Peace, Love, & Chocolate!

Peace, Love, & Chocolate!

*The following post was written by Ben Conard, Founder at Five North Chocolate® and named one of the Top 10 Biggest Fair Trade Advocates in the World by Fairtrade International. He’s also a cousin of the Fair Trade Winds family 🙂

The #1 Question I’m Asked: “Why chocolate?”

People often ask me: “Why chocolate?” And I admittedly don’t have a super sexy answer. I started with an idea in college for healthy candy – pretty oxymoronic, huh? After some (not-so-tasty) recipe testing in my dorm room, I quickly realized the healthiest treats are made with fruit… cacao fruit that is!

I was determined to create a super delicious, convenient, healthy chocolate snack that is packed with all the joy and none of the guilt. Essentially, my values manifested into a physical product.

And Five North Chocolate® was born.

WHY CACAO?

Located five degrees north of the equator, West Africa grows more than 2/3 of the world’s cacao. But it is also home to millions of hard-working farmers. We love cacao (and it’s the #1 ingredient in all of our snacks). We also love farmers. And as partners with Fair Trade USA, we source only Fair Trade Certified™ cacao to ensure the farmers are treated with dignity & respect.

 [PS: Want to learn more about fair trade chocolate? Watch my TEDx talk on fair trade here!]

HOW THE HECK CAN IT BE HEALTHY?

While cacao is packed with antioxidants, we didn’t want to stop there. We were on a mission to make dark chocolate even better. And so, after lots of testing and customer requests, we developed some pretty sweet recipes using a range of superfoods. You’ll find only the highest quality organic and raw nut and berry infusions in our snacks.

Our goji berry flavor is like a chocolate covered raisin and our cinnamon almond flavor was a limited-edition (until it became my personal favorite – thanks to customer Diane C. for the recommendation!) And our pistachio sea salt flavor is, well, simply delightful.

HOW IS IT “MADE WITH LOVE”?

Finally, (and especially as we near Valentine’s day) we wanted to celebrate love in all of its forms. There’s a powerful and intentional reason we feature the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce seal on our packaging (and we’re the first brand ever to do it! Check out our Forbes feature here!) It’s because we celebrate all cultures and people. And we hope you’ll join us for the journey.

In the name of total enjoyment,

Ben