Chocolate is one of my must-haves. Can I get an amen? I gave up soda pop a long time ago, along with store-bought candies and cookies, but chocolate I simply refuse to stop eating. In fact, I even list it as one of my 8 food storage items every one should be storing and how.
However, after looking at the ingredients in a regular chocolate bar, I couldn’t eat it without a major prickle in my conscience. Depending upon the kind of chocolate bar, the nastiness ranged from high fructose corn syrup to soy lecithin. While I could find many bars without the high fructose corn syrup, I couldn’t find any of the regular brands without soy lecithin. Soy lecithin is used as a binder and emulsifier for almost all commercially-made chocolate, so… it’s in basically every stinking chocolate bar out there. Trust me, I did some checking.
There are a few reasons I don’t eat soy products. For one, almost all soy is now genetically modified. We do our best to keep GMO crops and ingredients out of our home, off our land, and out of our bodies. Second, even if it is organic soy, it can mess with our hormone levels, especially estrogen, among other issues. With a history of cancer in my family, I try to stay away from extra estrogen. Here’s a great article on the dangers of too much soy.
I think it’s important to know how our food is made, especially if we’re not making it ourselves. While I have cocoa powder at home and do make quite a few of our own goodies (like these awesome chocolate nut butter cups from Wardee!), I still purchase some things from the store.
Enter Theo Chocolate
In my quest to find a chocolate bar I could enjoy, I stumbled upon a brand called Theo Chocolate. It’s made from organic fair trade ingredients, isn’t too expensive, and it tasted great! Because I have to be honest with you, I don’t care how good it is for me if it doesn’t taste good. Though my imagination is quite vivid, I can’t trick myself into thinking something is good if it’s not.
When I told my boss how much I liked this chocolate bar, he looked into seeing if we could carry them at our pharmacy. Imagine my surprise to find out the factory was in Seattle, just two hours from our home. I had no idea they were practically in my own backyard.
As a Christmas gift from my employers, I got the chance to tour one of my favorite chocolate factories, Theo Chocolate. I discovered a few things (okay, a lot of things) that I didn’t know about chocolate.
Chocolate is from a cocoa bean, which grows inside a pod on a cocoa tree. The trees produce all year long so there is no harvesting “season”. They grow within 20 degrees of the equator. The pods are about the size of a football with approximately 30 beans to a pod. They grow off of the trunk of the tree.
The pods are picked and then, get this, fermented! Yes, fermented. Technically, chocolate is both a plant and fermented food. Totally awesome, right? Okay, okay, by the time they hit chocolate bar status, they’re not really a fermented vegetable, but they do start out that way. Confession: I might have scared the poor tour guide when she said fermented and I squealed with delight.
After fermentation, the beans are then dried and shipped. Theo purchases all of their cocoa beans from certified organic and fair trade farmers. It makes the price a little bit higher, but it ensures good farming practices for the land and good working conditions and a fair wage for the employees.
Cocoa v. Cacao
Ever wondered what the difference between cacao and cocoa is? Truthfully, not a thing. Some people use the word cacao towards the raw bean before it’s roasted, but if you’re purchasing chocolate in any form, there’s no difference between cacao and cocoa. Just wanted to clear that up.
Once the beans reach the Theo factory (there’s only one — all Theo chocolate is made in Seattle), they are roasted. Roasting brings out the flavor of the bean. They have two roasters, one from the 1930s and the other from the 1960s. I love to see old machinery still working. A raw bean tastes kind of earthy and bitter, where as a roasted bean is nutty and reminds me of an espresso bean. Much more palatable.
After roasting, the beans are blended into a chocolate syrup. Think making homemade nut butter, but more liquid. Then, the cocoa butter is separated out and you’re left with cocoa powder and cocoa butter. The cocoa powder is then put into a large machine and sugar is added. It looks like a gritty brownie batter. After this is thoroughly mixed, the other ingredients are added to make a chocolate bar.
All of the ingredients added to the chocolate bars are certified organic and verified GMO-free. The marshmallow and candy canes added to the specialty holiday bars are made in house. This means a high quality and fresh bar. Plus, if you’re reading ingredients, you know how hard it is to find an organic and verified GMO-free marshmallow or candy cane. This attention to detail makes me like Theo even more.
Most of their bars are at least 70% dark chocolate, but Theo Chocolate does offer a few milk chocolate bars. Bonus fun fact: between different runs of flavors and chocolate, they have to clean out the pipes. Because water would introduce mold, they blast chocolate through to clean everything instead.
Who else loves chocolate? Tried Theo, or do you have another favorite brand?
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I too struggle with chocolate, 1st I’m allergic to spy, so any lecithin in the chocolate is bad for me, and 2nd I cMt stand the idea of buying something where slave labor was used for my benefit, yuck! So I’m totally with you! I’ve found that I love love love alter Eco chocolates, they make chocolate bars and truffles fair trade and soy free and Taza chocolate is another great one although they are slightly more pricey.. Us and our pickiness on food eh! Lol, I can’t see not honoring God with our food choices!
