Bennetto

Chocolate That Started With A Migraine.

Lucy Bennetto was teaching high school English and Drama, loved chocolate, and got migraines from it, which is an unusually irritating combination of facts. So in 2010 she started making her own on the kitchen bench in Christchurch with a spice grinder and organic cocoa beans, using her students as enthusiastic and entirely unpaid taste testers. A trip to the Dominican Republic to see ethical cocoa sourcing for herself settled the rest of it. The test kitchen is still in Christchurch, which rather suggests the approach is working.

Much of the cocoa comes from Acopagro, a Fairtrade co-operative in Peru's San Martín region on the edge of the Amazon, which is a great deal more than most chocolate will tell you about itself. The bars are certified organic and Fairtrade, and Bennetto is a B Corporation and a Living Wage accredited employer, which is four certifications for a company that began with a spice grinder. They also describe the bars as net climate positive, which is their claim rather than ours and set out properly on their own site.

70% Dark, 82% Super Dark, Coconut Flakes, Dark Mint, Salted Caramel, Orange with Chilli, Raspberries in Dark and Toasted Hazelnut, all vegan and all gluten free. The packaging is illustrated and recyclable and almost nobody recycles it, because people keep the wrappers, which is either very good design or a mild storage problem depending on the household.

For more worth eating, have a browse of our food hall and gift sets and hampers collections, or carry on to tea and coffee, gifts and kitchen and dining. There are more businesses like this one in B Corp certified and ethical brands.