Earth's Sweet Pleasures's Page

I created this page to share my passion for good quality dark chocolate and my passion for the world's cacao farmers. I'm still learning a lot about the whole "fair trade" issue, and I like the idea of "Direct Trade" proposed by Clay Gordon. The chocolate we use in our fudge comes from a co-op in the Dominican Republic. I want to do more research on how the farmers are paid, treated, etc. I know our chocolate tastes really good. It won first place at the San Francisco Chronicle chocolate festival. We get it from Sweet Earth Organics in San Luis Obispo. The owner, Tom Newhaus has a foundation called Hope and Fairness Foundation: http://www.hopeandfairness.org which is helping the cacao farmers in Africa. He goes every summer to the Ivory Coast. We are going to Venezuela in the winter to visit cacao farms. Chocolate farming and the history of chocolate is interesting. If you visit our website: http://www.earthssweetpleasures.com, you can see the farmers with cacao trees and pods and the beans drying. Chocolate is wonderful, and this is going to be a fun ride! Very soon I will have our blog up www.chocolatefudgecafe.com. Come in for a cup of hot chocolate and some conversation! I'll try to keep it interesting and controversial...I enjoy a good debate!