Alcohol and Drugs History Society

Chocolate wars

Britain is upset over Kraft's bid to take over Cadbury.  The New York Times article here also looks at Cadbury's effort to purchase cacao produced ethically and the changing image of chocolate, once identified with women or children or a cheap source of calories.  Currently high end chocolate is marketed as a luxury product.

Chocolate at Principe (article)

Xan Rice, "Life, Liberty and Fine Chocolate: An Italian Entrepreneur Pursues Simple Perfection on a Tropical Isle," Utne Reader, May-June 2009, pp. 53-56.  Reprinted from New Statesman, January 15, 2009.  Discusses Claudio Corallo who has a cocoa plantation on Principe, the twin isle of Sao Tome.  Previously Corallo had grown coffee in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Zaire) and now grows coffee on Sao Tome.  He now is thinking of making rum too.

Nigeria's cocoa trees are ageing and so are its farmers

The cocoa industry in Nigeria is in trouble in part because young people don't want to be cocoa farmers. Another oddity: unlike nearby African countries, Nigeria produces no chocolate. For more, see here.

Organic, fair trade chocolate in Washington State

Theo Chocolate, in the Seattle area, is the only roaster of organic cocoa beans in the USA and the first to roast fair trade cocoa in the country. For more, see here. Consumer interest in organic and fair trade products has spread to speciality chocolates.

Cocoa and chocolate from plantation to consumer (book)

Arthur W. Knapp, Cocoa and Chocolate--Their History from Plantation to Consumer (Crawford Press, 2007).

Vietnam promotes cocoa production

Mostly tea-drinking Vietnam has become a major coffee producer and exporter in recent years. Now the Vietnamese government, seeking diversity and security against price swings, is promoting cocoa as an export crop. For more, see here. In the emerging globalized economy the traditional geographical distribution for these commodities has shifted from South America (coffee) and West Africa (cocoa) to parts of the world not identified with them.

Problem with chocolate

An article in the New York Times, 22 December 2007, and comments by readers explore the problem with chocolate as a health aid. For details, see here.

Hot chocolate in chilly New York City

The fashion for the elite in New York City is to reject hot cocoa (ground cacao beans with most of the cocoa butter removed) in favor of hot chocolate with milk and sometimes spices. Spanish, Venezuelan, and French chocolate makers add various extras in the drink itself or to dip in it. For more, see here.

Mars rejects cocoa butter substitutes

Mars, with Hershey one of the two major American chocolate makers, has dissociated itself from chocolate industry requests that the Food and Drug Administration allow substitutes for cocoa butter in candy labeled as chocolate. For more, see here.

German chocolate market saturated

The market for chocolate is saturated in Germany where per capita consumption is almost 20 pounds annually. About a third of German chocolate is exported. The three countries that are the leading consumers of chocolate are the USA and two much smaller states Germany and France. Most of the world's cocoa is grown in West Africa, particularly in the Ivory Coast which sells a majority of its beans to the Germans. German chocolate makers hope to develop markets in India and China where little chocolate is consumed today. In Germany itself the growth area is dark chocolate. For more, see here.