Too funny! I was just eating a Theo bar as I started reading this and thinking “She should try Theo!” Glad to hear somebody has seen their factory. I would love to. Their chocolate is SOOOOO yummy! Our regular grocery stores carry the 70% dark (my fav) and I have seen the milk chocolate for my DH and DD at Whole Foods. Yay! Now I feel even better about my chocolate need!
So excited to hear that there is a non-GMO marshmallow choice out there. We’ve been looking for something since our last company burned down.
Elisabeth,
They don’t sell the marshmallows by themselves, they just make their own when the marshmallow is used in the candy. Another GMO free company I use for marshmallows is called Dandies.
Glad to know! I’ve found some GMO free coconut oil truffles at Whole Foods but this looks really good. We always like to end our dinner with a tiny bit of chocolate. I will definitely be ordering a bar of this to sample.
Jenni, I actually really like the dark chocolate ginger, but the dark chocolate sea salt is sooo good, too!
As soon as I crave chocolate I make nutella with hazelnuts, cocoa & date syrup. Sometimes I throw in some dates or banana as well. Fulfills all my needs.
I love chocolate too! My beloved brand is Divine Chocolate. It too is fair trade and 45% of the company is owned by the growers themselves. The interesting thing about this chocolate is also fermented as part of their production! Does this mean it reduces in phytic acid? I don’t know, but I liked the fermentation aspect. http://www.divinechocolate.com/us/ I love it that I now have another option for chocolate due to this article!
We recently discovered Salazon Chocolate Co. It’s on the east coast (MD) and they only make dark chocolate, but the signature touch is it is hand sprinkled with sea salt. Our favorite so far is the Sea Salt & Almonds. Delicious! Unfortunately, (I just discovered) while the ingredients are certified organic, there is organic soy lecithin in them. Bummer! I’ll have to try Theo’s sometime.
You may want to mention that the chocolate is manufactured on shared equipment with soy and wheat among other things (accord. to the product info on amazon).
For most people that won’t matter, but for people with celiac disease, like myself, it rules out eating this chocolate.
It is shared on equipment with milk, eggs, wheat, peanuts, and tree nuts, but not soy. And the wheat is for one candy bar they make that has bread in it, but is made very infrequently according to the company and then cleaned. But yes, there is wheat in the facility and in one of the specialty bars. No soy is used in their dark chocolate bars and the packaging on my bar does not list soy in the allergy info section.
We went to Theo’s this past tuesday for a tour. We had out of state guest with us. Our family had been on a tour a few years ago. We all learned so much about chocolate and ate our tour fee worth too. Chocolate is a great “super-food”.
Isn’t that chocolate eating fun! I confess, I had seconds while on tour.
Can you recommend a good cocoa powder?
Evie,
I use Viva labs organic raw cacao powder. I get it off of Amazon.
Equal Exchange is good. It’s also on Subscribe and Save on Amazon.
Melissa, have you tried Equal Exchange brand? They’re on a similar level of quality to Theo, soy free and fair trade.
Soli,
I haven’t but I’ll keep my eye out. Because we’re so close to Theo it seems to be the brand carried most in these parts. Thanks for letting me know of another option though!
I love Equal Exchange chocolate, but the only place I have found it around here(central PA) is Ten Thousand Villages. The dark chocolate raspberry is wonderful; its just dark chocolate and freeze dried raspberries.
I have a local store that sells it but they also have a website and sell direct.
In spite of everything I’ve read on the internet, I AM allergic to soy lecithin. For the last 5 years, every time I eat even a spoonful of anything with soy lecithin in it, I develop an extreme sinus infection within 12 hours. For years we thought they were migraines from the chocolate but other things would trigger them (American cheese and store buns or bread) and I could eat cocoa powder without a reaction. As soon as we nailed it down and I began reading all labels, I stopped having “migraines”. 🙂
Azure Standard sells a yummy sugar and cocoa only chocolate chip! 🙂
Oh, and I’m NOT allergic to sunflower lecithin or soy in other products. Weird but true. 😛
Adding another brand to the fair trade and allergen-friendly list I have recently discovered: Alter Eco chocolates. http://www.alterecofoods.com/products/chocolate/
I LOVE dark chocolate. Dandelion chocolate in San Francisco makes a 100% cocoa bar, no sugar. It’s delicious! Thanks for this post!!
I’ve tried Theo and it’s good but my personal favorite is Alter Eco wonderful smooth flavor Locallly we have Dick Taylor Chocolates – single sourced cocao beans that they roast and grind and then make into bars – with special seasonal flavors. And newest is sipping chocolate – not to be confused with hot chocolate or cocoa
I thought all chocolate was fermented.
found Tabal bar chocolate to be no- soy lecithin. If you shop at back to the best in rubicon wi you can also find an aronia berry tabal chocolate that is really really good. Otherwise I like green and blacks sea salt dark chocolate bars.