Make this black cherry tart recipe and relish in the absolute holiness of the ruby red fruit and her best accomplice: chocolate.

My love for cherries runs deep. And whenever I can feature them in my desserts, I jump at the chance. This chocolate black cherry tart recipe is dense in flavor and strikes the perfect balance between the flavors.

Growing up, I spent my summers on the Black Sea coast of Turkey, where my aunt lived, and every morning we’d stuff a bunch of local cherries into flimsy plastic bags and schlep them to the beach. For six to eight hours every day, in between throwing my body against the waves of the Karadeniz, prancing around with my shovels, backgammon racket, buckets, and other seaside accessories flailing left and right, and chasing whatever friend or dog crossed as far as the outermost spectrum of my peripheral vision, I fueled my abundant energy exclusively with cherries. I must have gone through several pounds of the plump crimson jewels each and every day.

Today, whenever I cross a cherry, I equate it with exuberance and joy. Sure, my associations are nostalgic in nature, but there’s a lot to be said of the fruit’s ability to rejuvenate the body (nutritious AF) and soul (better sleep!).

Chocolate Cherry Tart Recipe: Nutritional Breakdown

A traditional tart recipe involves a white flour and butter-based crust as well as a white sugar-based fruit filling. Even though fresh fruit is often featured in traditional tart filing, the presence of white sugar can override any expected nutritional benefits. This tart recipe, however, doesn’t take away from the cherries’ health perks. Instead, it magnifies them!

Cherries are nutrition powerhouses and are particularly praised for their high antioxidant content. And while cherries may indeed live up to their free-radical-damage-reversing reputation, they offer so much more than that! One cup of fresh cherries contains 51 calories, 1.6 grams of dietary fiber, 1 gram of protein, 180 milligrams of potassium, 26% of the RDA of vitamin A, and 17% of the RDA of vitamin C. Cherries are rich in anthocyanins, quercetin, hydroxycinnamates (phenolic compounds), potassium, fiber, vitamin C, carotenoids, and melatonin (phytochemical). They may also help to prevent cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, inflammation, and Alzheimer’s.

Cherries have a high antioxidant activity, induce a low-glycemic response, inhibit COX 1 and 2 enzymes (these guys cause an inflammatory response in the body), and bear other anti-carcinogenic effects.

According to 2012 study published in the European Journal of Nutrition, cherry juice “provides an increase in exogenous melatonin that is beneficial in improving sleep duration and quality in healthy men and women and might be of benefit in managing disturbed sleep.”

To keep up to par with cherries’ inherent glory, this tart recipe takes every opportunity to be as clean, nourishing, and healthy as possible. The crust is made with coconut oil, lower-glycemic maple syrup, applesauce, coconut flour, tapioca starch, and cocoa powder. The filling is then a simple mixture of black cherries, coconut oil, cocoa powder, vanilla, and maple syrup. All of these ingredients are a few body-nurturing notches above white flour, white sugar, eggs, and butter.

The result is a tart that is animal friendly, gluten-free, and super yummy. Indulge!

Cherries: Which Ones To Choose

There are more than 50 varieties of sweet cherries, the most popular being the Bing, Chelan, Lapins, Rainier, and Tulare varieties. Sweet cherries are often enjoyed raw or used in baking, such as in this cherry chocolate tart. Darker sweet cherries tend to have a deeper, more intense flavor. Then there are sour cherry varieties, which are more commonly consumed dried, frozen, or blended with other fruit juices.

Sweet cherries are available from May to August, while sour cherries are usually only found for a week or two in the middle of June in warmer areas or as late as July or August in colder regions.

When shopping for this recipe, look for “black” cherries, or sweet cherries that are deeper in color – more vivid red – than the others. To measure freshness, look for shiny and plump cherries that feel heavy for their size, have fresh-looking stems, and show no soft or browning spots. Before using them, be sure to rinse them thoroughly and pat them dry.

