PLEASE NOTE: Sweet Earth is now Mama Ganache Artisan Chocolates and can be found at www.mama-ganache.com. The product remains the same; truly awesome. We continue to proudly feature Mama Ganache chocolate in all our chocolate and cocoa containing goodies.
Winners were picked for this giveaway. Congratulations Abby Bean, J. Muir and Marika! Both Abby and J. posted blogs about their bounty. Check out the blog post by Abby here and the post by J. here. Mmm…. Thanks for the inspiration!
Here we have the AMAZING- nearly too good to be real -vegan, gluten-free, fairly traded chocolate chips.
A while back, I decided to try again to find a vegan, organic, fairly traded chocolate chip. Gone Pie had been using Enjoy Life chocolate chips. They had given us the following statement:
While our chocolate is not fair-trade certified due to strict allergen requirements, our supplier focuses on improving conditions for the cocoa farmers and is committed to operating in an ethical, responsible and safe manner.
I had accepted this statement and continued using their product. My first concern is to properly serve our vegan and gluten-free clients. But the statement kind of bothered me, since browsing the Equal Exchange website, one can find numerous glutenfree offerings, although not chocolate chips.
So back to the google I went. And there I found a new result for vegan, fair trade chocolate; Sweet Earth Chocolates. I set up a wholesale account and filed away the info for our next order.
Meanwhile, my friend and fellow righteous vegan baker, Fran Costigan, contacted me to see if I knew of a vegan, fairly traded chocolate chip. I told her about Sweet Earth. Apparently she was asking on behalf of a friend who had been told by Sweet Earth that they could not verify that they were indeed vegan — there was a question about the type of sugar they were using.
I emailed the folks at Sweet Earth for clarification and contacted my friends at The NYC Fair Trade Coalition to see if they knew of any other potential suppliers. They put me back into contact with Sweet Earth and facilitated our dialog.
The outcome of this long (and fascinating to ME) story, is that via twitter and email, the folks at Sweet Earth were open to understanding our concerns, did research and came back to us with good news. Their sugar is organic, unrefined sugar. Pure dehydrated cane juice. Which also means it is GMO free.
Fran and I were pretty happy right about now. As the discussion was occurring via Twitter, I immediately retweeted the good news. Someone at once asked if the chips were also gluten-free. And to my EXTREME elation, Sweet Earth replied that they were. This was almost too much good news for one day.
So my friends, I share this good news with you. If you have weathered this long post, you now must simply say HUZZAH in the comment section below and we will select one of you to receive a bag of these amazing chocolate chips. Please feel free to say something more that will encourage us to pick you as our winner!
Check out this awesome Ganesh our friends at Sweet Earth are starting to make! I can imagine gifting these in the near future! Click on the image for instructions on how to consume your deity! These folks are not only responsible chocolate suppliers, but they are fun. And creative! And, and, and….
Tags: chocolate, fair trade, giveaway, gluten-free, vegan
i looove love love love how many times do i have say it i love gone pie vegan bakery ! if you havent had the carmashew cups its a must have please pick me i am craving some sweet vegan treats!
Huzzah!
Huzzah!
“Huzzah” reminds me of the little girl from Clive Barker’s Imajica, I’d never seen it as an analog to hurray before.
The chips sound wonderful! =)
And the programmer in me says I probably should have written “HUZZAH” ;p
Huzzah!!!!! I live Gone Pie and rhe great Vegan treats! I enjoy baking with my son and with our gradual change to becoming veganish we are incorporating more and more vegan recipes. We are both chocoholivs roo so love rhat you have found a company with whom we can trust for our own home baking need for chocolate. Thanks Gone Pie
Huzzah!
Huzzah, indeed!
HUZZAH!
I was pleased to be able to find Sunspire Chocolate Chips here in UT. Previously our local store only had the Enjoy Life chips.
http://www.sunspire.com/products/organic-fair-trade-42%25-cacao-semi-sweet-baking-chips
SuhWEET! I hope this means Fair Trade is gaining ground
Huzzah! My taste buds crave & deserve these chocolate chips!
HUZZAH!! Winning!! This is delicious news at its chocolaty best! Hats off to your intrepid sleuthing, and THANK YOU
I actually thought that was a chocolate chip that took the serendipitous form of the Ganesh – and I was thinking, how apropos
LOVE, all around.
Huzzah! But is the sugar fair trade certified?
Yes, all the sugar in Sweet Earth Chocolate is certified Fair Trade by Fair Trade USA.
Huzzah!!
Thanks for taking the time to research this. Thanks for caring and being righteous!!
I know that for you as a baker, chocolate is a necessity; but for me, I perceive chocolate as a luxury purchase. If I can afford it, I can afford fair trade – no compromise!! How can we feel good treating ourselves to cheap chocolate when we know it comes from the labour of child slaves?
So, thank you for not caving to lowest-common-denominator, and for refusing to let PROFIT dictate how you source ingredients for your business.
By the way, what would make chocolate *not* gluten-free?
Chocolate is naturally gluten-free. It’s the other ingredients that go into many chocolate products that often have gluten in them. So Sweet Earth’s chocolate chips are gluten-free.
That said, people with severe gluten sensitivity should know that our finished chocolate products: bars, truffles, even the chocolate deities like Ganesh above, are made in a building that has a bakery in it. We can’t guarantee that a few molecules of gluten weren’t blown up the stairs into our kitchen.
Our chips, however, are packaged in a different facility, and they come from a place that works only with chocolate, so there shouldn’t be any problem there.
Huzzah! What wonderful news! Thanks for doing the research.
HUZZAH and a woot woot!
HUZZAH indeed. Any news about about vegan chocolate is good news in my book. Thank you for your tireless efforts in always providing the highest quality, most responsible products available. It can be done!
Huzzah for Gone Pie; I’ve been a fan for years, and you just keep getting better and better!
HUZZAH
HUZZAH
Thanks for doing all the ‘leg’ work for us. All we have to do is enjoy!
Huzzah! You guys are the greatest! Thanks, and I can’t wait to get using these asap! It really is wonderful to know that you can bake & enjoy these treats guilt free thanks to you ladies! Fair trade rocks!!
huzzah to chocolate ganesh! huzzah to vegan chocolate chips (and chocolate chip cookies!), thanks so much for the info I’m hungry already!
I’m a baby vegan – week 7 and counting – and haven’t had chocolate since I’ve just been focusing on going vegan more than on recreating anything. But I’m dying to make some vegan chocolate goodies for summer parties coming up. I’d love to try this chocolate.
That is awesome Jess! Congratulations.
Huzzah!
That was really fun to say!
HUZZAH
HUZZAH!! This is great news! Thank you for doing the research! Can’t wait to start using this product!
HUZZAH
Thank you so much for going the extra mile to investigate these companies and issues. I will definitely look into the sweet earth chocolate chips. I love to bake, and often need chocolate chips but have failed to find a chip that meets our dietary requirements and is also fair trade. I won’t compromise on the fair trade issue. But there are so many treats I’d love to make if I had chocolate chips! I’m doing a happy dance, thank you.
I’m not sure if Canadians are eligible, but just in case: HUZZAH!
Thank you so much for doing this research – sometimes this kind of information is hard to find.
Thanks Glory Foods!
Thanks for this post! I am over a year late at getting my HUZZAH in
I was searching google for fair trade gluten free chocolate and stumbled across your post. Thanks again.
HUZZAH!!!! I highly recommend this company. Great product. Great people.