Drinking a cup of hot cocoa on a cold winter day next to your warm chimney. Pretty good feeling, right? Wouldn’t you feel even better knowing that the beans and ingredients in your cup are from sustainable cultivation and that the farmers who worked for the ingredients are happy and got a fair pay for their work? You sure would.

The product I am particularly talking about is the organic drinking cacao which offers 4 different flavors. You can choose from chai, caramel, cacao and ginger. The ingredients are all from controlled organic cultivation and verified by Fairtrade. The cacao beans are from the Ivory Coast, Dominican Republic and cane sugar from Paraguay. It retails for € 7, 90 for 250 grams making 1 kg € 31, 60. It is available on the Fairtrade website.

Considering that Fairtrade values sustainable production, there is a drastic difference in the production of cacao from Fairtrade farmers and cacao produced under typical conditions. Because Fairtrade doesn’t only stand for happy farmers, but also for everything that has do to with environmental protection they try to not use pesticides and to lessen every form of pollution that could damage our planet. Moreover their goods are always traceable. In contrast to the normally produced cacao the farmers don’t get a fair pay and are mostly the ones who suffer the most from all the people involved in that whole process. In addition to that producers don’t value sustainability as much and don’t hesitate to use pesticides and chemical substances.

Let me tell you a bit more about the importance of Fairtrade cacao. Because only a small percentage of the production is under this foundation, they have made it their goal to spread awareness. Through partnerships like Cocoa Life Fairtrade, which commits to an investment of $400 million, 200 000 farmers and several communities in Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Indonesia, the Dominican Republic, India and Brazil are ought to be reached by 2022. Taking a better look at the production places of cacao there are a few more countries, such as Mexico, Ecuador, Nigeria, Peru and Cameroon, where cocoa is cultivated as well.

Pretty iconic, right? I would like to add that there’s people out there who have to struggle every day to make enough money for a living. Imagine having to worry if you or your family have enough to eat for the next day. We luckily don’t have to go through such things. Therefore these people appreciate every single act of support they can get and you as single person may not change the whole world but it helps at least one family out there.

With kind regards
Cica