Fair Trade Los Angeles

By Phil Fehrle

It was billed as a Fair Trade chocolate tasting, but I thought the tasting part would never come. They stalled by first giving us the history of chocolate, then the geography and then the sociography (thousands of small cacao farmers in tropical zones around the world – mostly in western Africa).

Finally, they gave each of us two miniature Dixie cups and told us to put one little chunk each of white chocolate, milk chocolate, 70% cacao and 85% cacao, a chocolate-covered coffee bean and a chocolate covered berry into the cups – and not to forget which was which. All right! Time for tasting!

Not quite. They wanted to talk about the process: the growing, the harvesting, the fermentation, the roasting, the cracking & separating, the grinding, the conching (don’t ask!). And I’ve got six delicious morsels of Fair Trade organic chocolate staring me in the face. Will someone please just pull the trigger!!

Then they wanted to give us the regimen on chocolate tasting (like I didn’t know how to do this?). Apparently it’s about the order – going from light to dark. You begin with the white, then the milk, then the 70% cacao and, finally, the 85% cacao. Folks, we’re talking chocolate. CHOCOLATE! What’s the holdup here?

Next they talked about the grading – you know, things like the firmness of the snap when you break the chocolate, the cleanness of the break after the snap, the smoothness of the surface and the softness in your hand. And all I’m thinking is, “Let’s get on with this. My salivaries are working overtime!!”

… And the aroma as it wafts into your nostrils. And the delight to your tongue as you place it on the tip (where most of your taste buds reside). And the texture as it slowly melts in your mouth. And the bite (or lack thereof). And the flavor: Fruity? Nutty? Earthy? Smoky? And the aftertaste (or lack thereof). And all the while, those six little morsels beckon relentlessly.

Merciless! That’s what it was. Like Chinese water torture! And when they finally cut us loose? PURE HEAVEN. And why not? It was chocolate! Divine Chocolate. Kopali Organics Chocolate. CHOCOLATE!

And I had to stop and remind myself that this moment of bliss was brought to me by a hard-working farmer in Africa or Peru or some other place beyond my experience, who labored to produce the cacao in this chocolate under a system that affords him adequate support for his family and the dignity of self reliance. That’s Fair Trade.

Thanks to Jacqueline Holmes of Kopali Organics and Amanda White of Divine Chocolate.