Chocolate Black Cherry Tart Recipe

Serves six to eight

Ingredients

For the crust

• 1/4 cup coconut flour
• 1/4 cup tapioca starch
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon cardamom
• Pinch of salt
• 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup almond milk

For the filling

• 2 cups black cherries, pitted and sliced in half
• 1 cup coconut oil, melted
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• Pinch of salt
• 1 tablespoon unsweetened coconut flakes for garnish

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Use coconut oil to grease a tart pan.

For the crust, combine all of the ingredients into a food processor and pulse them together until well combined and starting to hold together. Remove the mixture from the food processor and use clean hands to press it into the bottom and slightly up the side of the tart pan. Pierce across the bottom of the crust with a fork. Place the rust in the oven and bake for 25 minutes.

For the filling, in a small bowl, whisk together the coconut oil, cocoa powder, male syrup, and salt. Arrange the cherries evenly across the tart and pour the chocolate mixture over the cherries.

Place the tart into the refrigerator to set. After an hour or two, garnish the tart with a sprinkle of coconut flakes. Let the tart sit for 15 to 20 minutes to soften slightly before serving.

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The post Vegan, Gluten-Free Chocolate Black Cherry Tart appeared first on EcoSalon.

These decadent and dreamy chocolate truffles are the perfect sweet treat for your loved one this Valentine’s Day. With dark chocolate and sweet raspberry, the flavors couldn’t be any more romantic.

These vegan truffles get their chocolatey gooey magic from coconut milk. Smooth and creamy coconut milk works wonderfully to create an irresistible ganache. These truffles are bound to melt in your mouth and leave you reaching for more.

A touch of raspberry elevates these truffles to being Valentine-worthy. The tart yet sweet berry flavor complements the dark chocolate. Garnish your truffles with a few raspberries for a sophisticated presentation.

Raspberry Chocolate Truffles

Ingredients
¼ cup BPA-free canned coconut milk
1 ⅔ cups dark chocolate chips, divided
6 ounces raspberries, finely chopped
⅓ cup cacao powder
¼ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
⅛ teaspoon sea salt

Directions
Line a baking tray with a baking mat or parchment paper. Add the coconut milk to a medium saucepan and heat over medium-low heat until bubbles appear. Reduce heat to low and add one cup chocolate chips and sea salt. Whisk until completely smooth, turning off heat as soon as the mixture is smooth.

Add in vanilla extract and raspberries. Stir until smooth. Pour melted chocolate into a small, square pan and place in refrigerator to set for 40-50 minutes.

Once chocolate is firm yet pliable, use a small melon baller or spoon to scoop and shape chocolate into round balls. Place on lined baking tray and transfer to freezer for 15 minutes, until firm.

Melt remaining chocolate in a double boiler until smooth. Using tongs or two forks, dunk each chocolate raspberry ball into the melted chocolate and return to tray. Transfer to refrigerator to chill for 15 minutes.

Add cacao to a small bowl. Roll each chocolate truffle in the cacao and return to tray. Serve immediately or store in the refrigerator until ready to eat. Enjoy!

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The post The Greatest Valentine’s Day Gift: Vegan Raspberry Chocolate Truffles appeared first on EcoSalon.

Column A new lawsuit charges three major companies with depending on child labor to produce their chocolate. 

If we want to, it is easy for us to have a direct relationship with many of the ingredients in our modern diet. You can commit to eating more locally and in season, engaging with the farmer who grew your carrots, potatoes, and squash. If you want to know how they were produced, you can ask.

But there are other components of our diets that are not so easy to get to the source, because the source is on the other side of the world. Products like coffee and chocolate have become such staples in most of our homes, that we rarely give them much thought. However, it’s the fact that they do originate from so far away that they deserve our attention.

Chocolate production, for example, is tainted with problems, and considering that Americans eat on average 11 pounds of it a year, what chocolate we choose to buy does in fact have an impact on the state of the industry.

