Our search for the best fair trade chocolate brands was a very pleasant journey of taste! We tasted and tested over 30 brands of fair trade chocolate over the last few months.
Chocolate is one of our favorite road trip snacks so our judging was done in the back of our camper van by our experts during trips to some of our favorite regional campgrounds.
We all love a bit of chocolate but in many cases, the chocolate we love is not good for the people who make it. Not good at all!
Big companies love to exploit local workers leaving them with nothing as the brand scoops up all the profits and runs off to share it with its already wealthy shareholders. That’s when they’re not outright supporting slavery.
It doesn’t have to be like that.
You can buy fair trade chocolate and know that the money you spend on chocolate supports the workforce as much as it does the brand.
Check out our top fair-trade chocolate brands for some tasty ideas that will be as good for other people as they are for you.
Tony’s Chocolonely
Tony’s was one of the very first chocolate brands to go all out on fair trade.
Their mission is to see that the chocolate industry is kept 100% slavery free.
We can recommend pretty much everything they make but our favorite is the white raspberry and popping candy flavor, it’s mind-blowing.
You can find Tony’s Chocolonely online.
Endangered Species Chocolate
Want your chocolate to work even harder for the planet?
Go with Endangered Species Chocolate which is not just fair trade but also gives 10% of its proceeds to animal welfare.
So, far they’ve given over $1.3 million to animal charities. Their natural dark chocolate is super tasty too and perfect paired with a good coffee (like these amazing fair trade coffees)!
You can find Endangered Species Chocolate online.
Pascha Organic
Pascha is everything you want from a supplier – there are 100% vegan certified, complete GMO-free and organic as well as fair trade.
So, when you grab a bar of their 85% cacao chocolate and you feel slightly naughty doing so, you can let yourself relax – you’re making the planet a better place to be as you indulge your sweet tooth!
KIND
KIND is a famous brand thanks to its “send someone a bar” campaign which has allowed millions of people to send someone they like and admire a chocolate bar for free.
They are, as the name suggests, all about kindness and it could hardly be kind if it wasn’t also fair trade, could it?
We love the caramel almond and sea salt best but they’re all great!
HU
HU stands for “Food for Humans” and not only do they do fair trade chocolate, they make sure that all the ingredients are products you would recognize.
No chemicals, no funny E numbers, etc. just all natural and real ingredients.
We really enjoy their chocolate gems which are ideal for a quick snack between meals. Yum.
You can find Food For Humans (HU) online.
Alter Eco
Alter Eco are completely fair trade and they’ve also been fully certified as USDA Organic which means that they and their supply chain have met some very stringent standards and that you can trust the ingredients in their chocolate bars.
Our top pick of the Alter ECO bunch are the classic dark chocolate truffles. So scrummy!
Theo
Theo comes from the heart of America’s most caring city, Seattle, and as you’d expect they are 100% fair trade and 100% organic too. Their cocoa farmers are always paid properly for cocoa production.
Their fair trade certified chocolate is some of the most divine chocolate that we’ve ever tried. Ethical chocolate production can lead to beautiful milk chocolate and organic dark chocolate that uses cocoa beans that make you feel good because they’re kind.
While slightly lower in cacao than some of the other organic brands, there’s no compromise in the quality of the chocolate at all and their 70% dark chocolate bars are just superb.
You can find Theo online. They are one of the chocolate companies you can trust.
Valrhona
We first came across Valrhona when we went looking for certified fair trade hot cocoa powder and theirs is excellent but you really should try their dark chocolate bars too.
They use a direct trade arrangement which means that each farmer is paid directly by Valrhona with no middlemen. This is how the cocoa industry should work – fair trade certified cocoa farmers getting paid fairly for their contribution to each chocolate bar.
Check out the Grue De Cacao Cocoa Nibs for something really special.
You can find Valrhona online.
Stella Bernrain
They might sound French, but their chocolate actually originates in the Philippines which is a great place to grow chocolate and sadly, much underutilized.
This is completely fair trade and the money that you spend helps to support some of the world’s poorest but nicest people.
You can’t go wrong with Stella Bernrain’s Agave Nectar fair trade chocolate range, it’s all delicious.
You can find Stella Bernrain on their own website.
EMVI Chocolate
Last but most certainly not least are EMVI chocolate, who hail from the Hudson Valley in New York.
That means not only are these chocolates fair trade but they’re handmade artisan chocolates from the USA and there’s nothing quite as awesome as buying locally made products to reduce travel miles on products.
The best thing about EMVI other than their provenance are their special occasion ranges – be it Halloween or Christmas, they’ve got you covered.
You can find EMVI Chocolate on their own website.