10 years of Tony's blog #4: what about that butter...?

Riddle: it is in a traceable fleet and is needed for 100% slave-free chocolate and a white Tony's Chocolonely bar. Do you know? No? Then read on (* if you are too curious, the answer is upside down at the end of this blog).

On our wish list there are 2 things that we really want: 100% slave-free cocoa and a white Tony's bar. We are almost 100% slave-free, but not completely yet. And.. white raspberry crackling sugar. Remember? The immensely popular Limited bar in 2012. This Tony's crowd favorite still has no place in the base. Why not? Well, it both has to do with cocoa butter.

Butter... we hear you think. Yes, to make chocolate you need cocoa mass and cocoa butter. Both products are made from cocoa beans. Cocoa mass gives the delicious chocolate taste and.. the brown color. Cocoa butter makes the chocolate soft and creamy. And, you guessed it... white chocolate contains no cocoa mass at all, but only cocoa butter, because it is white.

To make cocoa mass and cocoa butter, separate bean flows are required. One stock of beans is ground into cocoa mass and the other stock of beans is further processed to make cocoa butter. After pressing, the liquid oil solidifies into butter and you are left with cocoa powder as a residual product. We purchase the beans used for our cocoa mass directly from our partner cooperatives in Ghana and Ivory Coast. Thanks to the intensive cooperation we have with them, we know that there is no forced labor on their cocoa plantations and that no trafficked children work there.

To our great frustration, the cocoa butter in our bar is not yet traceable. The butter we use is Fairtrade, but we do not yet purchase the beans directly for this. Why not? Well, cocoa butter manufacturers don't see the point of traceability yet. For them, butter all comes from the same untraceable fleet. It all tastes the same, right?!?? Taste is very important to us. But there is something even more important. We want 100% slave-free chocolate. So that is why the cocoa butter must also be traceable and therefore 100% slave-free. And then... there will also be white Tonys.

That makes everyone happy. So we are working very hard behind the scenes to make our cocoa butter traceable. And that is not a piece of cake, a (chocolate) egg. Before we can make cocoa butter from our 'own Tony's beans', the chocolate maker we work with must adjust its factory and processes. And, you just read that when you make cocoa butter, you also end up with cocoa powder. Because we need a lot of traceable cocoa butter, we will also be left with a lot of cocoa powder, which is traceable and slave-free, but also more expensive…. And for this we have to find partners or other buyers who are willing to pay a higher price for traceable slave-free cocoa powder. So if you have a neighbor or uncle who is interested, let us know!

But one way or another, we know for sure: traceable cocoa butter is coming. So stay tuned. Because if it works, it's a party! Then all cocoa beans in our bar are traceable and 100% slave-free and…. white raspberry crackling sugar might be part of the base!