Human trafficking and child labor are both things that the chocolate industry have been charged with before, but the latest dispute over chocolate companies’ abusive labor practices is playing out in California. Three class action lawsuits have been brought against the big chocolate players – Nestlé, Mars, and Hershey – for their use of child labor to produce some of the world’s best-selling chocolate brands. The case is actually brought on behalf of private consumers, who said they would not have purchased the chocolate had they known it had been produced using child labor.

The law firm representing the plaintiffs holds that the companies have broken Californian law by not disclosing that suppliers in Côte d’Ivoire depend on child labor to make their cocoa. The lawsuit alleges that in 2014 over 1.1 million children were involved in the most common worst forms of child labor (as defined by the standards of the International Labor Organization). Despite the fact that all of the companies have acknowledged that child labor is an issue that needs addressing, those levels are up 39 percent from 2008/2009, showing how meaningless those intentions can sometimes be.

While awareness for these issues have increased over the past few years, thanks to the work of organizations like Anti-Slavery, so has global demand for chocolate, only exacerbating the problem. In a report published earlier this year by Tulane University, there were 2.1 million child laborers working in cocoa production in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, an increase of 21 percent over five years. “Relative to the size of the challenge, the pace and scale of change is insufficient,” Nick Weatherill, executive director of International Cocoa Initiative, told  in response to the Tulane study.

There are many solutions to this complex problem, including providing better educational opportunities for children in these countries, as well as better pay for the adult workers. What can you as a consumer do? Just like you think about where those carrots, potatoes, and squash come from, think about where that chocolate comes from too.

There are many chocolate brands out there committed to ethical and sustainable sourcing practices, like Theo Chocolate, Dandelion Chocolate, and Green & Black’s. But as a consumer, when identifying what you should and shouldn’t by, it’s also important to know what labels mean and represent; labels like “organic” only address environmental and processing requirements, without calculating in social impacts.

So you have to start thinking about chocolate from a more all-around approach, one that includes sustainable environmental practices and sustainable social ones as well. Do your research, and know what brands are out there committing to ethical practices. The organization Slave Free Chocolate maintains a list of brands that are committed to sourcing slavery-free cocoa. At the store, look for the shortest supply chain possible – “bean to bar.” This chocolate will come at a price, but it’s a fair price.

Think $8 a chocolate bar is expensive? That’s because you are paying the true cost of chocolate. Those $1 chocolate bars? Full of externalized costs, including child labor. And that is not a sweet deal.

20 Chocolate Quotes to Inspire Your Sweet Tooth

Behind the Label: The Unsweet Side of the Dark Side of the Chocolate Industry

15 Things You Didn’t Know About Chocolate

This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’ weekly column at EcoSalon: Foodie Underground, an exploration of what’s new and different in the underground movement, and how we make the topic of good food more accessible to everyone. More musings on the topic can be found at www.foodieunderground.com.

Image: Christian Guthier

The post Is Your Chocolate’s Main Ingredient Child Labor? Foodie Underground appeared first on EcoSalon.

Why is chocolate crumble not a thing? Adding some cocoa powder to a basic crumble bars recipe works wonderfully here! The crumble itself isn’t very sweet, but the jam-coated raspberries balance things out. I recommend using jam with the highest fruit percentage you can find. That is, unless, you don’t mind these bars being on the sweeter side of things.

Prep time: 15 minutes   |   Cook time: 42 minutes   | Ready in: 1 hour 10 minutes, plus cooling   |   Yield: 16 bars

gluten-free: Certified gluten-free oats, Whole-grain teff flour   |   dairy-free or vegan: Coconut oil, and make sure your jam is vegan

Teff Raspberry Chocolate Crumble Bars Recipe

Ingredients

1½ cups (138 grams) rolled oats
¼ cup (29 grams) Dutch-process cocoa powder, sifted if lumpy
2⁄3 cup (105 grams) whole-grain teff flour or 2⁄3 cup (83 grams) whole-wheat flour
½ cup (100 grams) light brown sugar or raw sugar
¼ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup (113 grams) melted coconut oil if using teff–¾ cup (168 grams) melted coconut oil if using whole-wheat flour
2 cups (250 grams) fresh or frozen raspberries*
6 tablespoons (125 grams) raspberry jam (page 188)
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

* If using frozen raspberries, let them sit at room temperature for about 20 to 30 minutes. They should be neither totally frozen nor thawed. If any liquid has pooled, drain it. If your raspberries have ice crystals or seem watery, fully thaw and drain the liquid.

