It’s rare to meet someone that doesn’t love chocolate. This delicious dessert and ancient superfood is often a daily treat for many. Unfortunately, chocolate is one of the most common industries for exploitation. The chocolate industry is profitable thanks to a high-demand product with hard-to-regulate production. Many companies underpay their workers, provide unfair working conditions, and often use child labor. Thankfully, we don’t have to stop eating chocolate to combat this. We can make a difference by supporting ethical and fair trade chocolate brands instead.
In this article, we’ll cover the 12 best fair trade chocolate brands so you can enjoy this tasty treat without supporting the unethical side of the industry.
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliated; we may earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase. We only feature brands that align with our values and contribute to a better world. Thank you for supporting these brands – and us!
What is fair trade chocolate?
A great first step when figuring out if your chocolate was ethically produced is to see if it’s fair-trade. Fair trade chocolate is produced in a way that adheres to certain ethical standards. Fair trade is a safeguard against exploitation and child labor. It guarantees that farmers are paid a fair and living wage, regardless of the market price of cocoa. Farmers are also given higher wages if they produce organic chocolate and an additional premium wage to reinvest in their business.
If a brand advertises that they are fair trade, check to see if they are Fair Trade Certified. This means that their production is verified by a third party to ensure it meets the above criteria. It’s worth noting, that Fair Trade Certified isn’t a guarantee that the company is entirely ethical. It’s a good sign, but there’s always the possibility that unethical practices went unnoticed.
Lastly, if a company isn’t Fair Trade Certified it doesn’t mean they aren’t fair-trade. Getting this official certification takes time and is often inaccessible to small businesses, particularly if they’re located outside of the US. If a brand doesn’t have fair trade certification, look for transparency in their business practices. Check to see if they use any of the terms below and if they provide information to back up these claims. If they do, chances are they are still an ethical chocolate company.
Additional terms to look for in fair trade chocolate:
- Certified Organic: Chocolate that is grown in a way that adheres to the USDA Organic standards.
- Bean to Bar: This means the chocolate was made from scratch, literally from bean to bar. It often means the chocolate is handcrafted versus mass produced.
- Direct Trade: This means that the chocolate company directly buys from their farmers. It also means that the brand personally works with the producer so they can verify ethical production and ensure top quality.
- Single Estate/ Single Origin: Single origin means the cocoa comes from one type of chocolate grown in one region. Single estate means the cocoa was also grown on one specific farm in one region.
The 10 Best Fair Trade Chocolate Brands:
1. Taza Chocolate
Price: $25 for 4-Bar Bundle
Taza produces organic, fair-trade chocolate using a stone ground method. This production method harvests minimally processed bean-to-bar chocolate and highlights the bean’s full flavors. Taza sources their cacao from farmers in Haiti. They were the first chocolate brand in the US to create a Direct Trade Cacao Certification Program.
You can get a large variety of chocolate goodies from them online, including bars, candies, bark, and chocolate wheels.
2. Dandelion Chocolate
Price: $12 Bar
Dandelion Chocolate produces small batch, bean-to-bar fair trade chocolate. Each batch is single-origin, sourced directly from one farm, and then handcrafted in San Francisco.
If you’re in the city, you can take tours of their small factory and observe how they roast and make their chocolate. Dandelion has established hands-on, long-term partnerships with the farmers they work with to ensure transparent and ethical production. At Dandelion, you can get delicious chocolate goodies like truffles, candies, hot cocoa, and assorted chocolate boxes.
3. Beyond Good
Price: $18 for 4-Bar Bundle
Beyond Good produces single-origin chocolate from Madagascar and soon from Uganda.They work directly with 93 local farmers to ensure a traceable and fair-trade supply chain.
