"It doesn’t make sense for chocolate bars to be divided into equal-sized chunks when there is so much inequality in the chocolate industry! The unequally-sized chunks of our 6.35 oz bars are a palatable way of reminding Choco Fans and Serious Friends that the profits in the chocolate industry are unequally divided.
And in case you haven’t noticed, the bottom of our bars depicts the West African coastline. The chunks just above it represent the Gulf of Guinea. From left to right, you have Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo and Benin (terribly politically incorrect, we know, but we had to combine them to create enough space for a hazelnut), Nigeria and part of Cameroon."
Some info, that’s interesting and helps balance this blatant advertisement. Tony’s was started by Dutch television maker Teun van der Keuken. He worked on a program that exposes products for their production methods and false marketing and so on. They stumbled onto the slavery that’s part of the cacao industry. He asked to be arrested for eating chocolate, and in doing so enabling slave labor, but he wasn’t. He started out Tony’s Chocolonely to attempt to change the chocolate industry. He’s not part of the company anymore. He has concluded the mission has failed, and is very critical of his former company, saying they’ve lost sight of the aim: slave-free chocolate.
Wait, failed how? I didn’t know about this part.
This article is from 2015. By then it’s been 10 years since the company started, and he already left it. In the article he explains that still only 25% of the cacao used in Tony’s Chocolonely is guaranteed slave-free, let alone that they’ve had any significant impact on the industry at large. He says the situation of slave labor in cacao industry has only worsened. Tony’s has changed the message on their product “100% slave free” (which was false advertising) to something like “working together towards slave-free chocolate”, which he concludes to be meaningless marketing. It’s rather bizarre that such a message is allowed on a product that contains cacao from slave-labor…
Wow, that sucks. Thanks for sharing it. I’m going to try to look up what the current status is.
First not sure why everyone is so sure this is an ad and not just OP likes this and the message.
I’ve contemplated posting about this chocolate, I guess we can’t call out companies we like and we just all shit on everything all the time.
Second, my friend called me out for paying £3.50 for a bar of this whenever we have a chocolate and film night when Cadbury is like £1.50. When I said it’s more ethically sourced he said I don’t care about that. 😞
Cadbury in the USA is also literal shit next to tonys
I think all US chocolate is just shit tasting. I was referring to the UK (£), where it’s less shit.
Yeah but there is a very distinct difference. Cadbury tastes like fake chocolate that’s 90% sugar, Tony’s still tastes like real chocolate even if you think it’s shitty. Eat them back to back there’s a noticeable difference in chocolate. I eat European chocolate all the time and Tony’s is about as good just has a different flavor profile to it.
I’m confused as I’m pro Tony’s but your comment reads like you think I’m against it.
I’m saying it’s better than Cadburys in the UK and the USA.
I like Cadburys and I like Tony’s but like a £1.50 Cadbury bar is about the same footprint as a Tony’s bar and about half as thick.
My price was a little off.
At Sainsbury’s and Tesco right now Cadburys and Tony’s are £2.50 and £3.50 respectively; both weighing 180g.
I want to like this chocolate, but it’s just so bland.
I think it’s delicious.
Are you American as I find your chocolate far too sweet so perhaps you just like sugar and not chocolate.
I realise that might sound offensive but I don’t mean it that way, just curious.
Swedish. I think Marabou and Fazer taste 100x better than Tony’s, but maybe I have to give it another chance. Not like I eat chocolate that much anymore so it couldn’t hurt.
And I do love dark chocolate as well.
Are those as ethically sourced?
Doubt it, which is why I rarely eat them anymore
I don’t like chocolate that much, but if I do have it, dark all the way. The less sweet the better. I’m sure I have some limit, like 90% probably too much, but I definitely like less sweet.
Me too :) I just thought that thread was funny
Neato advertisement!
Products looks like shit.
Unless something has changed that company is no longer on the slavery free list due to them having Callebaut making their chocolate.
Guittard is my favorite for snacking and using in baking.
I’m gonna be real here when I saw one of these bars for the first time I just assumed they were assholes and didn’t look any further into why the bar wasn’t cut in a usable way.
It literally tells you why inside the packaging.
Why the fuck would I ever read inside the packaging for a chocolate bar
Kinda hard not to see though. It has a massive font size and unless you’re just devouring the thing I don’t see how you couldn’t see it.
That said I read anything I can get my hands on when bored so 🤷
They also don’t fuck over cocoa growers
The story behind this brand is kind of wild. The company was founded when a Dutch TV program found out the horrors of the chocolate industry, specifically the child slavery at the core of the cacao bean production.
Even today, there are practically no slavery free brands. Attempts to make them, like Tony’s, end up with chocolate farm owners messing with the system to pocket the higher price intended for them to hire people. There are a few attempts to make chocolate without slavery, but qhwn you buy a bar of chocolate in a store somewhere, you can be reasonably sure the company that made them profited off child slavery, even if they try their best not to.