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Line an 8 × 8-inch (20 × 20 cm) baking pan with parchment paper, leaving an overhang on opposite ends.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the oats, cocoa powder, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Stir in the melted coconut oil. The dough may have a wet texture.

Reserve ¾ cup (160 grams) of dough and scoop the remaining dough onto the bottom of the prepared baking pan. Use a spoon to spread it evenly over the bottom. Bake for 12 minutes. The crust will bubble and not feel crisp like a regular crust. It will harden slightly as it cools. Cool the crust for at least 10 minutes while you prepare the filling.

In a medium mixing bowl, gently stir together the raspberries, jam, and vanilla. Mash the raspberries very slightly with a fork to make them easier to spread. Spread this evenly over the baked crust and then sprinkle the remaining oat mixture over the fruit filling. Bake for 30 minutes or until the crumble topping feels crisp and the filling is bubbly. They may look “soupy” when you pull them out of the oven, but as long as they’re bubbling and the topping is crisp, they’re done. They firm up as they chill and should then be chewy.

Refrigerate for 2 hours before cutting. Let the bars cool completely in the pan, about 2 hours. Using the parchment paper overhang, lift the bars out of the pan and cut into squares. Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 4 days.

Tip: These bars get soft at room temperature, so if you want to take them with you on the go, freeze them for 2 to 3 hours first!

Reprinted with permission from The Sweet Side of Ancient Grains: Decadent Whole Grain Brownies, Cakes, Cookies, Pies and More, by Erin Dooner, The Countryman Press 2015

Image: © Erin Dooner 2015

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The post Teff Raspberry Chocolate Crumble Bars Recipe appeared first on EcoSalon.

Chocolate is my favorite hobby. No explanation needed – I’m sure you all understand. I always keep an emergency piece (or two) of chocolate in my purse and never go to bed without at least one bite of it. And, I am most certainly not alone.

The following 20 chocolate quotes capture the passion and deep-seated love for chocolate:

“All You need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.” – Charles M. Schulz

“There is nothing better than a friend, unless it is a friend with chocolate.” – Linda Grayson

“Don’t wreck a sublime chocolate experience by feeling guilty. Chocolate isn’t like premarital sex. It will not make you pregnant. And it always feels good.” – Lora Brody

“Chocolate is a perfect food, as wholesome as it is delicious, a beneficent restorer of exhausted power. It is the best friend of those engaged in literary pursuits.” – Baron Justus von Liebig

“It’s not that chocolates are a substitute for love. Love is a substitute for chocolate. Chocolate is, let’s face it, far more reliable than a man.” – Miranda Ingram

“He showed the words ‘chocolate cake’ to a group of Americans and recorded their word associations. “Guilt” was the top response. If that strikes you as unexceptional, consider the response of French eaters to the same prompt: “celebration.” – Michael Pollan

“What you see before you, my friend, is the result of a lifetime of chocolate.” – Katharine Hepburn

“If there’s no chocolate in Heaven, I’m not going.” – Jane Seabrook

“The superiority of chocolate, both for health and nourishment, will soon give it the same preference over tea and coffee in America which it has in Spain.” – Thomas Jefferson

“The greatest tragedies were written by the Greeks and Shakespeare…neither knew chocolate.” – Sandra Boynton

“As with most fine things, chocolate has its season. There is a simple memory aid that you can use to determine whether it is the correct time to order chocolate dishes: any month whose name contains the letter A, E, or U is the proper time for chocolate.” – Sandra Boynton

