Our relationship with chocolate is so long, varied, and far-reaching that we were able to put together a timeline of 80 facts about everyone’s favorite sweet confection. Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines chocolate as “a food prepared from ground roasted cacao beans,” but that doesn’t do it much justice. The folks at Content Bash define chocolate as one of the best and most delicious foods in the history of civilization, perhaps only equaled by pizza and tacos. Pretty much literally nothing is as piquant or flavorful or luscious or downright yummy as chocolate, and as you’ll read below, the course of human history pretty much agrees.

Chocolate Before Christ

1. According to ancient Maya beliefs, cacao predates human history. As the Mayan creation myth goes, after people were created from maize, they received precious foods including cacao that the gods discovered at “Sustenance Mountain.”

2. Chocolate was consumed as a liquid — not a solid — for 90% of its history. The Olmecs of southern Mexico were probably the first to use cacao beans for drinks and gruels, possibly as early as 1500 B.C.

3. It’s not until the Maya people, whose civilization peaked between 250 and 850 B.C., that we find the first evidence of humans consuming chocolate in a more modern form, as a hot drink. It went on to be popular with the Aztecs too, who dyed it red with a substance called achiote.

Chocolate: The First Thousand Years 

4. Chocolate was originally prepared by fermenting, curing, and roasting cacao beans then grounding them into a powder. The typical drink was prepared by mixing the powder with hot water then vigorously whisking and pouring the liquid from one vessel to another until it became frothy. The drink was flavored with maize, vanilla, flowers, herbs, honey, fermented agave sap (octli) and of course, ground chile peppers.

5. Research from the University of New Mexico reported cacao residue on pottery from Chaco Canyon that dated to around 1000 A.D. — a time when the Ancestral Puebloan people (also known as the Anasazi) were living there. Since then, shallow ceramic bowls dating from 780 A.D. from an ancestral Puebloan site in Southeastern Utah have also revealed markers for cacao.

6. The Olmecs drank chocolate from special round jars called tecomates. The Aztecs also had richly decorated tall cups specifically reserved for chocolate drinks and the Maya used tall cylinder beakers for drinking chocolate with text on the rim describing their use.

7. Cacao was depicted in paintings by the Maya of Guatemala, Yucatan, and the surrounding region as part of religious and royal ceremonies. In the early 12th century, chocolate was used to seal the marriage of the Mixtec ruler 8 Deer at Monte Albán, a sacred site in the Valley of Oaxaca. Early records of Maya marriages in Guatemala indicate that the bride would need to whip up a top quality, frothy chocolate drink to prove she would make a good wife.

8. Cacao beans they were so highly valued in Mesoamerica they were regularly used as currency. In Aztec markets, one cacao bean could buy you a tomato, 30 beans got you a rabbit, and a turkey could be had for the princely sum of 200 beans. They were so sought after, in fact, that counterfeits were sometimes made by hollowing out the interior of real beans and refilling them with sand or clay.

Chocolate: The Next Few Hundred Years

9. Most historians agree that cacao first arrived in Europe via Spain — but it’s not clear when and how that introduction was made. One story suggests Christopher Columbus acquired cacao beans during his exploits. Another suggests that Hernán Cortés was introduced to chocolate by the Aztecs of Montezuma’s court and returned to Spain with both the beans and the secret to their preparation. A third, and possibly most disturbing story, claims that friars transported Guatemalan Mayan people to Spain and offered them and their cacao beans as gifts to Philip II of Spain in 1544.

10. According to Marcy Norton, author of Sacred Gifts, Profane Pleasures: A History of Tobacco and Chocolate in the Atlantic World (2010), Chocolate was the first stimulant beverage used in Europe. “Think of it,” she says, as “a gateway drug for coffee and tea.”

Click on the cover to buy Marcy Norton’s book!

11. Britian came close to getting in on the ground floor of the chocolate revolution in Europe when a Spanish shipment of cocoa beans veered off course and was seized off the coast of England in the 16th century. Unfortunately, its captors were unfamiliar with the highly valued bean, and mistaking it for sheep droppings, burned the lot.

12. It’s not clear when chocolate arrived in Asia but in 1585, an ambassador from Japan visiting the Emperor Philip II in Alicante, Spain was impressed by the chocolate made by the nearby convent of the Poor Clare of Veronica.