It probably taste like shit american chocolate too. I tried Aldi’s chocolates and can’t go back.
It isn’t American, and it doesn’t taste like shit.
The founder, Teun van der Keuken, is a Dutch guy. He started this journey with sueing himself before a Dutch judge, on account of participating in slave labour (by buying chocolate in a supermarket, knowing that it’s likely produced by slave labour)
Sounds cool. I’ll give it a try. You know where I can get some? I like Aldi chocolate cause it tastes good, cheap, and doesn’t use slave labor
I know you can get it at Albert Heijn
Edit: I just learned that Aldi chocolate is sourced through Tony’s supply lines, so they should be the same level of slave-free
Hey that means it’s good chocolate. Sick
Same. I am obsessed with their peanut butter cups and the peanut and cornflake bars.
It doesn’t make any sense to do this as a metaphor. Chocolate is typically divided into evenly sized chunks for measurement purposes, regardless of the evil practices of the chocolate industry.
The metaphor is asinine the explanation is confusing and it’s lost on almost everybody who buys this.
I have had this brand of chocolate before and it is quite good however.
I don’t know, man. Sounds like the guy at least TRIED to do something more than most people. Granted, it doesn’t compare to a life spent delivering clever piss-take commentary to Lemmy, but not everyone can be so blessed.
Also, speaking of asinine, measurement purposes? If they were selling unsweetened cocao bars for baking, you would have had a point.
I’d say most people get frustrated and think WTF did they make this chocolate bar a pain in my ass? Then maybe they notice the story on the inside of the wrapper and read it?
I have never been in or adjacent to a situation where I had to measure chocolate packaged and sold to be eaten as-is in a recipe by squares broken off of a bar, at the demarcations pre-scored into the bar. If I needed that much control I’d grate it or use a chocolate that came pre-granulated, like baking kisses.
For chocolate bars meant to be eaten, the score lines are very much for sharability first. Any use of them for culinary measurement is at best a peripheral feature.
This probably doesn’t hold true for baking chocolate. But Tony’s isn’t baking chocolate.
I didn’t say it was for cooking. I said measurement. That can be applied to consumption as well as in a cooking capacity.
If you’re not measuring for cooking, why are you measuring? Being that accurate for casual consumption is strange.
I love it, but I feel obligated to say
"It doesn’t make sense for chocolate bars to be divided into equal-sized chunks when there is so much inequality in the chocolate industry!
No, it makes sense. I understand, but it makes a lot more sense
It doesn’t make sense for cars to have 4 equal sized wheels when there is so much inequality in the auto industry.
Staggered setup vehicles are the true champions of justice, urging us all to get a grip on inequality within the industry.
My center differential disagrees
Ok but this is a good way to raise awareness about the issue. Many people will pick these bars in the store without knowing much about the brand. Then when they eat it, they will probably wonder why it’s divided like that and the explanation is right there on the inside of the wrapper.
And then never buy them again because they are difficult to break evenly. Great idea but poor execution imo.
Do you buy chocolate based on convenience over taste?
Price usually
My internal chocolate bar cost has gone way up. I find the stuff at the bottom (like the stuff at the checkout) doesn’t even taste like chocolate anymore. I usually get something from the specialty section now.
I agree. The budget snack items like chocolate, chips and so on have, in my opinion, lost a lot of quality; they taste a lot greasier, have worse “mouth-feel”, or are just sugar with less aroma depending on the product. I also buy less, but higher quality stuff now in comparison to 20 years ago. (Central Europe here)
Fair, I do remember eating a lot of Tesco Value chocolate back in the day
lol imagine sharing your chocolate bars with other people, tssk (/hj)
fr tho if that bothers you, the inequality that comes with other chocolate brands should bother you too
not saying Tony’s is 100% fair, but at least they put in a lot of effort to make it as fair as possible
When did I ever say anything against that or that I am ok with slavery?? I even mentioned it as a good idea but with that execution, you will be cutting your own sales. At the end of the day, it’s a product for consumers and if your idea, no matter how great and noble it is, compromises on the experience then you will lose customers.
It well be cool to see for the first time but I certainly wouldn’t pick it up again if there are similar products with similar ideology on the shelf which is much easier to consumer. If this worked then good for them but I doubt it well work for long.
Also who the hell mows down an entire bar in single sitting, is that an American thing? I usually buy a bar of dark chocolate and eat 1 piece after every meal or when I am bored/hungry. I would never pick something like this other than maybe the first time and fiddle with it every time making a mess trying to break a piece.
if there are similar products with similar ideology on the shelf
that’s the thing: there aren’t
There are literally hundreds of them. Maybe the availability is different in your area but I can guarantee you that they are not the only one. But regardless you are missing the point.
It’s good for a company to be ethical but if you can’t sustain a business enough to make a difference then it’s pointless. At the end of the day, a business is there to make a profit. If you ignore majority of the customers and focus on the small fraction who cares about ethical products enough to make compromise then you can’t stay float for long.
