Sweet Earth Chocolates

Well, I have vegan customers who need certified organic and certified fair trade. As you know, for my bars, I use fair trade and organic chocolate but because I get it from small producers, they are not certified.

So, I had to search for an organic and fair trade certified chocolate. I turned to Dagoba. However, when I got in my chocolate it said that it may contain traces of milk protein. What? How? Huh? I wasted my money.

I called up the people at Hershey/Dagoba megaplex, yes, ouch, they were SOLD to Hershey, but they use their equipment, the same equipment, to process their milk chocolate as well as nuts etc. They told me that they were actually a small company, not very big, and that they didn't have the money to have two separate lines. I mean who are they talking about? The old Dagoba or Hershey? Come on people. Ask you chocolate daddy for another line of equipment. Scharffen Berger down and now Dagoba. Sun of a pod!

Well, I decided to go to Sweet Earth, whose chocolate flavor profile is even stranger than El Rey. Fruity but very good. So, now I have vegan bars. Hurrah.

In the future, I'm blending several of their chocolates to make a new flavor profile. I think I have to do it to get the right flavor for my bars. Shhhh! It's a secret.

I also want to note that all my bar chocolate is organic and fair trade. But only the vegan bars have not a trace of milk or other animal BY products. Obviously, none of the bars has animal product in it.

You can also order the other chocolates as vegan if you wish. We have the chocolate we can make vegan versions of most of the chocolates. Only the caramels are impossible to make vegan. Soy caramels? I wonder... ;-)

What the Alton Brown are you talking about?

Alton, Alton, Alton, what are you rambling about? Let me preface this spank down with a little salve first. First the salve then the spank down. Indeed, some Euorpean countries, that is 8 of the EU countries say that only chocolate made from cocoa butter can be called chocolate, 7 want to be able to add junk to their chocolates and call it chocolate. UK, Ireland and Denmark already add other oils to their chocolate and the EU has sanctioned that. So, white chocolate, which should be at least 36% cocoa butter is the least of your worries. The issues are complex.

White chocolate IS chocolate! It contains cocoa butter. That's the criterion. Sure, it has no cocoa liquor, cocoa solids, but you don't see people calling cocoa powder chocolate, do you?

Alton, Alton, Alton. We love you but you gotta do more research. This is a tricky question. You just can't be spouting off on Prime Time.

The On-Line Gourmet Chocolate Store is LIVE

If you want the best in gourmet chocolates, you know where to get them and now, with the nifty on-line store up and running, it's even easier. Just click here.

And so ends this unmistakably fantastic sale

And so begins Valentine's Day. Yup. I am making American Dark Chocolate 70% Fair Trade Chocolates and other confections using local ingredients, local to my upstate region. And boy oh boy, do I have so killer boxes.

I am also making chocolates with my Swiss chocolate as well. It's not Fair Trade but it's a great chocolate.

Go to Life by Chocolate to see our chocolate menu. It's no longer comprehensive. The store is going up soonest.