Equal Exchange

As I mentioned in today’s earlier update, I’m a big fan of fairly traded chocolate. So sometimes I’ll post about a chocolate brand or product that I’m excited about! This summer I have been especially excited about Equal Exchange!

Equal Exchange is a fabulous worker-owned cooperative dedicated to “creating a more equitable, democratic, and sustainable world.”  One of the things I like about them is that they sell much more than just chocolate bars!  Here’s an incomplete list of what you can order from Equal Exchange’s website:

Chocolate bars, nuts, chocolate chips, dried fruit, cooking chocolate, coffee, tea, hot chocolate, etc.

They used to sell chocolate covered raisins, and I consider it one of the great tragedies of my life that they’ve stopped selling them.

But what I wanted to gush about today is Equal Exchange’s hot chocolate! Specifically the spicy kind …

Yum!

Spicy cocoa may not sound ideal, but that’s because you’ve never tried this delicious mix!  I like to add a little bit of french vanilla coffee cream (or coconut–or both!). Some people like it plain. Either way, it comes highly recommended with the Daydreams and Chocolate seal of approval, which is a thing I just made up right now.

So there you have it! Equal Exchange and it’s spicy hot cocoa will be added to the Chocolate page as one of my favorite ethical cold weather treats!

 

Some Words About Chocolate

Chocolate is in the title of this blog, but there hasn’t been much talk of it.  I’ve decided it’s time to fix all that!

When I started Daydreams and Chocolate, the plan was to post 90% creative projects and 10% blurbs about my favorite fairly traded chocolates. I was totally going to do this. But I found I’m a little shy when it comes to gushing about the fair trade chocolate part. Which is kind of silly.  I mean, this entire blog is a kind of self-promotion, so why do I feel weird promoting a cause I care about?

I don’t want to come off sounding preachy, I guess, is half of it.  But the other half is that, as I peruse the internet, I come across so many good causes that I can do nothing to help all of them, and a lot of the time I end up feeling overwhelmed and useless.

I don’t want you, reader, to feel overwhelmed and useless!

But … I am also really excited about fair trade chocolates! Like, genuinely starts-squealing-when-I-find-them-in-the-candy-aisle-at-Giant-Eagle excited! And, just as with my projects, I want to be able to share them with other people who might get excited over them!

So if this isn’t your thing, that’s totally ok.  As much as I will inevitably start squealing about how YOU NEED TO TRY THIS CHOCOLATE BAR RIGHT NOW!!! that’s hyperbole. Of course you don’t need to try this chocolate bar right now.  This site may be a self-promotion, but there’s a difference between sharing the things I love and shoving them in your face, and I aim for the former.  I want this place to be low-pressure.  No one needs more stress in their lives.

So peruse for however long you like.  Read the stories if you like, listen to the songs if you like, go out and buy the chocolate if you like.  Or do none of those things if you don’t like them. The world will keep spinning, and I will be happy because you read this post and also because this chocolate cheese cake is a thing that exists:

Tonight I will post a little blurb about one of my favorite brands, Equal Exchange.  Come back and read it if it makes you happy! ^_^