“Any sane person loves chocolate.” – Bob Greene

“Chemically speaking, chocolate really is the world’s perfect food.” – Michael Levine

“Every now and then, I’ll run into someone who claims not to like chocolate, and while we live in a country where everyone has the right to eat what they want, I want to say for the record that I don’t trust these people, that I think something is wrong with them, and that they’re probably – and this must be said – total duds in bed.” – Steve Almond

“Look, there’s no metaphysics on earth like chocolates.” – Fernando Pessoa

“Researchers have discovered that chocolate produces some of the same reactions in the brain as marijuana. The researchers also discovered other similarities between the two but can’t remember what they are.” – Matt Lauer

“I never met a chocolate I didn’t like.” – Deanna Troi

“If you are not feeling well, if you have not slept, chocolate will revive you. But you have no chocolate! I think of that again and again! My dear, how will you ever manage?” – Marquise de Sévigné

“My favorite thing in the world is a box of fine European chocolates which is, for sure, better than sex.” – Alicia Silverstone

“Once in a while I say, ‘Go for it’ and I eat chocolate.” – Claudia Schiffer

Aylin Erman is founder of GlowKitchen. There she shares step-by-step picture recipes of her plant-based creations. Aylin lives and works in Istanbul as a writer and editor at the country’s first-ever green-living and sustainability platform, Yesilist. Like her on Facebook and follow her on Twitter to keep up with food news and recipes.

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Photo Credit: Tim Sackton

The post 20 Chocolate Quotes to (Ahem!) Inspire Your Sweet Tooth appeared first on EcoSalon.

I didn’t believe this vegan chocolate milk recipe until I tasted it. For those of you who love green drinks, little did you know that you can enjoy the purity of green juice and the taste of chocolate milk all in one. Read on to get the simple, but life-changing chocolate milk recipe!

Milk is difficult to digest, especially conventional cow’s milk. Most of it is treated to the point where you aren’t getting a pure product anymore; instead, with each sip, you ingest hormones and other toxins. Chocolate syrup, which is typically used to flavor milk to create chocolate milk is loaded with sugar, raising your blood sugar levels and adding more bulk to your waistline. In traditional chocolate milk, there are more than 200 calories per cup as well as 24 grams of sugar and 5 grams of saturated fat.

Luckily, this revamped version of chocolate milk is vegan and so light, you can have it for breakfast (and I recommend you do!). Juicing romaine and carrots and combining them in a 1:1 ratio create a milky taste and texture. The resemblance is quite uncanny. Adding 2-3 teaspoons of cocoa powder closes the deal!

Vegan Chocolate Milk

Makes 2 cups

Ingredients

• 1 cup freshly juiced romaine leaves
• 1 cup freshly juiced carrots
• 2-3 teaspoons raw cocoa powder

Directions

Combine all in a jar, shake to mix, and serve. Enjoy on an empty stomach in the morning or as a snack a few hours after your last meal to benefit from the cleansing powers of the juiced green leaves. Bon Appetit!

Related on EcoSalon:

Vegan Chocolate Cake Recipe with Beets (And it’s Totally Yummy!)

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Craving Easy Desserts? Try These 5 Vegan Chocolate Recipes

Photo Credit: Meal Makeover Moms

The post Vegan Chocolate Milk Recipe So Delicious You Have to Taste to Believe appeared first on EcoSalon.

Of course chocolate making is always a love story. But this one goes much deeper.

One look at Jael and Dan Rattigan and you know: these two are madly, hopelessly, ridiculously utterly SMITTEN with each other. Good thing, too. They live, work, and parent together in a veritable whirlwind of activity that would make most of us dizzy. We should mention that they own French Broad Chocolates, producing some of the most revered chocolate in the country. Needless to say, we’re a little smitten with THEM! Their story is a beautiful amalgam of all the things they love: community, sustainability, chocolate making and each other.