It’s a good novel approach to raise awareness but the cost for it is too big, that was my point.
Bro it’s just uneven pieces of chocolate it’s not that of a big deal. Clearly they can sustain a business because I’m encountering their products more and more often. Apparently they don’t need the support of people like you who nitpick about every little thing so go ahead and buy other brands if that’s what makes you happy.
Yeah this copy needed a couple more drafts/notes.
I do like these bars but breaking it into pieces without a mess is difficult. I’ve had to resort to putting the entire thing in my mouth and waiting for it to melt down my throat.
I guess we’ll just have to deal with slavery then
If only there was some middle ground between hard to eat chocolate and modern day slavery.
But the slavery is where the flavour comes from!
That and the lead that is in it.
You break it while the packaging is intact
The geopolitical meta is strong here
Giggity
Especially the dark ones require a lot of force to break. I see it as a challenge.
It is a mess, which is why I thought it’s intentional to make it difficult to apportion your dose of chocolate, in effect making you eat more. And all this stuff about inequality sounds like the worst BS possible.
Too bad about all the lead in them. They’re not as bad as some brands, though.
I’m not sure if OP was intended as an ad or not, but I think we should have an informal rule that if a top post is about a product, we should all upvote the comment that has the worst fact about that product. It’s the only way to be sure.
An ounce of their Dark Chocolate has 134% of the California MADL dose of 0.5 micrograms of lead, for those wondering about details.
micrograms, which is 1/1000 of a milligram. No amount of lead is considered safe, but you would need to eat allllottttttt of this chocolate before it would get to a level that, for example, a doctor would be concerned about. Ars Technica has a good write up about the CR report
Not that I’m trying to shill for Big Chocolate. When I saw the report, I definitely made a conscious effort to cut back to once a month or less.
Ah yes, sorry, I’ve corrected my comment to micrograms.
An ounce is about 29 grams in non-freedom units, for those wondering
I’ve bought drugs before, I know how many grams in an ounce
Yeah, I’ve bought enough drugs to know it’s 28g.
Am I blind or can I not find the claim about 134% on the linked page?
Searched for “Tony” there.Well, I’m here now. What do you want?
It’s the first one in the high in lead section
Duh. The page looked on my phone like the article already ended and didnt bother to scroll further down >_>
Forget everything I asked :P
I saw it on there among 20+ other chocolate bars.
Nvmd me. Didnt scroll far enough on the phone to see. Looked like the article was done already
I have half a block of this in the pantry. Thank you. Fuck me.
You can eat it just fine, just don’t eat it regularly for a long time.
Holy shit that article has, like, every decent chocolate bar.
Apparently lead is delicious?
I know right. I’m sticking to cigarettes.
if I die by eating dark chocolate, at least I’ll die happy
Except it’s the kind of poison that takes decades to kill you. And it’s bad for braincells too.
The kind of brain damage that makes conservatism look good even if you are making below the average salary.
oh so it’s just like alcohol then, that hasn’t stopped many people before unfortunately
But alcohol is paychoactive and addictive. Lead is non of those things.
Dark chocolate is
Paychoactive and addictive?
Have you been buying your chocolate from the dispensary again?
ooops
no I meant just the addictive part
Otoh, it makes them sweeter
If it’s good enough to collapse the Roman Empire, it’s good enough to collapse the American Empire!
Well shit
I know, right? It really sucks. They’re honestly one of the tastier bars I’d had. I’ve taken a bit of a step back from chocolate in general, these days. I probably got enough lead exposure as a kid… no need to add any more than is absolutely unavoidable.
The lead and cadmium are in there on purpose, to enhance taste. Have you ever had chocolate without lead and cadmium? It tastes nasty
Lol, that’s per ounce too.
It’s a good thing I don’t like dark chocolate then
Quite succesful in the Netherlands.
In 2003, after discovering that the majority of chocolate produced at the time had links to human exploitation, Dutch television producer and journalist Teun van de Keuken began producing programs about the horrors of the commercial cocoa industry on his show Keuringsdienst van Waarde. Furthermore, he submitted a request to be prosecuted for knowingly purchasing an illegally manufactured product, which prosecutors declined to do.
After three years of unsuccessful attempts to change the industry through investigative efforts, Van de Keuken decided to start producing chocolate bars himself. The brand was called “Tony’s Chocolonely” with “Tony” (= Teun) and “Chocolonely” in reference to Teun van de Keuken feeling as if he was the only person in the industry who was interested in eradicating slavery. Van de Keuken sold 20,000 bars in two days.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony's_Chocolonely https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teun_van_de_Keuken
It’s making its way into Belgium too!
Oh yeah they have been here in DelHaize and Albert Hein (both owned by the dutch company) for a while and are now popping up in Colruyt and spar I think.
