this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2024
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Mildly Interesting

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"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] 114 points 1 week ago (5 children)

I do like these bars but breaking it into pieces without a mess is difficult. I've had to resort to putting the entire thing in my mouth and waiting for it to melt down my throat.

[–] [email protected] 68 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I guess we'll just have to deal with slavery then

[–] [email protected] 53 points 1 week ago (1 children)

If only there was some middle ground between hard to eat chocolate and modern day slavery.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

But the slavery is where the flavour comes from!

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 week ago (1 children)

You break it while the packaging is intact

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 week ago

The geopolitical meta is strong here

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 week ago
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[–] [email protected] 100 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (10 children)

Too bad about all the lead in them. They're not as bad as some brands, though.

[–] [email protected] 51 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (10 children)

An ounce of their Dark Chocolate has 134% of the California MADL dose of 0.5 micrograms of lead, for those wondering about details.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 week ago (2 children)

An ounce is about 29 grams in non-freedom units, for those wondering

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 week ago (1 children)

micrograms, which is 1/1000 of a milligram. No amount of lead is considered safe, but you would need to eat allllottttttt of this chocolate before it would get to a level that, for example, a doctor would be concerned about. Ars Technica has a good write up about the CR report

Not that I’m trying to shill for Big Chocolate. When I saw the report, I definitely made a conscious effort to cut back to once a month or less.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 week ago (10 children)

if I die by eating dark chocolate, at least I'll die happy

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Otoh, it makes them sweeter

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 week ago

If it's good enough to collapse the Roman Empire, it's good enough to collapse the American Empire!

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 week ago

I know, right? It really sucks. They're honestly one of the tastier bars I'd had. I've taken a bit of a step back from chocolate in general, these days. I probably got enough lead exposure as a kid... no need to add any more than is absolutely unavoidable.

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[–] [email protected] 69 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Maybe they should spend less money on a fancy mold for their chocolate and more on better sourced cocoa beans with less lead in them: https://www.consumerreports.org/health/food-safety/lead-and-cadmium-in-dark-chocolate-a8480295550/

[–] [email protected] 54 points 1 week ago (1 children)

There is absolutely no difference in price between the two - i.e. a "fancy" one like this and a regular one. Both will most likely be made by machining a block of graphite and using EDM to make the actual mold. The difference in machining time wouldn't cost more than $200 or so

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Wow, techno music is so versatile.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 week ago

Sure, gram for gram, Tony's has 34% more lead than California would like, but their chocolate is still sold in the state.

To add to what @[email protected] pointed out, the Mast bar is 70g for $8, while Tony's bar is 180g for $6.

Gram for gram, Mast is more than triple the price.

[–] [email protected] 62 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Quite succesful in the Netherlands.

In 2003, after discovering that the majority of chocolate produced at the time had links to human exploitation, Dutch television producer and journalist Teun van de Keuken began producing programs about the horrors of the commercial cocoa industry on his show Keuringsdienst van Waarde. Furthermore, he submitted a request to be prosecuted for knowingly purchasing an illegally manufactured product, which prosecutors declined to do.

After three years of unsuccessful attempts to change the industry through investigative efforts, Van de Keuken decided to start producing chocolate bars himself. The brand was called "Tony's Chocolonely" with "Tony" (= Teun) and "Chocolonely" in reference to Teun van de Keuken feeling as if he was the only person in the industry who was interested in eradicating slavery. Van de Keuken sold 20,000 bars in two days.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony%27s_Chocolonely https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teun_van_de_Keuken

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[–] [email protected] 49 points 1 week ago

Thanks for the advertisement?

[–] [email protected] 48 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Funny that they made their brand the biggest piece of all in the representation.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I'm reading it like they colonize Africa directly

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 week ago (1 children)

"It's UNFAIR that all of these countries exist! All must bow before Tony's West African Company."

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[–] [email protected] 40 points 1 week ago (3 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.

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[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 week ago
[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Around $5 and good chocolate

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 week ago (5 children)

If they paid the farmers more they could just make regular shaped chocolate

[–] [email protected] 66 points 1 week ago (4 children)

They literally do, and their chocolate is a little more expensive because of it

But they're not Hershey or Cadbury (whoever owns them, forget the name rn), or even close to them in size, so they can't just fix the industry all on their own

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 week ago (2 children)
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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

Cadbury (whoever owns them, forget the name rn),

Kraft, now called Mondelez

Also Mars is the largest confectionery brand

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I think that is exactly why this company was founded.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 week ago

Fait point, but it's a statement about the industry as a whole, not their own production. Even if they were to distribute profits evenly over the entire production chain of their products (which I agree they probably don't), the industry as a whole would still have this problem.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 week ago

Damn that's just an ad. There is no escape

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 week ago (9 children)

This is my favorite brand of chocolate rn

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

The irregular pieces make it much easier to eat. You make a conscious decision how much you break off, instead of just getting another 4 squares.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 week ago

Yes... haha.... conscious eating... haha...

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 week ago

Neato advertisement!

Products looks like shit.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 week ago

It's also why I no longer buy it. It's a PITA to eat.

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