Supports shipping to:
- Netherlands (no shipping required)
- UK (no shipping required)
- Germany
- Austria
- Norway (no shipping required)
- Finland (no shipping required)
- Belgium
- Romania (no shipping required)
Non EU:
- US (hawaii too)
- Australia,
- Puerto rico
Here’s their promise to never use forced labour for their cocoa.
There’s also the Tony’s open chain: a pledge by many companies (not just eu, also us) to use only ethically sourced cocoa. The companies are: here
I love Tony’s, but they’re also reportedly higher in lead content than other brands.
https://www.consumerreports.org/health/food-safety/lead-and-cadmium-in-dark-chocolate-a8480295550/
Valrhona is a solid non-American brand pick from the list of safer chocolate and they’re B-Corp certified. I believe their parents company is French.
When it comes to chocolate you’re often forced to pick your poison, so to speak.
This is for dark chocolate only, and the article has them listed as one of the lowest lead brands. Crazy that they’re all so high though, WTF!
A fair point! Didn’t even occur to me since I only bother with the dark stuff lol
They’re the lowest listed of the “high lead content” category. So kind of the best of the worst for it, I suppose.
TIL chocolate can have lead…jfc
Fucking woke BS, ChIlD sLaVeRy. Let the childern work, we need Chocolate!
/s
the children YEARN for the nestle mines, we NEED that chocolate
mines
Everyone knows chocolate is hunted! /s
I think chocolate is just the distilled blood and tears of third world children. Wait, that’s nestle only? Damn, it must grow on trees then.
I hate that my choices are Expensive, Evil, or Doesn’t Taste Good when it comes to so many products.
Which applies for you with this brand? I love the taste, but would admit it’s a fair chunk of my weekly groceries total.
I discovered Tony’s Chocoloney a few months ago, and I really love it. I can get it at my local supermarket as well. Great to see them on here!
Aside from the activism stuff, Tonys just tastes how good chocolate should taste.
As an American this is also what I buy. Good stuff. Support them 💪
I keep seeing the bars around and I’m very tempted to try it, but I’m allergic lmao. It’ll probably be a lot better than sneaking a Hershey’s though.
Maybe one day they’ll make a carob one.
I was under the impression that Tony’s is working towards a chocolate industry without child labor and forced labor. But the issue is quite complex and they’re not there yet.
Not saying they’re bad. It seems that they’re doing what they can and according to their website they “lead by example”. But I’m not sure if they make any promises about a 100% child labor / forced labor free supply chain at this moment.
The above could be outdated, maybe they’ve achieved their objectives for their own supply chain already. But I can’t find it on their website atm.
I think it used to say “as little slavery as possible” or something like that but I don’t see that written out anymore, just implied.
From the inside of one I just opened:
Also
lead by example
https://www.consumerreports.org/health/food-safety/lead-and-cadmium-in-dark-chocolate-a8480295550/
mfw
It used to say “slave free” (yes, without a hyphen because apparently they know better than 4 translators) but now it says they try to be as slave free as possible.
It actually doesn’t even say that anymore, it’s even more vague now. Thats what I was trying to show with the picture
Previously they claimed no slave labor for many years.
They audited their supply chain every year, but eventually found that no matter the claims of their suppliers and auditors, they were finding instances of child labor.
So they’ve updated their stance and are actively working to change the industry
Here’s an article from 2022 covering the issue
Appreciate the insight, thanks!
Did you also learn this information from John Oliver like me?
No I think they were pretty open about it themselves. Don’t watch John Oliver tbh 😅.
He does a great job but it’s all USA focused content
As an American: you guys eat American chocolate?
No
I mean there is also a big difference between American brands in the US and the EU. Last time I went to the US, I brought back snickers, Twix, and KitKats. Then I bought the EU alternative and set up a double blinded taste test with my friends.
Without fail we all immediately were able to tell them apart. The American version was chalky and tasted like pure sugar. The EU version, albeit also nowhere near Tony quality and still very sweet, was much higher quality and you could taste the individual components of the candy. It was not just a sweet punch in the face.
I worked in a Nabisco factory a decade ago in the US making Oreo.
They’ve consistently looked for cost cutting measures to reduce the amount of cocoa powder (expensive input) put into the product. What happened when I was there was they would look for a new vendor that would offer stronger cocoa flavor profile per kg and then use that as a justification to cut the amount of cocoa powder in the product. To mask it they would amp up the sweetness.
In a blind test, a normal people can’t tell the difference year to year, but if you compare it to what it was ten years ago, there would be a noticeable difference.
As to the last paragraph. Totally right that we don’t notice the gradual change right away, but I don’t think I’m alone in thinking everything just kind of tastes like shit now. Everything. Produce isn’t good, meats aren’t good, groceries are completely fucked. The entire food industry has been tinkered with by greedy bastards for so long it’s just all garbage now.
Twix is British.
TIL it’s Mars. The point still stands though.
I’m not american or european, but yeah. They don’t ship here (nor any other ethical alternatives) so sadly i’m stuck with stuff like pepsico and nestle. I try to abstain as much as possible.
You guys eat american chocolate
Why not? It tastes fine. My main problem is how they use forced labor to source the cocoa; which in this case chocolonely is the exception. Even european companies (like nestle) still suffer the same issues.