13. Eventually in the 17th century, chocolate spread across Europe, perhaps thanks to Jewish traders who were expelled from Spain during the Inquisition and re-settled in the Netherlands.

14. Chocolate played a surprising role in the Inquisition in Guatemala. The 17th-century church cracked down on women practicing chocolate-related brujería, or witchcraft, as part of a campaign to eliminate indigenous and African spiritual practices. It was an attempt that apparently failed as Latin American communities continue to practice similar folk healing and magic to this day. 

15. In the 17th century, a heated debate blew up between two orders of Catholic monks over whether or not chocolate was officially a drink – and could therefore be consumed on days when they were fasting. Eventually the Pope intervened, decreeing that chocolate was a drink and could be taken during fasting but chocolate confections were off limits until Easter.

16. Chocolate arrived in Florida on a Spanish ship in 1641. It’s thought the first American chocolate house opened in Boston in 1682. Benjamin Franklin sold chocolate, along with stationery supplies and Bibles, in his Philadelphia print shop in 1739. By 1773, cocoa beans were a major American colony import and chocolate was enjoyed by people of all classes.

17. King Louis XIV loved chocolate so much that he created the position of Chocolatier du Roi — French for “Chocolate maker to the king” — in 1659 for David Chaillou, who was granted exclusive chocolate-making rights and sold the first hot chocolate in Paris out of a cafe near the Louvre Palace.

18. In Spain and France, chocolate was initially a treat reserved for the elite, but it took a different turn when it eventually reached England. Early English chocolate-houses had their own spin on the recipe for hot chocolate adding milk and eggs as well as sugar. This catered to the tastes of the English and made it less expensive, allowing chocolate-houses to serve a wider range of customers. Cocoa was quickly adopted by students and intellectuals who gathered to sip chocolate while debating the issues of the day. In the 1660s, King Charles II felt so threatened by this trend that he created a “Proclamation for the Suppression of Coffee Houses.” But Charles underestimated the newly established power of caffeinated beverages and the proclamation was ignored and eventually forgotten.

19. Despite his fears about rebellious chocolate-drinking commoners, Charles II was an early adopter of the chocolate trend and employed Hampton Court Palace’s first chocolatier in 1686. Four years later, William III and Mary II added a chocolate kitchen to the palace, which George I and George II subsequently enjoyed during their reigns as well. The chocolate kitchen, recently re-discovered at Hampton Court, was staffed by a chocolate maker and included a separate “chocolate room” for precious porcelain, china, and silver used to serve it.

20. The Natural History Museum in Britain found that the earliest documented recipe of modern chocolate milk was developed in Jamaica for Irish botanist Sir Hans Sloane in the early 1700s. He was unable to stomach chocolate prepared in the local style, so had it mixed with milk.

21. During the Revolutionary War, chocolate was provided to the military as rations and sometimes given to soldiers as payment instead of money.

22. Cacao is the Mayan root word retained by the Spanish colonizers of Mesoamerica to describe the tree and its produce. The cacao plant was given its botanical name theobroma cacao (“food of the gods”) by Swedish natural scientist Carl Linnaeus in his original classification of the plant kingdom.

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23. Napoleon Bonaparte supposedly used chocolate during his military campaigns for a caffeinated boost. “An army marches on its stomach” is a famous quote attributed to him and if we’re talking about chocolate, it certainly makes sense.

19th Century Chocolate Facts

24. In 1828, Dutch chemist Coenraad Johannes van Houten discovered a way to treat cacao beans with alkaline salts to make a powder that was easier to mix with water. The process became known as Dutch processing, and it produced cacao powder known as Dutch cocoa. The Van Houten family also invented the cocoa press that made it both inexpensive and much easier to make cocoa powder and mass-produce chocolate. They have a brand of cocoa powder that is still being made today! Buy some!

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25. In 1847, British chocolatier J.S. Fry and Sons radically changed the chocolate game by creating the first chocolate bar molded from a paste made of sugar, chocolate liquor and cocoa butter.

26. Fry chocolates may have created the revolutionary chocolate bar but they got some help from an 18th century innovation. Fry bought a patent for the first mechanic cocoa grinder invented by Walter Churchman in Bristol, UK in 1729. The patent was granted by His Majesty King George II for a water-powered machine used  for the “expeditious, fine and clean making of chocolate by an engine.” Like Van Houten, Fry’s is still a brand of chocolate being produced today.