The Rattigans seem like a love at first sight kind of couple. “Well,” Jael laughs, “it was something at first sight!”  The basic synopsis reads thus: Dan was catering at Jael’s brother’s wedding, there was an evening full of flirty glances, eyelash batting, and an overt “you’re cute!” from Dan, with the romantic crescendo of Jael coming in for a kiss at night’s end. Then, Dan says, “I asked her in. Cooking for people has always been the way I express my feelings, and I thought my best chance with this lady would be a one-two punch of homemade farm-to-table food and Ella Fitzgerald on the stereo.” Swoon!

Jael & Dan set up shop in Asheville, North Carolina several years ago, by way of Costa Rica where they owned a cafe, Bread & Chocolate. “We were searching for a place to settle, belong and dig deep roots. We found it. Our community of friends and colleagues is so amazing, our business is thriving, and our kids are happy.” The original vision was to make chocolates at home and sell them at local markets, but financial reality set in and the French Broad Chocolate Lounge was born.

“Supporting our local farmers is still imperative to our company values.  We seek to use all suitable ingredients that are grown in our foodshed…and we’ve made the commitment that if we can’t find it locally, we’ll try to find it direct from farmers or producers. If we can’t find it locally or direct, that’s when we rely on third party certification, such as organic or fair trade. Our definition of sustainability includes the environmental impact and growing practices, of course, but equally as important to us, is that our dollars fairly compensate the people involved in producing it (from farmer to server).”

When asked why they’ve been so successful in love, community and chocolate, Jael thinks the answer is simple: “We believe in living in a state of generosity.”

Related on EcoSalon

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Nothing satisfies a sweet tooth quite like chocolate does.

However, the dessert snack gets such a bad rap considering its milk and sugar content — to say nothing of its addictive nature! The good news is that you can enjoy chocolate, and all its nutritional glory, by stripping it down to the essentials and replacing certain ingredients with healthier alternatives. Munch into this raw chocolate recipe, which takes under five minutes to prepare. Enjoy!

Let’s take a look at a popular chocolate bar – Hershey’s Milk Chocolate – and consider exactly what we get ourselves into every time we peel the wrapper. A 1.55-ounce (43-gram) Hershey’s bar contains 210 calories, 13 grams of fat–8 of which are saturated–26 grams of carbohydrates, 24 grams of sugar, and only 1 gram of dietary fiber. The ingredients are simple but unforgiving – sugar, milk, lactose, milk fat, emulsifiers and artificial flavors.

With more than half of the calories derived from fat and only 1 gram of dietary fiber, Hershey’s milk chocolate bar is devoid of nutrition and is simply a dessert to be enjoyed purely for its taste, but with an air of restricted indulgence. With milk and sugar as the base of its ingredients list, the bar ultimately promises peaked blood sugar levels and a dessert that is hard to digest.

Chocolate in its raw state is actually a “superfood” boasting amazing nutritional benefits, including high levels of antioxidants and the ability to reduce heart disease. However, over-processing and the addition of sugar and milk often outweigh what it has to offer.  The following recipe takes out the milk and the sugar and replaces them with wholesome goodness of vegan, raw ingredients.

The chocolate industry is no angel either in terms of labor laws, so there is something to be said for taking your new-found chocolate-making skills to the kitchen. Luckily, this recipe only take minutes and offers room for improvisation. Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 1 cup raw cocoa powder
• ¾ cup coconut oil
• ¾ cup agave nectar or maple syrup
• ½ teaspoon vanilla
• Dash of sea salt
• Dash of cayenne (optional)

Directions

If the coconut oil is hardened, place its container in a bowl filled shallow with warm water. Once melted, mix the coconut oil with all the other ingredients in a blender and pour the chocolate into molds (ice cube trays work if you don’t have molds). Store at room temperature, or in the refrigerator to speed up the process, until the molds have hardened. Enjoy!

Photo Credit: Chocolate Reviews

The post Healthy Indulgence: Vegan, Raw Chocolate Recipe (in Less than 5 Minutes!) appeared first on EcoSalon.

