Impact Report 2018: Choose Clean Ingredients

April 18 2019

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[caption="Conventional agriculture today", image="left"]

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Did you know that 24 billion tons of fertile soil are lost each year due to intensive farming[1]? That 5.6 billion pounds of pesticides are used worldwide for the food we eat[2]? And that 50 million people in the United States obtain their drinking water from groundwater that is potentially contaminated by these pesticides[3]? What we put into our bodies is just as important as what we’re putting into the earth. For all these reasons and so many more, we make our chocolate using only clean and simple ingredients. You will never find any GMOs or pesticides in our products. We are directly involved with every component of our supply chain, so you know exactly where your food comes from.

When we launched we made the decision not to use soy in any of our products. Soy is rarely found in non-GMO form and is known to cause severe allergic reactions among certain people. Chocolate does not need soy to be delicious. Soy lecithin is a food additive, extracted using chemicals added by some chocolate makers as an emulsifier and essentially allows the chocolate to melt at a higher temperature. Yet it is in no way essential to the recipe. For us, less is more. Four clean ingredients are all we need to provide you with the cleanest chocolate there is.

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[caption="Our Blackout Bar 4 ingredients", image="right"]

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We have a steadfast commitment to using the best ingredients possible, beginning with how we process the cacao. Our chocolatiers roast the cacao beans in house, as opposed to the more common method of buying preroasted beans. This gives us more control over the quality of our chocolate and produces our distinctive rich and fruity flavor you know and love.

We are always looking to improve our current practices. The next big step for us is Regenerative Agriculture, which is a new pilot certification program launching later this year with brands such as Patagonia and Dr Bronner's. We want to go beyond organic through regenerating the soil we use for our crops. This process ensures that the soil remains as rich and is able to soak up as much carbon dioxide as it was before being cultivated. The Regenerative Organic Certification is a holistic approach which encompasses animal welfare, fairness for farmers and workers in addition to soil health and land management.

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[caption="Organic Cacao Fruit from Peru", image="left"]