Click to buy Fry’s delicious chocolate!

 

27. German Chocolate Cake wasn’t invented in Germany and doesn’t (necessarily) contain German chocolate. In the mid-19th century, a man named Sam German came up with a recipe for dark chocolate that could be used for cake baking. Sam worked for the Baker Chocolate Company who rewarded him by naming German Chocolate Cake after him. Incidentally, the Baker Chocolate Company is the originator of Baker’s chocolate, which was named after the founder and wasn’t just for baking.

28. In the mid-19th century, government reports on food adulteration such as chocolate being made with potato starch, animal fat, and even brick dust led to a public outcry for “pure” foods. Cadbury, a small British chocolatier, took advantage of this trend and new technology to eliminate most additives. They marketed their “Cocoa Essence,” as “absolutely pure, therefore the best.” Their plan worked and helped make them the chocolate juggernaut they are today.

29. In the late 1870s, the Cadbury brothers built a “factory in a garden” as they expanded their increasingly successful chocolate-making empire. George and Richard Cadbury bought farmland five miles from the Birmingham city center to realize their vision. The village of Bournville was created for their employees, complete with schools, a railway station, leisure facilities and parks — far removed from the slums associated with many factories of the age.

30. Milton Hershey was 19 when he opened his confectionery shop in Philadelphia in 1871.

31. Swiss chocolatier Daniel Peter is generally credited for adding dried milk powder to chocolate to create milk chocolate in 1876. But it wasn’t until several years later that he created the Nestlé Company with Henri Nestlé and brought milk chocolate to the mass market. In 1879, another Swiss chocolatier, Rudolf Lindt, invented the conch machine which mixed and aerated chocolate, giving it a smooth, melt-in-your-mouth consistency that blended well with other ingredients.

 

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32. Fudge originated in the United States during the late 19th century and became a popular treat for the increasing numbers of young women attending college. Illicit Fudge Parties at schools such as Vassar popularized the treat and indelibly associated it with women’s education and rebellion. In 1897, the New York Tribune noted that it was best enjoyed “when a dozen or more girls are congregated in a room, sitting on sofa cushions spread out on the floor in a mystic circle around an alcohol stove, from which the odor of ‘fudge’ rises like incense.”

33. Joseph Rowntree, a successful 19th century British chocolatier, used his wealth and influence to establish the Joseph Rowntree Foundation to examine and address the root causes of poverty. As a Quaker, he believed that the existence of companies which paid low wages was bad for the “nation’s economy and humanity” and introduced various reforms on the working condition of the workers: the establishment of the eight-hour day in 1896, a pension scheme in 1906, a five-day work week in 1919, and a profit-sharing plan in 1923.

Modern Chocolate in the 20th Century

34. By the late 19th century and early 20th century, family chocolate companies such as Cadbury, Mars, Nestlé and Hershey began mass-producing their varieties of chocolate confections and are still going strong today.

35. In the early 20th century, Walter Sharp, the president of Whitman’s chocolate used a piece of embroidery, or “sampler,” made by his great-aunt as inspiration for a new line of fancy boxed chocolates. Beginning in the 1920s, Whitman’s collected actual embroidery samplers from around the world with examples from as early as the 17th century that they displayed in stores and showrooms. Now owned by Russell Stover Candies, one billion Whitman’s Samplers have since been sold.

36. Many of the most enduring chocolate bars were invented in the 1920s and 1930s. They include Crunchie bars in the 1920s, the Mars Bar in 1933, the Milky Way and the Kit Kat in 1935, Maltesers in 1936, and Aero in 1937, as well as Nestlé Smarties (which are different than American Smarties) that same year. The first fondant eggs were launched in the 1920s, but the celebrated Creme Egg was originally a Fry’s product, and wasn’t branded as Cadbury’s until later.

37. The New York Cocoa Exchange was established in New York in 1925, as chocolate demand soared and became big business.

38. Estonian kohuke are chocolate-covered cheese curds made of pressed cheese coated in a sweet glaze reminiscent of a chocolate-covered vanilla cheesecake bar that debuted during the Soviet regime as a sort of early “energy bar.” They now come in flavors such as berry, chocolate, coconut, kiwi, and even bread.