Where do our favorite dishes come from? In our ongoing series ‘Food History’ we take a look at classic dishes and their roots. 

At a few cocktail events over winter I discovered that hot chocolate was a sought after drink, set out each time complete with an array of fancy additions like cacao nibs and gourmet sprinkles. Always nice to know that the comfort drink of winter has hit a certain level of chicness.

Hot chocolate has always been the drink of cold days. A warm up after a day of skiing or a pick me up after you get stuck in a downpour. A good (and big) cup of hot chocolate can do wonders for the soul. If it’s made well – thick, creamy, full of dark chocolate – it’s a bit of happiness in a mug.

You’ll find hot chocolate in many parts of the world, and although it seems to be a drink more destined for cold weather locales, its roots actually go back to a warmer region. Archeological evidence suggests that people in Mesoamerica (otherwise known as modern-day Mexico) were cultivating and drinking chocolate as far back as 4,000 years ago. The Aztecs and Mayans both made it into a beverage known as xocolātl, a Nahuatl word meaning “bitter water.”

The Aztecs actually associated chocolate with Xochiquetzal, the goddess of fertility, so chocolate beverages were often used as sacred offerings. In fact, blood and chocolate were both very sacred liquids to the Aztecs, and cacao seeds were used in religious ceremonies to symbolize the human heart.

When Europeans came to the New World, they too were seduced by the warm, chocolatey drink. Christopher Columbus returned to Europe with the first cocoa beans. (Maybe the reason for a recipe for Moctezuma’s Hot Chocolate, a much spicier rendition of the winter classic.) Spanish conquistador Hernam Cortes was so infatuated with the drink, that he wrote a letter to Charles V of Spain calling chocolate: “The divine drink which builds up resistance & fights fatigue. A cup of this precious drink permits man to walk for a whole day without food.”

From the Americas to Spain, the Spanish began adding in sugar and making the drink their own. It eventually made its way up the continent, although at the time was more expensive than coffee, equating chocolate with more southern, Catholic and aristocratic roots, while coffee was seen as more northern, Protestant and middle class.

Even in the early days of the United States chocolate played a role. Thomas Jefferson once said, “The superiority of chocolate, both for health and nourishment, will soon give it the same preference over tea and coffee in America which it has in Spain.”

In 1828 Dutchman Coenraad Johannes van Houten developed a method for extracting the fat from the cocoa beans and in turn made powdered cocoa. This allowed for a new wave of chocolate, and the ultimate distinction between hot cocoa (made with powder) and hot chocolate (made with solid chocolate).

Today the hot chocolate trend is back, allowing for artisan chocolatiers to play with flavor combinations and rigorously sourced cocoa beans. Think small-batch, gourmet and sometimes served in the oddest of ways, like with oysters.

I prefer to go classic.

On a very cold February evening, I was walking in the Marais in Paris and freezing. My fingers were on the verge of numb, and even though in a neighborhood known for its bars and restaurants, a cocktail or a glass of wine wasn’t going to cut it. So at the sighting of a brasserie, I walked in and ordered a chocolat chaud à l’ancienne. A mug arrived, one third of the way full with melted chocolate. A small pitcher of warm milk was served on the side. I was left to mix the two as I pleased.

Now that’s how hot chocolate should be made. I am sure the Aztecs would have approved.

Image: Anna Brones

The post Food History: Hot Chocolate The Ultimate Comfort Drink Then and Now appeared first on EcoSalon.

Column Chocolate is a guilty pleasure in more ways than one.

For most people, chocolate evokes positive associations: indulgence, childhood, Valentine’s Day. But in Western Africa, the connotations are far less positive. There, an estimated 1.8 million child laborers work tirelessly to produce the cocoa that goes into our Easter bunny chocolates.