They don’t just source their chocolate in Madagascar; they also produce it there in a small local factory. Beyond Good sells individual and variety packs of their chocolate, and you can also find sustainably sourced vanilla for sale
4. Hu Kitchen
Price: $25 for 6-Bar Bundle
Hu Kitchen was created after the founder struggled with an autoimmune disease and wanted to make healthier, more sustainable foods readily available. Their organic certified chocolate bars are made using only simple, natural ingredients and with unrefined coconut sugar. All of their cocoa and cocoa butter is Fair-Trade certified and non-GMO.
If you’re looking for refined sugar-free, vegan, and gluten-free chocolate goodies, then Hu is the brand for you.
5. Equal Exchange
Price: $39 for 6-Bar Bundle
Equal Exchange works directly with farmer cooperatives in Nicaragua. Each co-op they partner with produces fair-trade, organic chocolate (and coffee) ethically. What’s unique about Equal Exchange is that every farmer is a co-owner, with a share and a vote in the company. They currently work with over forty different farmer organizations and have spent years cultivating collaborative, transparent relationships. Equal Exchange sells different 12 packs of chocolate bars, hot chocolate, and chocolate minis. You can even find their products at Target.
6. Alter Eco
Price: $48 for 12-Bar Bundle
Alter Eco is a yummy, organic chocolate company that you can easily find in stores or online. Producing chocolate in an environmentally friendly way is their top priority. In addition to paying fair-trade wages, they are currently helping their organic farmers transition to regenerative agriculture. Alter Eco is a carbon-neutral company and they use compostable and recyclable packaging.
At Alter Eco, you’ll find a wider variety of fair-trade chocolate flavors than most companies, including truffles, bars, and even granola.
7. Theo
Price: $37 for a 6-Pack Bundle
Theo makes organic, fair-trade chocolate goodies that are sourced directly from farmers in the DRC. They started by partnering with an NGO to help train and invest in local cocoa farmers and have since built a sustainable, thriving cooperative.
For each additional ingredient used in their chocolate bars, Theo lists who their suppliers are to be as transparent as possible. Their award-winning chocolate is handcrafted in their factory in Seattle. You can get chocolate bars, chocolate cups, cookie bites, hot cocoa, and a wide selection of chocolate candies from Theo.
8. TCHO
Price: $30 for 5-Bar Bundle
TCHO is another B Corp certified chocolate brand from California. They are committed to being as transparent as possible, creating their own source program. TCHO invests in their farmers, providing fair wage employment each step of the way and additional support to create better infrastructure, and training within the cacao industry.
TCHO sells bars individually as well as offers several variety packs so you can try more of their delicious flavors. They even break down the origin of each chocolate and how that gives it a certain flavor. If you’re vegan, you’ll love TCHO’s plant-based line of chocolates like Toffee Time and Choco Latte
9. Endangered Species
Price: $55 for 12-Bar Bundle
Endangered Species Chocolate has been around since 1993 and established quite a reputation for themselves due to their conservation efforts. They give back 10% of their annual profits to various organizations that support endangered wildlife. Endangered Species Chocolate sources cacao from fair-trade farmers in West Africa. They publish regular impact reports so you can easily verify their claims.
Thanks to their long-standing prominence in the chocolate industry, you can find any type of chocolate you could want from Endangered Species Chocolate, including vegan options and baking chips. They don’t use additives or artificial sweeteners in any of their chocolate.
10. Ritual
Price: $10 Bar
This US-based chocolate brand sources their cacao from farmer co-ops that focus on sustainability. They work primarily with Indigenous farmers who own organic farms and list each farm and the region on their website. Ritual’s award-winning bean-to-bar chocolate is made in a small factory in the US using sustainable practices.
Each fair-trade bar comes in compostable packaging with recyclable boxes. Ritual sells different lines of chocolate including single-origin, limited edition collaborations, and locally sourced bars. You can also find drinking chocolate & granola at Ritual.
And missed out on award winning Farm-to-Table Bantu Chocolate (Black-Woman-Owned).
https://www.instagram.com/bantuchocolate/
You missed Zotter Chocolate
https://www.zotterusa.com/about-zotter/organic-fair-green/