THE ALCHEMIST
Deep in the mountains of southeastern British Columbia, a passionate woman is making and celebrating heart-opening nutritious and delicious chocolate surrounded by cedar trees, elk and white swans. Yup, white swans.
Beth Campbell is creating small-batch chocolate magic from her rural home in the Kootenays using superfoods, alternative sweeteners (such as coconut sugar) and mindfully-sourced and fairly-traded cacao. Oh and there’s definitely some serious love mixed in there too.
Beth was drawn into the world of small-batch artisan chocolate after getting frustrated about the lack of options on local store shelves. Although she always had a passion for cooking and baking, she had never made chocolate before. She threw caution to the wind, bought some molds and jumped right into what would become a life-changing endeavour.
She decided to combine her love of alchemy, medicinal ingredients and flavour combinations to bring you chocolate that’s real. Beth also found a way to accelerate the benefits of this magical superfood. She sees cacao as the ultimate delivery vehicle of medicinal substances into the body and she celebrates it.
Beth’s recipes are so unique, her creations so flavourful…that her chocolate is featured in stores across southeastern British Columbia.
Not only is she empowering people to make healthier chocolate choices at the till, Beth is determined to bring awareness to the issues involved in the chocolate industry — including slavery and inadequate working conditions for cacao farmers. Her goal is to use the abundance she has been blessed with to make a difference in the chocolate industry, and the farmers and consumers connected to it.
OUR MISSION
To produce high-quality, delicious and nutrient-dense chocolate products with business practices that support social justice and environmental sustainability.
GUIDING PRINCIPLES
Human Dignity
By working with cooperatives and cultivators that value human well-being, better living conditions and environmental sustainability, we are taking a stand against big industry. We are building awareness of the social injustices and rights violations that are rampant in the making of conventional chocolate. In providing an ethical alternative, we empower consumers to make a difference with their dollars.
Environmental Sustainability
One major obstacle was to source packaging that could be diverted from the landfill. After some serious time-consuming research we finally found a solution. Our package contents are entirely compostable. The exterior paper sleeves are made with FSC certified paper. Tucked inside is our compostable cellulose wrapper made from wood pulp! Completely biodegradable, you can throw this baby right into your compost and walk away feeling good.
In our daily business practices, we seek to reduce waste by prioritizing reducing and reusing over recycling. Even our chocolate fits into this category – we can rework it when it goes wrong! http://www.futamuragroup.com/en/divisions/cellulose-films/products/natureflex
Our chocolate is accessible, alluring, handcrafted, and affordable. Healthy ingredients, conscious business practices, and social justice are at the core of our values.
Viva Cacao is not only on a journey to inspire, we are on a journey to provide the consumer with chocolate that will do good and feel good in their bodies.
Because Viva Cacao is a small-batch chocolate producer, each bar is activated with love, life and a sense of social justice and conscious awareness. Not only does it taste delicious — it’s chocolate you can feel good about.
We look at cacao as the ultimate delivery vehicle of medicinal substances into the body and we celebrate it.
OUR PARTNERS
We acquire our cacao from small farms and coops in Ecuador and Peru where we are paying ABOVE the minimum imposed by Fair Trade and nearly 10% more than the international markets. In Ecuador we are sourcing "Arriba" Nacional fine aroma cacao and in Peru we work with organized groups of farmers and communities who produce mostly aromatic cacao. We pay the co-operative above market farmgate price.
The cooperative we mainly work with in San Martin buys cacao from 435 producers. 224 of the registered organic producers are women. The average hectarage is 2 per producer. The co-op itself has 47 full time employees, of which 20 are women. They also have 23 part time employees, of which 11 are women.
We are also proud to partner with Oso negro coffee from Nelson,Bc for our Coffee and Cardamom bar.
check them out here: https://osonegrocoffee.com/
Our coconut sugar is sourced from IMC in Indonesia
check them out here: