Stops Fillings Allegedly (Green & Black's Organic 70% Dark Chocolate)

Member Name: Maiakins

Product:	Green & Black's Organic 70% Dark Chocolate
Date:	17/09/03 (233 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Delicious, Guilt-free, Organic

Disadvantages: Expensive

I am addicted to chocolate. Galaxy bars, Mars Bars, Rolos, Twix, Maltesers ? they all rock my boat! I could eat chocolate for breakfast, lunch and dinner. But my dentist does not seem to agree. 4 fillings and a great deal of pain later, I resolved to cut down on my choccie intake (for a chocoholic like myself, giving up completely was impossible).

But how? I am still eating chocolate, but in smaller, more concentrated quantities. In other words, I try to go for quality over quantity.

The king of all quality chocolates is Green & Blacks. Made with more cocoa solids than most chocolate brands and using cocoa butter rather than vegetable fat, Green & Blacks tastes divine.

** PACKAGING **
As you might expect from a luxury chocolate brand, the packaging screams indulgence. All of the bars are dark chocolate brown coloured with gold writing on. To distinguish the different bars, the top inch is a different colour (e.g. mint chocolate is green). Inside the outer wrapping is gold packaging protecting the chocolate itself. Very simple, very stylish.

** THE TASTE **
There are eight different types: Dark; Milk; Maya Gold; White; Almond; Caramel; Hazelnut and Currant; and lastly, Mint.

My personal favourite is the Mint. The combination of refreshing mint fondant filling with the intense, bittersweet, dark chocolate shell is so perfect. If you like After Eights, you will LOVE this. My only complaint is that the mint chocolate bars are not always available in all shops that stock Green & Blacks (which is by the way, Waitrose, Tesco and all good health food stores).

** GUILT FREE TOO **
The chocolate is totally guilt-free: good to the environment (organic) and good for people (fair-trade).

Good for the environment: The cocoa beans are purchased from small-scale farmers, who do not use chemicals or genetically modified ingredients. Amongst the cocoa trees, the farmers plant a variety of trees in order t
o create a biodiverse environment. All Green & Black chocolates carry the symbol of the Soil Association, meaning that they meet the necessary standards for organic food and farming.

Good for people: Green & Blacks were the first chocolate company to carry the Fairtrade mark (on the Maya Gold bars). They prefer to use family growers and try to pay a higher (fair) price to the growers for the beans. Contrast this with other chocolate companies, such as Nestle who are well-known to be positively harmful in their practices (e.g. promotion of baby-milk powder in areas where the water is not clean/safe, leading to diarrhoea, loss of natural immunity and even deaths).

** NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION (per 100g) **
(Based on the Dark Chocolate bar)
Energy 2400kJ/576kcal
Protein 7.5g
Carbohydrate 45.5g
Fat 40.5g

Green & Blacks is suitable for vegans and vegetarians. According to the packaging, it may contain traces of nuts (I am allergic to nuts, and I have never had any form of reaction, although I obviously do not eat the Almond or the Hazelnut & Currant bars).

** VALUE FOR MONEY **
But at £1.35 a bar (100g), it is also not cheap. But because it is so rich, you cannot eat more than a few chunks at one time. Therefore the 100g bar lasts me a whole week, which is fantastic value for money in my book!

And what about the dentist? He is pleased too, because apparently the environment in my mouth has improved. At my last check-up, I was filling-free. So for everyone who wants to cut down on their chocolate intake but not cut it out completely (be it for diet reasons or for teeth reasons), I would recommend you try Green and Black chocolate. Yum, yum, yummy!

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