Tag: Halloween

When I explored the topic of fair-trade Halloween chocolate last year, there wasn’t much available in stores, but there were some good options online. What’s changed in 2019?

First the Bad News

Target still offers virtually no fair-trade options. This year you can find Dove pumpkins in their Halloween candy section, but they didn’t appear to be Rainforest Alliance-certified.

It also appears that Endangered Species has stopped manufacturing Bug Bites. I found exactly one case each of milk chocolate and dark chocolate Bug Bites on Amazon. That’s a pity, because they were perfect for Halloween.

It’s also disappointing to see that some of the options trotted out as fair-trade Halloween candy are targeted more toward adult tastes. From my experience offering tastings at anti-slavery chocolate parties, I know that most children prefer either milk chocolate or dark chocolate with lower cocoa content. Fancy bean-to-bar minis with cocoa content that may be as high as 77% aren’t going to be a hit with many trick-or-treaters. It’s bad enough that we have to offer chocolates they may not recognize and therefore may shy away from. Let’s not offer them chocolate that will be too bitter for their tastes.

Now the Good News

Many of the treats I mentioned last year are still available, including:

• Equal Exchange
• Divine Chocolate
• Sjaak’s
• Ocho
• Go Max Go

Unless you are able to find these candies at a store near you, you will have to order them online.

Also, in a “why didn’t I think of this before” moment, I decided to check out Lake Champlain Chocolates, and they have Halloween-sized treats.

The best news of all is that Tony’s Chocolonely is offering “Tiny Tony’s” for Halloween. If you’ve watched The Chocolate Case, you know that fair-trade chocolate isn’t always as fair as we’d like to believe and that Tony’s is working hard to become truly slave-free. These are chocolates you can be proud to offer on Halloween — both ethical and tasty.

Here’s hoping that someday I won’t have to recommend fair-trade Halloween chocolate, because you’ll be able to find it easily wherever you shop!

It’s been two years since I wrote about buying fair-trade Halloween chocolate, so it seemed like it was time to revisit the subject.

What I Found (or Didn’t Find) in Target

The bad news is that the landscape in my local stores hasn’t really changed. You can still buy bags of Justin’s mini peanut butter cups at Target, but at about 3.5 3-piece servings per bag, you’ll have to buy a lot of bags. You’ll find them in Target’s regular candy aisle, not the Halloween section. Certain flavors of Dove dark chocolate are Rain Forest Alliance-certified, so you could go that route. Dove just seems like an “adult” candy — probably because it’s marketed to women.

What’s Available Online

At first it looked like there wasn’t much to report regarding the online landscape either. You can still buy Endangered Species Bug Bites, but you’ll have to get them through Amazon.com. Equal Exchange still sells minis, but they no longer appear to offer “Halloween kits,” which included coupons you could give to the parents of trick-or-treaters. Divine Chocolate still offers minis and larger “snack” bars.

And then, as I was searching for something — anything! — new, I ran across a wonderful blog post on making Halloween more sustainable. The blogger’s first tip includes some new ideas for Halloween candies. I’ve tried the first candy she mentioned, Sjaak’s organic chocolates. I agree that they’re delicious. I’ve also had Alter-Eco. She suggests getting candy bars, but if you’re going to buy Alter-Eco, I recommend the truffles. Like Dove Promises, however, these seem a little “adult.”  I’ve never run across Ocho or Go Max Go; both look like intriguing possibilities.

I’m disappointed that it’s so hard to find fun-sized fair-trade chocolate in major stores, but we do have options. If you order your candy soon, you’ll have it in plenty of time for Halloween. Just don’t eat it all before the holiday!

Confession: I am a chocoholic. Because I am a chocoholic and have fond memories of peanut butter cups and other chocolaty delights in my childhood Halloween pail, I like to give out chocolate to trick-or-treaters. The fact that I find the leftover candy enjoyable may have something to do with my choice, as well.

There’s an unfortunate problem in all of this: More than 40 percent of the world’s cocoa beans are grown in West Africa, and many West African cocoa plantations, particularly those in Ivory Coast, use child slaves.

I’m not comfortable with that. Especially not when chocolate is a luxury good (much as I’d love to call it a necessity).

Since I can’t ignore the problem, I’m left with two options: (1) Don’t give out chocolate candy on Halloween. (2) Pay more for fairly traded chocolate. I’ve chosen the latter option, because, well… chocolate.

I use the term “fairly traded” instead of fair-trade, because there is more than one possible certification for products that are supposed to meet certain social and ecological standards, including fair labor practices. Certifications are by no means perfect, but they do signal a commitment — on the parts of both the company that pursues certification and the consumer who seeks out certified products — to business practices that are fairer and more sustainable.

When I first set out to buy Halloween chocolate from a company committed to fair labor practices, I found packages of Endangered Species Bug Bites at Whole Foods. They were perfect — small, but not too small. Unfortunately, I’ve never seen bulk quantities of that candy in stores since then. You can buy them online in milk or dark chocolate.

For the next year or two, I could only find bulk quantities of small, fairly traded chocolate online. I like to buy the Equal Exchange Halloween kit, because it includes coupons for chocolate that I can hand out; I usually give them to parents who are with their young trick-or-treaters, and I end up with several that I can leave out at work after Halloween. The downside to these minis is that they are really, really small. If you give out just one or even two to your trick-or-treaters, you’ll seem stingy.

Divine Chocolate also offers extremely small minis in bulk quantities. Again, you can buy them in milk or dark chocolate. I like to buy some of their larger 1.5 oz. bars, which I give to the older trick-or-treaters. Perhaps it isn’t fair of me, but I think the little kids won’t appreciate them as much.

Last year I found bulk packages of full-sized, individually wrapped Justin’s peanut butter cups at Target. This year they no longer have those, but they do have packages of mini peanut butter cups in milk or dark chocolate, which I also found at Whole Foods.

Yes, your selection is limited, it’s expensive, and most of it needs to be purchased online. But if you are a chocolate-lover and want to buy fairly traded chocolate for Halloween, it’s good to know you have options.