39. In the 1930s, Swiss doctors wanted to give hospitalized children vitamin-enriched milk to drink, but the kids thought it was too babyish to drink milk and wouldn’t touch it. As a work-around, the doctors added cocoa butter to the milk — resulting in the accidental invention of white chocolate. It was an instant hit and became a commercial success after WWII. White chocolate is more expensive to produce than dark chocolate because it contains more cocoa butter. In fact, white chocolate contains no chocolate at all and was barred from being labeled “chocolate” in the U.S.

40. The Queen was the first person to ever receive a bar of entirely English chocolate. In 1932, workers at Rowntree Mackintosh Confectionery in York experimented with growing cacao plants on British soil. They only managed to grow one tree that produced a single pod of cocoa beans. The Rowntree team converted their small harvest into one tiny chocolate bar which they presented to a six-year-old princess, later Queen Elizabeth II.

41. Chocolate supposedly made its film debut when Jean Harlow ate candy in the 1933 comedy Dinner at Eight.

42. Ruth Graves Wakefield is the accidental inventor of the beloved chocolate chip cookie. While preparing food for guests at the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts in 1937, she noticed that the chocolate in a batch of Butter Drop Do cookies failed to melt, resulting in a new and delicious treat. She later traded her now-famous recipe to Nestlé for a lifetime supply of chocolate.

43. Chocolate has been essential to the U.S. Armed Forces since the Revolutionary War. In World War II, the U.S. prioritized the preservation of cocoa bean imports for soldiers’ rations, and today’s U.S. Army D-rations always include three 4-ounce chocolate bars. Chocolate has even traveled into space as part of the essential food supply of American astronauts.

44. The 3 Musketeers bars were originally three pieces to a package with chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry flavors. In the 1940s, they switched to just the one chocolate bar after the price of strawberries increased.

45. Chocolate has inspired modern technology. In the 1940s, WWII scientist Percy Spencer was working on a massive magnetron device when he noticed the chocolate bar in his pocket had melted. He soon realized that the magnetron was the culprit and put the technology to use in microwave ovens, quickly heating up food in the kitchen (instead of his pants).

46. Lucille Ball took her comedy and chocolate very seriously. For the iconic 1952 episode of I Love Lucy where Lucy and Ethel lost control of a conveyor-belt full of chocolate candies, she recruited professional chocolate dipper Amanda Milligan to teach her how to properly dip chocolate. Milligan got to showcase her expertise — and deadpan comedy chops — as Lucy’s supervisor in the episode.

 

47. The 1971 film version of Roald Dahls’ book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was titled Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory because it was financed by Quaker Oats to promote its new Wonka Bar candy.

 

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48. Mary Jane “Brownie Mary” Rathbun is one of the true heroes of chocolate history. As a hospital volunteer in San Francisco during the 1980s, she became known for baking and distributing cannabis brownies to AIDS patients at the height of the pandemic. In a 1993 Chicago Tribune story, a fellow nurse called her a “shining beacon,” while patients swore that the brownies brought them back from the brink. Rathbun was arrested on three occasions, but her grandmotherly appearance only served to generate public sympathy for the cause and undermined the district attorney’s prosecution. Rathbun helped lobby for the legalization of cannabis for medical use and contributed to the establishment of the first medical cannabis dispensary in the United States.

49. The world record for most expensive chocolate bar was set in 2001 when a Cadbury chocolate bar sold for $687 at an auction. The bar had been made at Cadbury’s Bournville factory in Birmingham, England and was part of 3,500 lbs supply of cocoa and chocolate Captain Robert Scott’s crew brought on the Discovery expedition to Antarctica in 1901.

50. On September 7, 2011, the Guinness World Record for the largest chocolate bar in the world by weight (5792.50 kg, about 12,770 lbs) was set by the UK’s Thorntons PLC chocolate manufacturers.

51. Today, the Ivory Coast is the largest source of the world’s cocoa, producing more than 1.4 million tonnes a year. Ghana, Nigeria, and Cameroon are also among the top producing countries, along with Indonesia.

