Chocolate for the Greater Good?

Dagoba Organic Chocolate

By Joannaline Casasola Young

courtesy of Dagobychocolate.com

I’m at the local store for my weekly grocery shopping. On my list are healthy items such as lettuce, tomatoes, and carrots. I pick up these vegetables first because they are right in front of the store entrance. I can’t help but feel relief as my shopping has started in a good and conscientious way. Then I go further down the list: meats and milk are my next stop. I’m feeling a little off track with my nutrition but still in good shape. I pick up a carton of organic milk and a crate of eggs. Then comes the next aisle and straight above me I see those dreaded words printed in bold, large font: Candy and Baked Goods. I stare at the dark colored chocolate boxes as if they are seducing me. They taunt me with words like “smooth” and “creamy”. Then I look around me and see others looking at the same packages. I could not help but notice their bellies hanging over the top of their pants. I let out a huge sigh then continue rolling my shopping cart to the next aisle. Have you ever felt the guilt of even contemplating whether you should buy chocolate? Well what if I could tell you some of that guilt can be appeased with a few facts about certain chocolate companies? What if I was to go further and say that chewing that chocolate bar could save the world? This might be a dramatization of the effects of organic and fair-trade products, however, many be unaware of the magnitude of benefits that result from purchasing these items. I have recently decided to embark on studying food writing when I stumbled on a great article about a company called Dagoba Organic Chocolate.

A couple weeks ago I read one piece published by The New Yorker called “Extreme Chocolate” by Bill Buford. It was the first feature essay of an anthology called the Best American Travel Writing, 2008 edition. The guest celebrity editor was Anthony Bourdain (the host of No Reservations on the Travel Channel and brutally honest guest judge on Bravo’s Top Chef) and the series editor being Jason Wilson. I was interested to see what Anthony Bourdain selected primarily because of his image on TV as being difficult to please. The story is of the adventures of Bill Buford and the founder of Dagoba chocolate, Frederick Schilling. The story is fairly recent being that the company was formed in 2001 (now Hershey has bought the brand that has made millions but Schilling remains a consultant).

The story begins with how Schilling started the business with practically nothing, “Dagoba had no employees and no orders. It had a lease for a ground-floor industrial space in Boulder, Colorado (the “factory”), and an investment of $20,000 (borrowed from Schilling’s mother and an uncle), which, after flights, a hotel, and a fee for the smallest possible booth, against a dark wall in the basement of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, was gone.” This changed when he arrived at New York’s Fancy food show with this girlfriend to present the company.. Buford sees Schilling at a following Fancy food show where they sample different booths. As Schilling converses with Buford, we begin to unravel Schilling’s obsession with everything chocolate, including the origins and wrapper. He even explains how chocolate’s flavor is like a “woman’s breast when on her back”. The analogy is a little extreme for me but I guess chocolate is an aphrodisiac. Buford then summarizes the processes of chocolate like “dutching” which revolutionized the bitter drinking chocolate into a smooth, sweet chocolate. Then Schilling said something to Buford that started a jungle adventure: “You will never understand cacao until you see it in the tropics” so off to Brazil they go.

Diego Badaró owned a cacao plantation called “Monte Alegre” in Brazil. On Buford’s trip, Badaró gave him several fresh cacao to eat, the pulp sweet but the seeds bitter. Through his travels, Buford was told that a fungus called “witches’ broom” attacked many of the cacao plants of Brazil-causing them to look like what their name entails. $5 billion was lost and many people whose business was the cacao plant became homeless. Buford then goes to the Market of Sao Joaquin in which he again tastes several fruits. The locals believe the fruits are remedies for conditions like unwanted pregnancies and brain injury. Such fruits include caja-jumba, caza (which is a berry). He also saw catuaba that is believed to be an aphrodisiac. Buford also learns that tobacco is nature’s most effective insecticide after getting sick eating it. He also tastes Kola nuts that are used in making Coca Cola, which he is told has a caffeine effect thus making him alert. Also, like caffeine, the nuts make him urinate frequently. A fun scene in the story is when the author jumps in a big pot of wet cacao beans with Schilling and Badaró. When Schilling came home from the trip, he had a dream of the goddess of cacao, Xochiquestzal. They “flew” over West Africa where 80% of the world’s cacao comes from, namely the Ivory Coast. Their business relies on cheap labor and where the trees are hyper-productive because of the intense light. Schilling remembers as a child he did not like chocolate that came from West Africa because of the flavor. He also flew over Sri Lanka, Bali, Java, Malaysia, and the Philippines where child labor and slavery exists. He saw the barren land, so he promised the goddess that he would replant them. Schilling broke up with his girlfriend at the time because he was “married to chocolate” and he sold his company to Hershey. His explanation for this was: “How could I make a difference at Dagoba, working on such a small scale?”

Now Schilling makes sure his chocolate completes the “Full Circle Sustainability” in which he focuses on Quality, Ecology, Equity, and Community. Along with his re-forestation efforts, he ensures green power for manufacturing plants. The packaging of the products is also recycled and the inks are soybased. According to their website, Dagoba chocolate is made to “benefit the land and the farmers who harvest it” with many of their products being Fair Trade.

Just to name some of the interesting flavors of Dagoba:

-Superfruit (acai, goji, currants)-antioxidants!!!

-Brasilia (coconut, brazil nuts)

-Chai (chai spices, crystallized ginger)

-Xocolatl (chilies, cacao nibs, maca, nutmeg)

-Seeds (seeds from hemp, pumpkin, sunflower)

-Roseberry (dried raspberries, rosehips)

-Mint (peppermint oil, rosemary)

-Lemon-Ginger (crystallized ginger, lemon)

-Lavender (blueberries, lavender oil)

-Lime (lime, macadamia nuts)

Did that make you salivate with delight?

Even with all the appreciation of this chocolate I have yet to taste it. For me, the global and community efforts alone are reasons to purchase this confection. In the future, I would like to see other companies use their revenue in such humanistic ways. However, that may be wishful thinking and I know that such acts must start with me. Someday I may positively affect the world in such a unique way that everyone can enjoy. But for now I must run to the nearest grocery store with a health section to satiate my foodie obsessions. Who will join me?

For more information on Dagoba chocolate and its ecological efforts, please go to www.dagobachocolate.com .

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Posted by joannaline on October 23, 2009. Filed under Human Interest,Leisure. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.