Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cocoa beans that can be a liquid, solid, or paste, either on its own or as a flavoring in other foods. The cacao tree has been used as a source of food for at least 5,300 years, starting with the Mayo-Chinchipe culture in what is present-day Ecuador. Later, Mesoamerican civilizations consumed cacao beverages, of which one, chocolate, was introduced to Europe in the 16th century.
The economy of Togo has struggled greatly. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) ranks it as the tenth poorest country in the world, with development undercut by political instability, lowered commodity prices, and external debts. While industry and services play a role, the economy is dependent on subsistence agriculture, with industrialization and regional banking suffering major setbacks.
Fair trade is a term for an arrangement designed to help producers in developing countries achieve sustainable and equitable trade relationships. Fair Trade, which began in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom during the 1960s, has developed into a thriving social movement since the early 1990s. The fair trade movement combines the payment of higher prices to exporters with improved social and environmental standards. The movement focuses in particular on commodities, or products that are typically exported from developing countries to developed countries but is also used in domestic markets, most notably for handicrafts, coffee, cocoa, wine, sugar, fruit, flowers and gold.
The cocoa bean, also known simply as cocoa or cacao, is the dried and fully fermented seed of Theobroma cacao, the cacao tree, from which cocoa solids and cocoa butter can be extracted. Cacao trees are native to the Amazon rainforest. They are the basis of chocolate and Mesoamerican foods including tejate, an indigenous Mexican drink.
A chocolate bar is a confection containing chocolate, which may also contain layerings or mixtures that include nuts, fruit, caramel, nougat, and wafers. A flat, easily breakable, chocolate bar is also called a tablet. In some varieties of English and food labeling standards, the term chocolate bar is reserved for bars of solid chocolate, with candy bar used for products with additional ingredients.
Milk chocolate is a form of solid chocolate containing cocoa, sugar and milk. It is the most consumed type of chocolate, and is used in a wide diversity of bars, tablets and other confectionery products. Milk chocolate contains smaller amounts of cocoa solids than dark chocolates do, and contains milk solids. While its taste has been key to its popularity, milk chocolate was historically promoted as a healthy food, particularly for children.
Milka is a Swiss brand of chocolate confectionery. Originally made in Switzerland in 1901 by Suchard, it has been produced in Lörrach, Germany, from 1901. Since 2012 it has been owned by US-based company Mondelez International, when it started following the steps of its predecessor Kraft Foods Inc., which had taken over the brand in 1990. It is sold in bars and a number of novelty shapes for Easter and Christmas. Products with the Milka brand also include chocolate-covered cookies and biscuits.
Michel Cluizel is a bean-to-bar chocolate making company that was founded in the French town of Damville in Normandy in 1948 by Marc Cluizel.
Equal Exchange is a for-profit, Fairtrade, worker-owned cooperative headquartered in West Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Equal Exchange distributes organic, gourmet coffee, tea, sugar, bananas, avocados, cocoa, and chocolate bars produced by farmer cooperatives in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Founded in 1986, it is the oldest and largest Fair Trade coffee company in the United States. The highest paid employee of Equal Exchange may not make more than four times what the lowest paid employee receives.
Swiss chocolate is chocolate produced in Switzerland. Switzerland's chocolates have earned an international reputation for high quality with many famous international chocolate brands.
Hotel Chocolat Group, trading as Hotel Chocolat, is a British chocolate manufacturer and cocoa grower. It produces and distributes chocolate and other cocoa related products online and through a network of cafés, restaurants, outlets and factory stores.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to chocolate:
Fair trade cocoa is an agricultural product harvested from a cocoa tree using a certified process which is followed by cocoa farmers, buyers, and chocolate manufacturers, and is designed to create sustainable incomes for farmers and their families. Companies that use fair trade certified cocoa to create products can advertise that they are contributing to social, economic, and environmental sustainability in agriculture.
Chocolats Halba is a Swiss chocolate producer based in Pratteln (Basel-Landschaft). Chocolate Halba operates its own factory shops, the so-called Schoggihüsli, in Pratteln and at the former factory in Hinwil. It is a division of the retail company Coop and processes around 20,000 tons of chocolate into bars, pralines and Easter bunnies every year. Around 40% of the chocolate is delivered to the Coop Group, the rest goes to third-party customers around the world – including those in Switzerland, Germany, France, Holland, the USA, Canada, New Zealand and China. In addition to the Coop brand Swiss Confisa, they also produce for other brands such as "Die Gute Schokolade" by Plant-for-the-Planet and for the processing industry.
Choco-Story Brussels, formerly known as the Museum of Cocoa and Chocolate, is a privately owned museum in Brussels, Belgium, established in 1998 at the initiative of Gabrielle Draps, the wife of the famous Belgian chocolate artisan Joseph "Jo" Draps, founder of Godiva Chocolatier. The museum provides demonstrations and tastings, and visitors can book a workshop to make chocolate bars and lollipops.
Organic chocolate is chocolate which has been certified organic. As of 2016, it was a growing sector in the global chocolate industry. Organic chocolate is a socially desirable product for some consumers. Organic chocolate has benefits including vitamin B12, vitamin E, niacin, riboflavin, phosphorus, manganese, zinc, calcium, magnesium, potassium and iron. Major brands, such as The Hershey Company, have begun to produce organic chocolate.
Zotter Schokolade is an Austrian chocolate manufacturer specializing in organic and fairly traded bean-to-bar chocolate. The company was founded in 1999 by Josef Zotter and is based in Riegersburg, Styria. Zotter is mostly active in German-speaking Europe, with 90 percent of distribution outlets being located in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. As one of Austria's most well-known trademarks, Zotter is considered a national high equity brand.
The chocolate industry in the Philippines developed after the introduction of the cocoa tree to Philippine agriculture. The growing of cacao or cocoa boasts a long history stretching from the colonial times. Originating from Mesoamerican forests, cacao was first introduced by the Spanish colonizers four centuries ago. Since then the Philippine cocoa industry has been the primary producer of cocoa beans in Southeast Asia. There are many areas of production of cacao in the Philippines, owing to soil and climate. The chocolate industry is currently on a small to medium scale.
Malagos Agri-Ventures Corporation is a Philippine bean-to-bar chocolate manufacturer based in Davao City.
Chocolat Kohler was a chocolate producer based in Lausanne, founded in 1830 by the Kohler brothers. It is currently a brand owned by Nestlé.
