this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2024
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Mildly Interesting

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Tony's Chocolonely bars are shaped unevenly to represent farmer inequality and the coastline of Africa (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 week ago by Pencilnoob to c/mildlyinteresting
186 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

"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."

From https://us.tonyschocolonely.com/pages/faqs

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[–] [email protected] 41 points 6 days ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Wait, failed how? I didn’t know about this part.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

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....

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago

Wow, that sucks. Thanks for sharing it. I’m going to try to look up what the current status is.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 6 days ago (1 children)

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. 😞

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Cadbury in the USA is also literal shit next to tonys

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago (2 children)

I think all US chocolate is just shit tasting. I was referring to the UK (£), where it’s less shit.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I want to like this chocolate, but it's just so bland.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Are those as ethically sourced?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago

Doubt it, which is why I rarely eat them anymore

[–] LaLuzDelSol 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

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.

[–] LaLuzDelSol 2 points 5 days ago

Me too :) I just thought that thread was funny

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Unless something has changed that company is no longer on the slavery free list due to them having Callebaut making their chocolate.

https://www.foodnavigator.com/Article/2021/02/16/Tony-s-Chocolonely-axed-from-Slave-Free-Chocolate-list-defends-ties-with-Barry-Callebaut)

Guittard is my favorite for snacking and using in baking.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 days ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

It literally tells you why inside the packaging.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Why the fuck would I ever read inside the packaging for a chocolate bar

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago

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 🤷

[–] buzz86us 2 points 5 days ago

They also don't fuck over cocoa growers

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago

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.

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