Though i’m biased since as i said, we mainly only have pepsico and nestle so i don’t know how “proper” chocolate in your guys’s opinion tastes.
We do have pretty decent chocolate here, but it’s not any of the major brands. I grew up eating Hershey, which is pretty bad (but it kind of has a special place in my heart - nostalgia and all that).
@fxomt found it in my local supermarket too
Romania, right? I’ll add it to the “no shipping required” list, thanks!
@fxomt yep
I love Tony’s as much as the next guy. However, be aware that a test conducted in 2022 found high levels of lead in Chocolonely Dark Chocolate variant.
Consistent, long-term exposure to even small amounts of heavy metals can lead to a variety of health problems. The danger is greatest for pregnant people and young children because the metals can cause developmental problems, affect brain development, and lead to lower IQ, says Tunde Akinleye, the CR food safety researcher who led this testing project.
Also it’s pretty good. I didn’t know I liked milk chocolate, because Hershey’s is disgusting. Tony’s is objectively a better tasting product.
Well there’s your problem, in the Netherlands (and other places) Hershey milk ‘chocolate’ isn’t legally chocolate. It needs at least 35% cacao to be called chocolate. It would be called ‘Cacao fantasy’ here instead. So no wonder you think it’s shit chocolate, cause it isn’t chocolate to begin with
For sure, that’s why it tastes like vomit.
Hershey’s chocolate has butyric acid, which is also found in vomit. The acid is allegedly a byproduct, but it helps stabilize the chocolate and prevent it from melting. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/hersheys-chocolate-tastes-like-vomit_l_60479e5fc5b6af8f98bec0cd
Butyric acid is a natural ingredient of milk. Surprisingly, in small amounts it creates a creamy sensation. It is used for that purpose in many natural and synthetic flavourings.
The problem with American milk chocolate is the way they produce milk powder - their method increases butyric acid content turning creamy sensation into vomit.
I don’t know if it’s an urban legend, but the story I had always heard was that chocolate became very scarce during the war, as milk was rationed, but Hershey’s figured out how to make decent tasting chocolate from spoiled milk, which was easier to get since no one wanted it. The war went on long enough that Americans eventually expected chocolate to taste like that, so after it ended they reformulated to keep the signature taste while using fresh milk.
It’s a myth. It’s all about the milk powder manufacturing process. The American process increases butyric acid content.a different process is used in Europe.
No, it’s because there’s some biproduct to how they process the chocolate that I think tastes bad to people who didn’t grow up eating it. As an American, I think I can taste the slightly sour note in Hershey’s that I don’t taste in other chocolates but my brain has had enough exposure to it that it doesn’t taste vomit-y so I don’t mind it (lol.) Don’t get me wrong, it’s not good quality by any means but to me it’s like the difference getting a burger from McDonald’s vs at a nice restaurant. Not often, but there’s time and place where getting McDonald’s fucking hits.
@half_fiction @TTH4P the theory is it’s butyric acid (in the UK everyone thinks Hershey’s tastes like vomit too and lots of our milk chocolate is quite low cocoa content) https://www.huffpost.com/entry/hersheys-chocolate-tastes-like-vomit/_l/_60479e5fc5b6af8f98bec0cd
My cat’s sick is a better tasting product than Hershey’s
That’s like saying “I didn’t know I liked olives because faeces from people who have eaten olives is disgusting”. Hershey’s is widely hated for a reason, it shouldn’t be legal to sell.
Haha yes!
I didn’t know I liked milk chocolate, because Hershey’s is disgusting.
Hershey’s is someone LARPing chocolate making. It’s pure disgusting. How people have been eating it for so long is beyond me.
Some of us grew up thinking that was chocolate. Have pity, rather than disdain.
The lies your government have fed you since you were a child are hard to forget. But join us, in the real chocolate world, my child, and we will embrace you with open arms.
Thank you, my brothersister
FYI: Check if whatever brand you like also works with Tony’s for their supply chain. For example Jumbo (NL supermarket) sources their chocolate from Tony’s and there’s quite a lot more partners.
https://www.tonysopenchain.com/ Found the partners
I’ll add them right now
Great find! I wasn’t able to find it before. Time to check it out
Thanks for the tip!
For Norway: you can buy these at Normal. Much cheaper than getting them shipped.
what an abnormal store name lol
Thanks, i’ll add this to the post :D
Also available in Finland in some grocery stores.
Adding right now, thanks
They sell it in most supermarkets in the UK too. Even starting to see it in some vending machine too.
Adding, thank you!
Tony’s is great and tastes awesome, but the real question here is, are we european really eating that much non-EU sweets? Maybe the occasional Snickers or Mars, but all the stuff that I tasted and was from across the pond was either brutally sweet or had no flavor at all.
Marabou is Swedish but is also fully owned by Mondelez which is American. Mars, Sneakers, Bounty etcetera American.
I’m not european so i can’t answer with certainty: but most (including EU corporations) chocolate producers are very unethical, exploiting forced labor and destroying rain forests.
A change is still a change, even if you think it is small :)
As always, I appreciate you and the content you post. I hope you’re doing well :)
Thank you! :D i am :)