The ills of the cocoa industry first entered the public eye in the early 2000s, after a BBC documentary called “Slavery: A Global Investigation” highlighted the child labor and slavery abuses occurring on West African cocoa farms. According to the International Labor Rights Forum, child workers in the cocoa industry typically “labor for long, punishing hours, using dangerous tools and facing frequent exposure to dangerous pesticides as they travel great distances in the grueling heat.” In addition, those working as slaves “suffer frequent beatings and other cruel treatment.”

The Good

The BBC documentary sparked a loud, though short-lived, public outcry. Soon after it was released, U.S. House Representative Eliot Engel and Senator Tom Harkin sponsored the Harkin-Engel Protocol, a public-private agreement to eliminate the “worst forms of child labor” (as defined by the International Labour Organization) in the growth and processing of cocoa in the Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, where nearly 75 percent of the world’s cocoa supply is grown. Signed in September 2001, the agreement, better known as the Cocoa Protocol, outlined six actions, each with specific deadlines.

• Public statement of the need for and terms of an action plan.
• Formation of multi-sectoral advisory groups. (By December 1, 2001)  
• Signed joint statement on child labor to be witnessed at the ILO. (By December 1, 2001)
• Memorandum of cooperation. (By May 1, 2002)
• Establish a joint foundation. (By July 1, 2002)
• Building toward credible standards. (By July 1, 2005)

The agreement was signed by multiple stakeholders, from the heads of the Chocolate Manufacturers Association and World Cocoa Foundation, to the coordinator of the Child Labor Coalition, to the presidents of the world’s top eight chocolate manufacturers at the time. It was a significant commitment to ending child labor in the cocoa industry, from the people in positions to effect that change.

The Bad

The Cocoa Protocol was first lauded as a success, but its long-term results have been less than impressive. By the first protocol deadline in 2005, the industry had still failed to implement an industry-wide certification program. An amendment gave the stakeholders three more years, but by 2008, the objectives were still not met. In 2010, the parties signed yet another document – commonly referred to as the 2010 Joint Declaration – that reaffirmed their commitment and added the goal of reducing the worst forms of child labor by 70 percent by 2020.

It’s evident that the Cocoa Protocol still has a long way to go. A 2011 report from the Tulane University Payson Center revealed that about 1.8 million children continue to work in cocoa agriculture in the Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana alone. In the Côte d’Ivoire, about five percent work for pay, and in Ghana, about 10 percent do. In the 12 years since the Cocoa Protocol was signed, only about five percent of child laborers have been exposed to its related initiatives.

In early 2012, the issue was again brought to the public eye thanks to a CNN Freedom Project documentary called Chocolate’s Child Slaves. While exploring cocoa farms in the Côte d’Ivoire,  filmmakers found that not only were child labor and slavery still very prevalent, but many of the employers they encountered hadn’t even been informed of the need to change their practices.

So What Now?

Educate yourself further.

This column just scratches the surface of the abuses and ills of the cocoa industry. To learn more, I recommend watching Mika Mistrati and U. Roberto Romano’s 2010 documentary, “The Dark Side of Chocolate,” and checking out the “Chocolate’s Child Slaves” content from the CNN Freedom Project.

Sign the petition.

Oxfam recently launched a “Women and Chocolate” petition as part of its larger “Behind the Brands” campaign, which seeks to change the way big brands do business. The petition calls on the top three chocolate manufacturers — Nestle, Mars, and Mondelez International (formerly Kraft) — to reduce gender inequality in their industry. While a separate issue from child labor, it’s still an important one.

Indulge responsibly.

Relax — no one is asking you to boycott chocolate now that you know its darker side. But you might want to consider switching your loyalties to Fair Trade brands that work directly with certified slave-free cocoa producers. And beware of Fair Trade brands that are actually owned by troublesome corporations, like Green & Blacks, owned by Mondelez, or Dagoba, owned by Hershey. My personal Fair Trade favorites are Equal Exchange, Kopali Organics, and Divine Chocolate.

Images: Kirti Poddar, Peter DiCampo/Oxfam America, Clive Dara

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