With Easter weekend looming, Kiwi pantries are set to be filled with chocolate — likely with enough to last until Christmas.
But, with so much chocolate on the shelves now, it’s hard to know whether the ingredients were sourced ethically.
To help salve this quandary, David Herrick, a chocolate maker from Foundry Chocolate, was invited to provide some advice on Breakfast.
Herrick said there were a few indicators to suggest whether the chocolate you were buying was of sound ethical ingredients.
“What you’ve got to look for is that most chocolate in New Zealand is industrial chocolate, made by offshore companies,” he said.
He said there was only a “handful” of chocolate products made in New Zealand.
Herrick said the first thing to do was look at the ingredients list, and make sure there are "as few as possible".
"Two ingredients, three ingredients are much better than lots of ingredients."
He said another thing to look for was where the cacao beans are sourced from.
"The more information you can find, the better," he said.
He recommended shoppers look for the exact part of the world the beans were sourced from, and if there were any names attached to that.
“Those are kind of the key indicators that you’re getting as ethical as possible.”
While ethical chocolate might be a bit more expensive, Herrick said it was always worth it.
“You get the reassurance that you’re buying really well-sourced, really well-made chocolate, and the money goes back to the people who actually grew the cacao beans.”
He said another positive was the taste, describing it as having "the most amazing flavour notes".
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