More Weird & Fun Facts About Chocolate

52. There have been plenty of reputable studies that have found chocolate milk can actually help athletes recover faster after exercise. The studies note that this could be due to the drink’s high protein and carb ratio which can help refuel muscles and facilitate muscle tissue repair. Feel free to opt for chocolate milk instead of Gatorade after your next workout!

53. Hershey’s Kisses were originally cubes and got their name from the kissing sound the machine made when it popped each candy onto the conveyor belt. The iconic kiss shape was developed a few years later when Hershey upgraded their machines. In Hershey, Pennsylvania, the streetlights along Chocolate Avenue are all in the shape of Hershey Kisses.

 

54. Every November 11th, Germans celebrate the feast of St. Martin (a knight who shared his cloak with a beggar) with a lantern-lit parade, sweets, and steaming hot chocolate.

55. Americans celebrate chocolate throughout the year. July 28 is National Milk Chocolate Day,  September 13 is International Chocolate Day, and, of course, November 7 is National Bittersweet Chocolate With Almonds Day. Mark your calendars!

56. As it turns out, Americans buy most of the world’s chocolate — more than $18 billion a year’s worth.

57. Chocolate is still beloved in Europe. According to Forbes, the largest chocolate-consuming countries are Switzerland, Germany, and Ireland. The Swiss eat 22 pounds per person each year — the most chocolate per capita, followed by Australia with 20 pounds, and Ireland with 19 pounds per person. The United States comes in at 11th place, with approximately 12 pounds of chocolate eaten by each person every year.

58. Americans buy more than 58 million pounds of chocolate on Valentine’s Day every year, making up 5% of chocolate sales for the entire year.

59. There’s chocolate mousse and then there’s Lenny the Chocolate Moose. Lenny is an edible chocolate sculpture weighing 1,700-pounds that was created in 1997 by Len Libby Candies in Scarborough, Maine. Lenny’s pals are three dark chocolate black bears: 380-pound Mama Libby and her cubs, Cocoa and Chip, who are 80 pounds each all of whom are displayed around a blue-tinted white chocolate pond.

60. Chocolate and marijuana have a long history together, going back to the notorious “hashish fudge” of writer Alice B. Toklas. She even had her own recipe!

61. Though not technically real chocolate, Black Sapote is like nature’s version of ready-made chocolate pudding. A tropical fruit found in Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America, and Colombia, Black Sapote looks like a yellow-green tomato outside while the inside has the color and taste of chocolaty custard. You can grow your own at home!

 

Click to buy your own Black Sapote seeds!

 

62. April Fool’s Day in France is called “Poisson d’Avril.” The word “poisson” in French translates to fish, so children enjoy a piece of fish-shaped chocolate on this day while playing pranks on one another.

63. Feeling love-struck? It might be your date or it could be the box of chocolates they brought. Research has found that chocolate can actually stimulate your brain and releases more endorphins than kissing does. It was also shown to increase your heart rate faster than kissing as well. Researchers believe that this is caused by chocolate’s concentration of phenylethylamine, a compound that increases endorphin production in the brain that make people feel good all over.

64. Chocolate definitely isn’t for the dogs. The ingredient theobromine, a central nervous system stimulant is poisonous to dogs and can even be lethal. As little as two ounces of chocolate can kill a small dog. PLEASE DO NOT FEED CHOCOLATE TO YOUR DOG!

65. In America, 66% of chocolate is consumed between meals, 22% of all chocolate consumption takes place between 8pm and midnight, and more chocolate is consumed in winter than any other season.

66. Chocolate has long been used as a pick-me-up. There are 10 milligrams of caffeine in a six-ounce cup of cocoa, 5 to 10 milligrams of caffeine in one ounce of bittersweet chocolate, and 5 milligrams of caffeine in one ounce of milk chocolate. Darker chocolate bars can have as much caffeine as a can of Coca-Cola.

67. The cacao bean’s power is in its complexity. Each bean naturally contains almost 300 different flavors and 400 separate aromas. In comparison, red wine is reported to only have around 200 flavor compounds. Eating chocolate can also reduce the symptoms of stress. The smell of chocolate increases theta brain waves, which triggers relaxation. 

68. The Brussels Airport is the biggest chocolate seller in the world, selling more than 800 tons of chocolate every year. In celebration of its favorite treat, Belgium issued limited edition chocolate flavored postage stamps in 2013.

