No more Multinationals: CHOCOLATE WITH NO ADDED MULTINATIONALS

First off, the bad news, Cadbury’s¹ is a multinational. So if you are a fan of Dairy Milk or Chocolate Button’s you will have to go cold turkey and give them up! Cadbury is part of Mondelez International (Kraft by another name) which I wrote about at length in the Coffee post².

Rowntrees³ is also a multinational so you will have to also give up fruit gums and fruit pastilles! Rowntrees is part of the Nestle family. Nestle get everywhere, and now the folk in Oregon⁴ are getting fed up with them as well as those in California⁵. They also bottle water in Italy which is a shame as I was very partial to their San Pellegrino^6&7 brand.

At first reading of the website Thornton’s⁸ seem like a UK company but actually they have had stores in the US for many years making them a multinational but in June 2015 it was announced they were being taken over by Italian Chocolate Manufacturers Ferrero⁹, of Ferrero Rocher “Oh Ambassador you are spoiling us.” fame.

Green and Black’s^10&11 are undoubtedly ethical and organic but they were bought out by Cadbury’s in the 2005 and are now owned by Mondelez International. I am devastated, these multinationals get everywhere! No Green and Blacks for me till after Christmas! Apart from this they would be a multinational anyway as they have a small office in Belize!

I first discovered Lily O’Brien’s¹² when I bought some for my mother and got to taste them. They are fantastic, especially the raspberry pie one! It is independent and still run by the lady who started it in Co. Kildare, Eire so on my very strict multinational rule it qualifies. However they will be going back on my list next year, so if anyone wants to get me some I will just put off eating them till Boxing Day! I know it is daft but I am making this up as I go along and it was a huge project to tackle and I had to start somewhere and finding out who owns what was a place to start. I am astonished how many companies are owned by other companies and so on up the line.

My brother’s whole family are fans of Lindor chololates by the Lindt¹³ and Sprungli Company. They are a Swiss company which have shops or factories all over the world especially in Europe but also Russia, China, Japan and South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Brazil and Australia.

Hotel Chocolate¹⁵ are a multinational as they have their own cocoa plantation and hotel in St Lucia, I am so jealous. I want to go to St Lucia, now, as it is freezing and I am typing this with 2 T-shirts, a fleece and a huge cardigan! They have also opened two stores in Denmark also.

Now I currently get my chocolate from the co-op and have just discovered some of it is made by Whitakers¹⁶ chocolates in Skipton. They are a family run company which have been in business for over 100 years. That is good, a non multinational supplier for a non multinational supermarket.

Now for independent Chocolatiers in Edinburgh; Chocolate Tree¹⁷ on Brunsfield Pl was set up by Alastair Gower and Friederike Matthis , they also have branch and their kitchen in Haddington. You can see the kitchen but with an appointment only. They have a wide range of handmade chocolates at prices you would expect for luxury goods.

Coco Chocolatiers¹⁸ is one of the first Chocolatiers in Scotland. They have branches in Bruntsfield, Broughton St and The Tron Market Place also a kitchen in Summerhall. They are now owned and managed by Calum Haggarty.

Edwin and Irwin¹⁹ have a Chocolatier in Morningside Drive. I haven’t been there myself but I would money on them not being a multinational, their Scottish version of a Crunchie sounds delicious and they appear in the top 5 Edinburgh chocolatiers²⁰ blog referenced below.

Thinking chocolate²¹ on London Rd owned and run by Nadia Ellingham is another Edinburgh chocolatier I would like to try as I pass it every time I go into town. She too is in the chocolatier blog.

There is always Choco-latte²² on South Clerk Street which sounds like another one to try. It does old fashioned sweeties and chocolates but again I haven’t been there, sorry.

Now, I need some hot chocolate and a couple of squares of Truly Irresistible chocolate!

As promised I have looked up Divine Chocolate and it is partially owned by the owners in the Kuapa Kokoo Farmers Union, Comic Relief, Christian Aid and Oikocredit. It has won prizes for being an outstanding social enterprise but for the moment still qualifies as a multinational.

3 comments:

Crafty Green Poet26 November 2015 at 02:42
I usually eat Divine chocolate, which is fair trade. By definition it probably is a multinational as it has offices in (I think) Ghana and UK, but as far as I'm aware it's not been bought out by any bigger companyand it is 45% owned by cocoa farmers. I'm shocked that Green and Blacks is no longer independent
K.M Byron29 November 2015 at 09:25
Like I said I am devastated too! Will look up Devine and add it to this post soon.
Greivsy10 December 2015 at 18:18
We use these for all our local sustainable foods. they do an amazing job with a large range of great products...including Coconut Oil. but just saw they've got some great chocolate too!
http://www.realfoodstore.co.uk/chocolate/

Wednesday, 25 November 2015

CHOCOLATE WITH NO ADDED MULTINATIONALS

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