EASTER is on its way so get organised and buy ETHICAL CHOCOLATE eggs before you run out of time - fab websites here...

[Astrophe]

You should do this because...

traffiked children are used to farm cocoa.

We really mustn't give our children Easter eggs that have been made by child slaves.

You can buy ethical chocolate at:

Ethical super store (although beware of chocolate which is organic but not fair trade)

Montezuma's

Hotel Chocolat

The Co op supermarket also sells some fair trade eggs and I'm sure there are others if you look.

Do it now, so you don't find yourself buying Nestle eggs on Easter eve!

Please bump the thread

good effort was looking at hotel choc earlier...

hotel choc ROCKS! but v v expensive.

I have sent DH to hotel chocolat on his way back from Bristol where he is this week - mmmmm, hope he buys be something yummy

I told him I need a tub of chocolate chips, and then casually mentioned that they probably have Easter eggs there too...

yeah, tis not cheap. Montezumas are cheaper, and ethical super store stock divine, which is cheap.

is hotel Chocolat ethical? Couldnt see anything on their website. Think co-op is great for fairtrade products far better than Tesco

Good thread

pablop - here - it hasn't got the fair trade logo, but they deal directly with a plantation in St Lucia, have a read

if you have a look at the info on the Rabot Estate information on their website here it would appear that they are ethical.

Also here and here

It's hard to find though isn't it - I think the Montezuma's site is better fr making their ethical stance clear.

Don't forget that M&S source all of their chocolate ethically, despite not having Fairtrde status.

Fairtrade even...

some more here : the divine ones, plus Montezuma's. Free delivery if you spend over £35 which is easy to do if you check out all the other yummy stuff on ths site

not all eggs on that link are fairtrade, but at least Divine and Montezuma's are

Oxfam have quite a few too and also waitrose.

Don't buy eggs at all! All that packaging and over-priced too!

I have never bought an Easter egg for my children, I'd rather get them a decent, good-quality, ethical bar of chocolate. They'd rather have that too.

The egg side of Easter we cover the old-fashioned way, dyeing hard-boiled eggs etc.

castillo - I hadn't heard that - how'd you know? (not doubting you, just wondering )

Re packaging - for the kids I have bought a easter egg chocolate mould so I can make their eggs and avoid cost and packaging. I must confess that so far its not going well though. Divine chocolate doesn't seem hard enough to melt and mould - it doesn't set properly - any thouhts?

Apostrophe - it's funny you should say that about making your own eggs because I've just come back on to post exactly that!

We have both large and small egg moulds and have made lots over the years. I don't know why yours isn't going too well, I thought I'd used Divine in the past. Chocolate with a higher cocoa content does perform best though.

The only tip I would say is that I never get as good results melting chocolate in the microwave, it always seems much better when done the old-fashioned way over a pan of hot water. Perhaps that's just me.

HMMM, maybe I should use dark divine then, or try mixing them. I am currently making chocolate lollipops (with milk divine) for my DS's birthday party, and the chocolate keeps turning all white and crumbly after it sets. It tastes ok, but doesn't look good at all. If I keep them in the fridge they are ok, but obviously they will need to come out of the fridge to go into the party bags, so...? Shall keep experimenting - I get to eat the mistakes

eco - what choc do you normally use for easter egg making?

Astrophe - I know one of the product development team at M&S who is quite high up. We often talk about ethical shopping and how hard it can be. To become a member of Fairtrade is expensive. M&S management felt it was unnecessary as they have their own suppliers who have to meet pretty stringent criteria and who would all have had to gain Fairtrade status too. M&S are also reducing packaging and making the packaging they do use biodegradable.

Stuart Rose made all of his management (that is every manager in the company) watch the Al Gore film when it came out (forget the name ) and all of the food people had to read The Fatal Harvest. He takes climate change and sustainability very seriously it seems.

thanks callisto, that very good to know I will go to M&S on Thurs and see if they have some chocolate more suitable to moulding then.

astrophe the fewer cocoa solids in your choc the lower the temp you need to melt it, otherwise it will go lumpy. chop it finely and set it in a warm porcelain bowl over a bowl of steaming water - off the heat - that may be enough if you stir it.

Pop it in a cool place to set and it will do it eventually! But may always seem a bit 'greasy' cos there is a lot more fat in low cocoa choc.

love Montezuma and Hotel Chocolat !

bump

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I got the dubble egg from the ethical superstore. It's fairtrade and the packaging is all recyclable (cardboard and foil - no plastic). I'm hoping the kids i'm buying for will be as impressed as they would be with with a character egg. if not - tough s**t - i can't stand spoilt precocious brat kids anyway