Product Review: organicfair chocolate

Pure chocolate decadence. That’s the best way to describe the chiapas chocolate bar I bought while I was at EPIC. I’ve been rationing the bar, savouring each rich, spicy mouthful, but I finally finished the last rich, dark square this morning.

This is not your average supermarket chocolate.  There is no hydrogenated oil, lecithin, artificial flavour or colour.  The ingredient list on organicfair chocolate is short and simple, and full of asterisks that indicate the ingredients are certified organic (certified by Pro-Cert Organic, Canada’s primary organic certification board).

The chiapas bar in particular is a powerful combination of flavours, spiced with cinammon, cardamom, and chipotle chile.  As the description on the website indicates, this chocolate bites back!

organicfair does offer two plain varieties of chocolate: a 70% cacao purist bar and an 83% forte variety.  But what makes this company’s chocolate stand out is the wide variety of unique and exquisite flavour combinations, from the silk road variety with peppermint and mandarin, to the provence bar with lavender, rosemary and sweet orange, to the kashmir bar with masala chai essences.  These bars will take you on a flavourful journey to destinations you never anticipated.

organicfair makes its chocolate bars and other products by hand at its farm near Cobble Hill, British Columbia, north of Victoria (see map below).  They grow many of the ingredients they use, and ethically source their other ingredients locally and abroad.  Their commitment to fair trade is shown by the Direct Fair Trade Fund logo on their products, signifying that 1% of their sales revenue contributes the the fund, which helps develop fair trade around the world. In addition to their organic ingredients, their commitment to environmental sustainability is shown by the 1% for the Planet logo, indicating that 1% of their sales revenue contributes to environmental projects around the world.

Of course, this level of quality does come with a price.  A 72 gram chocolate bar is $4.75 CAD, making it slightly more expensive than the fair trade chocolate I usually buy at the grocery store.  (It’s significantly more expensive than a Snickers bar, but mass-market candy bars are really not a valid comparison, as they contain little cocoa and much filler.)

So what does the extra $1 per 100 grams compared to a Cocoa Camino or Endangered Species bar buy you?  It buys you some of the highest quality chocolate you’ll find anywhere, and certainly the most unique, wonderfully surprising flavour combinations you’ve ever tasted in a chocolate bar.  If you’re on Vancouver Island, pay them a visit at their farm, or order their chocolate and other products from their online store.

Responsibility rating

Environmental: Excellent
Social: Excellent
Quality: Excellent
Pricing: Very Good
Overall rating: Excellent

Location

The map below shows the location of organicfair’s farm on Vancouver Island. Zoom out for other Buy Right map locations.

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