Carefully curated information for chocolate lovers.

BOOKS

Bread, Wine, Chocolate: The Slow Loss of Foods We Love by Simran Sethi (and chocolate tasting guide)
Chocolate and Blackness by Silke Hackenesch
Meaningful Work: A Quest to Do Great Business, Find Your Calling, and Feed Your Soul by Shawn Askinosie
The New Taste of Chocolate, Revised: A Cultural & Natural History of Cacao with Recipes by Maricel Presilla
The True History of Chocolate by Sophie Coe and Michael Coe
Cocoa by Kristy Leissle
The Chocolate Connoisseur: For Everyone With a Passion for Chocolate by Chloe Doutre-Roussel
Cocoa: An Exploration of Chocolate, With Recipes by Sue Quinn
Discover Chocolate: The Ultimate Guide to Buying, Tasting, and Enjoying Fine Chocolate by Clay Gordon
Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History by Sidney Mintz
The Science of Chocolate (2nd edition) by Stephen Beckett, Barry Freedman and Jennifer Harding
Chocolate in Mesoamerica: A Cultural History of Cacao edited by Cameron McNeil
The Chocolate Tasting Kit by Eagranie Yuh
The Chocolate Tree: A Natural History of Cacao by Allen M. Young
Chocolate Nations: Living and Dying for Cocoa in West Africa by Orla Ryan
Cocoa (4th edition) by G. A. R. Wood and R. A. Lass
Chocolate Science and Technology by Emmanuel Ohene Afoakwa
Industrial Chocolate Manufacture and Use edited by Steve Beckett
Bean-to-Bar Chocolate: America’s Craft Chocolate Revolution: The Origins, the Makers, and the Mind-Blowing Flavorsby Megan Giller
Deep Tasting Chocolate & Whiskey by R. M. Peluso
Making Chocolate: From Bean to Bar to S’more by Dandelion Chocolate
On the Chocolate Trail: A Delicious Adventure Connecting Jews, Religions, History, Travel, Rituals and Recipes to the Magic of Cacao by Rabbi Deborah R. Prinz

ARTICLES

“Can U.S. chocolate companies be liable for child-labor abuses in the global cocoa supply chain?” (The Counter)
“Supreme Court weighs child-slavery case against Nestlé USA, Cargill” (The Washington Post)
“U.S. report: Much of the world’s chocolate supply relies on more than 1 million child workers” (The Washington Post)
“Cocoa has a poverty problem. You can help by eating more dark chocolate” (The Counter)
“From bean to bar” (special report on child labor; The Financial Times)
“CCN-51: Cocoa’s shining light or a risky monocrop?” (ConfectioneryNews)
“How is our chocolate addiction killing the environment?” (Good Food (KCRW))
“For those who think white chocolate isn’t ‘real’ chocolate, have we got bars for you” (The Washington Post)
“Why An Oversupply Of Cocoa Is Bad For Chocolate Lovers” (Forbes)
“Opinion: Getting to know the chocolate supply chain” (Devex Newswire)
“Chocolate Shouldn’t Be Cheap” (Eater)
“Sorry Folks, Climate Change Won’t Make Chocolate Taste Better” (NPR)
“‘Once this was all trees, but they burned them to plant cocoa’: the ruin of West Africa’s rainforest” (The Guardian)
“Is it time for a second look at West Africa?” (The Chocolate Project)
“Before you eat that chocolate Easter egg, think about the people who produced it” (Los Angeles Times)
“Beyond fair trade: These bean-to-bar chocolate makers are upping the ante on working with cocoa farmers” (Financial Post)
“Premium chocolate ‘leg up’: How to win fine flavor cocoa status” (ConfectioneryNews)
“The secret of why we like to eat chocolate” (BBC)
“Origin-Made Chocolate: The Bars to Beat” (The Wall Street Journal)
“What separates ‘craft’ from industrial chocolate? It’s about diversity.” (The Washington Post)
“Science Explains Why Chocolate Should be Savored, Not Scarfed” (Smithsonian)

All of Simran’s reporting on chocolate can be found here.

STUDIES & REPORTS

VOICE Network: “Cocoa Barometer 2020”
International Cocoa Organization: “Monthly Review of the Market”
Barometer Consortium: “Necessary Farm Gate Prices for a Living Income” (January 2020)
Uncommon Cacao: “2019 Transparency Report”
VOICE Network: “Raising Farm Gate Prices” (2019)
Agence Française de Développement (AFD): “Cocoa farmers’ agricultural practices and livelihoods in Côte d’Ivoire” (February 2017)
VOICE Network: “Cocoa Barometer 2015” (see a snapshot of the chocolate industry below)
Dandelion Chocolate: “Sourcing Report 2015” (Image on homepage is of this report.)
International Labor Rights Forum: “The Fairness Gap: Farmer Incomes and Root Cause Solutions to Ending Child Labor in the Cocoa Industry” (December 2014)
Acta horticulturae: “The impact of processing location and growing environment on flavor in cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.) – Implications for “terroir” and certification – Processing location study” (D.A. Sukha, D.R. Butler, E.A. Comissiong, P. Umaharan; August 2014)
CacaoNet (Bioversity International): “A Global Strategy for the Conservation and Use of Cacao Genetic Resources, as the Foundation for a Sustainable Cocoa Economy” (September 2012)
Nature: “Flavor network and the principles of food pairing” (December 2011)
Journal of Cardiovascular Pharmacology: “Cocoa, chocolate and cardiovascular disease” (Monica Galleano, Patricia I. Oteiza, Cesar G. Fraga, Ph.D.1,2; December 2009)

RESOURCES

Slave Free Chocolate
For a Better World podcast
TheChocolateLife
Chocolate Alchemy
Ecole Chocolat
Chocolate Noise web series
Well Tempered Facebook group for fine cacao and chocolate professionals
The Chocolate Garage short films