69. The Baker Chocolate Company, established in the late 1700s, is the oldest still-operating producer of chocolate in the United States and is now part of Kraft Heinz.

70. Milton Hershey may be best known as the chocolatier who founded the Hershey Chocolate Company in Hershey, PA, but he had several confectionary ventures of varying degrees of success and failures before Hershey’s, including the Lancaster Caramel Company.

71. Because of its challenging terrain, the city of Oaxaca in Mexico escape total conquest by colonizers and has held on to much of its distinctive culture. For example, frothy tejate, a popular morning beverage, is an ancient blend of cacao, corn flour, and water. Colloquially known as the “drink of the gods,” tejate was historically consumed during festivals dedicated to the seeding and harvest of crops.

72. You could line up the total number of Hershey’s kisses made each year and they would circle the Equator more than 12 times. Or you could just eat them.

73. Growing cocoa beans is a tricky business. The cacao plant is difficult to cultivate, requires warm (but not too hot) climates, and protection from direct sun and strong winds. Diseases alone destoy about 30% or more of the global cacao crop each year, threatening the $100-billion chocolate industry and the livelihoods of almost 50 million people who depend on it.

74. Cacao trees can live up to 200 years but can only make cacao beans for 25 years of their lifespan. Each cacao tree only produces enough beans annually to make 10 regular-sized Hershey bars. It takes approximately 400 cocoa beans to make just one pound of chocolate, and annual world consumption of cocoa beans averages approximately 600,000 tons.

75. The fruit of the cacao tree is a melon-shaped pod that grows directly from the tree’s trunk or limbs. As pods ripen, they turn varying shades of orange, yellow, and red. There are anywhere from 20 to 50 cream-colored seeds (called beans) inside each pod and the seeds are surrounded by a milky-white pulp that has a light fruity flavor that can be eaten raw, used in making liquor, vinegar, honey, jam, and sparkling juice.

76. Did you ever wonder why chocolate melts so wonderfully on your tongue? Chocolate is the only edible substance that melts around 93° F, just below the human body temperature.

77. Normally 70% of the cacao fruit is discarded as waste, but a few innovative chocolatiers are now making chocolate using the full cocoa pod. Others are finding new ways to turn the sweet, refreshing cacoa pulp into everything from juices, smoothies, frozen desserts, bakery products, and a broad range of snacks.

78. Blood and chocolate have a long and interesting history. There are reports of Meso-American cultures mixing blood with cacao as part of rituals. For centuries, Sanguinaccio dolce has been made in Italy by mixing the blood of butchered livestock with milk, sugar, and chocolate, then cooking it into a velvety pudding. Hematogen is a health bar created in Soviet-era Russia made with a mix of condensed milk and processed cow’s blood often coated in chocolate that’s still made today. And, of course, Alfred Hitchcock famously used chocolate syrup to simulate blood in his classic 1960 film Psycho.

 

Click to buy Hematogen chocolate!

 

79. Dark chocolate is a super food! It has more antioxidants than green tea and just as many as blueberries. Research suggests that dark chocolate with a high percentage of cacao boosts memory, attention span, reaction time, and problem-solving skills by increasing blood flow to the brain. It can also promote lower blood pressure, which has positive effects on cholesterol levels, platelet function, and insulin sensitivity.

The Dark Side of Chocolate Production

80. Unfortunately, chocolate history has a decidedly dark and unsavory side. As chocolate fever spread throughout Europe in the early days, opportunistic producers exploited the labor of thousands of enslaved people to profit from the demand. In modern times, cacao production has been plagued by inhumane labor practices, child labor, and human trafficking. In 2001, Mars, Nestlé, and Hershey pledged to eradicate child slavery from their supply chain within four years, but a 2019 report found that at least 1.48 million children are still engaged in forced and hazardous labor on cocoa farms.

But don’t despair, chocolate lovers! You can still have treats that taste good and do good. Chocolatiers around the world are now making ethically produced confections from bean to bar. Take a bite out of chocolates from Tony’s Chocolonely in Amsterdam, Alter Eco in San Francisco, and THEO Chocolates in Seattle. Or you can shop from an extensive list of ethical chocolate companies endorsed by SlaveFreeChocolate.org!

 

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