TheMarginalized.com

This has been a great week, and I hope everyone has learned something, because I certainly have. Be sure to catch up on the comments for ideas and suggestions. If anyone sends me good resources, I’ll include them on the front page, even in later weeks.

To make a few things clear, there are a lot of people boycotting Nestle altogether, including their UK Kit Kat bar. You might want to look into why – it’s worth considering. I won’t write more about it yet because, well, it’s been a long week.

Also, as mentioned in one of my resources, some cotton and coffee producers also have used child slavery, because some of the guilty chocolate plantations in West Africa also grow these two commodities. I actually learned about child slavery in chocolate because of our past week on coffee.

I haven’t looked into the cotton issue yet, but I can speak for coffee: Ivory Coast is not known for its coffee – if you buy high quality beans, you should be fine. Certainly single origin coffees (coffees from one country – almost never Ivory Coast) and fair trade coffees will be safe. But if you’re a lover of Folgers or Maxwell House, you might want to write them and make sure you know about their supply chain.

If you were confused about why I kept mentioning L.A. Burdick, it’s because I thought I’d already explained my love for them, but I don’t think I did. Their shop in Cambridge served up the best cup of hot chocolate I’ve ever had, in March 2004. For those of you in NYC, check them out at their Manhattan location on 20th St. between 5th and Broadway – but don’t touch! Tell them you want assurance that their chocolate is slave free! I have a letter out to them now. Fingers crossed.

And please be sure to fill out our poll!

That’s it from here. Have a delicious, fairly traded, slave free chocolately weekend!