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Pioneers in the organic and fairly traded chocolate field, Green & Black's have managed to take their brand from health food obscurity to major supermarket player, branching out to become a general organic sweet food producer. Their chocolate is becoming more and more famous, but there are better organics around and they need to play catch up in the quality stakes. Now fully owned by Cadburys.
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Green & Black's |
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Waterloo |
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London |
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United Kingdom |
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Green & Black's have played a key role in the rise of both organic chocolate and fine chocolate in the UK. Since the early 90s they've been selling their range of organic chocolate, reaching an ever-growing audience. Their products are now available around the world and recently they've achieved an even higher profile with new branding, including TV ads in the UK. Their range keeps expanding, bringing more flavoured chocolate bars and more of their luscious ice creams to the market.
Formed in 1991 by Craig Sams of Whole Earth fame and his wife Josephine Fairley (a columnist for The Times) after they tasted a traditional Mayan drink in Belize, Green & Black's have a strong ethical philosophy, which means they work closely with their cocoa growers, paying a premium to grow organic cocoa in its natural environment.
A note from the editor
Now I’m going to get personal here and firstly state that I have been a big fan of Green & Black's from the beginning, and have probably eaten nearly as much of their chocolate in my time as I have Valrhona. It has to be said though that their chocolate doesn’t actually live up to the hype, and while better than many organic dark chocolate bars (some of them taste very unpleasant - rather like eating soil) the quality is a long way off from being equivalent to the best non-organic.
Furthermore, from the point of view of promoting fine, strong, chocolate, their new slogan (as seen on TV) "now that’s what chocolate's supposed to taste like" is not actually very helpful, and quite frankly, that’s not what it should taste like. Another personal gripe I have is that the original Maya Gold was a 70% bar (I still have their original literature explaining why this was so important!), but a few years back it got reduced to 50%, making it an all too sweet concoction - I still long for the original.
So I don't just want to be negative here. I’m still a supporter, and G&B score in many areas - their white bar is unmatchable. What I’d like to see is one or more new dark chocolates that catch the mood around now for fine flavour chocolate. Producers like Delvaux and The Chocolate Society have shown that organic chocolate can be as good as any other bar - Green & Black's need to play catch up if they are to regain their credibility in the fine chocolate world.
Martin Christy, Editor, seventypercent.com |
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