If you love the flavors of chai and chocolate, check out the new organic Chai Drinking Chocolate from Dagoba Organic Chocolate.

Made with organic cacao powder, unsweetened dark chocolate, cane sugar, crystallized ginger and chai spices, it’s 100% organic and Fair-Trade certified. Just add water, milk, cream or soymilk for a deliciously rich hot beverage.

The mix is now available at supermarkets and natural/organic food stores. It joins Dagoba’s existing line of organic drinking chocolates:

…it’s a heck of a good start!

When I found out that there were several bitter truths beyond the taste of my favorite dark chocolate, another layer of guilt was added my guilty pleasure.

Not-so-sweet truths about ‘conventional’ chocolate include:

• Pesticides used in ‘conventional’ cocoa farming impact the soil, water, and the health of cocoa farmers
• Unethical practices in the cocoa industry – especially in Africa – include forced child labor, unfair pay, and poor working conditions

That’s why I was pleased as punch to read about the World Cocoa Foundation’s June Partnership meeting in Washington, D.C. June 3-4th. The meeting will be attended by top U.S. foreign agriculture brass and many other key decision makers in the industry. According to the WCF’s President, Bill Gutyon, “Efforts to improve farming practices, incomes and overall wellbeing for the millions of people who grow this unique crop are expanding significantly.”

One great start is the Cocoa Livelihoods Program, a new, $40 million program funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, eleven leading chocolate industry companies, and other partners. The program aims to significantly improve the livelihoods of approximately 200,000 cocoa farmers in West and Central Africa.

Show your support for organic chocolate with this scrumptious cupcake recipe; and let us know what favorite organic, fair trade chocolate brands are in your cupboard. We love hearing from you!

Source

Beverage selections include Fair Trade Organic Dominican Forestero Cocoa Mocha, Organic Belizian Vanilla Latte and Organic Vera Cruz Caffe Latte. Even better, each mix contains no fat.

Baristas can add a shot of perfectly extracted organic, Fair Trade espresso to ice and milk to create “the ultimate blended mocha frappe, ” the company notes. Mocafe Organics packages its mixes in 10-lb. coffee bar boxes.

Why choose organic cocoa when you make organic food choices?

Cocoa is one of the most heavily sprayed crops in the world (along with coffee), and most major retail brands use nonorganic cocoas in their blended mocha mixes. Mocafe Organics’ cocoa beans come from  600 small-scale organic farmers in the Yacao project in the Dominican Republic. (Click here to learn how organic cocoa beans are transformed into chocolate.)

Jill Hennessy (NBC photo: Paul Drinkwater)

In a recent interview, actress Jill Hennessy, star of the NBC hit drama “Crossing Jordan,” was asked about the one food she can’t live without. Her answer? Cocoa powder, which she adds to her morning bowl of Cream of Wheat.

“Seriously, it’s even better than a chocolate soufflé,” Hennessy swears—and her predilection may even help her fight cancer and heart disease.

According to researchers at Cornell University, cocoa is a major source of cancer-fighting antioxidants. It contains twice the amount found in red wine and up to three times the level found in green tea, according to Dr. Chang Y. Lee, chairman of the Department of Food Science and Technology. He and his fellow researchers found that cocoa contains a high level of phenolic phytochemicals (flavonoids), which indicate the presence of known antioxidants that can help prevent cancer, heart disease and other conditions.

Cocoa offers 611 mg gallic acid equivalents (GAE), a phenolic compound, and 564 mg flavonoid epicatechin equivalents (ECE) per single serving. In comparison, a glass of red wine provides 340 mg GAE and 163 mg ECE, while one cup of green tea offers 165 mg GAE and 47 mg ECE.

“If I had made a prediction before conducting the tests, I would have picked green tea as having the most antioxidant activity,” Dr. Lee says. “When we compared one serving of each beverage, the cocoa turned out to be the highest in antioxidant activity, and that was surprising to me.”

Phenolic compounds protect plants against insects and pathogens. A decade ago, “food scientists did not know that phenolics had an important role in human health,” Dr. Lee explains.

But don’t rush to substitute an organic chocolate bar for a cup of organic hot cocoa.

“Although a bar of chocolate exhibits strong antioxidant activity, the health benefits are still controversial because of the saturated fats present,” Dr. Lee and his research team concluded in their study. Cocoa has about .33 g fat per one-cup serving, while a standard 40-g chocolate bar contains 8 g fat.

To ensure you get your daily antioxidant boost, Dr. Lee encourages “diversification.”

“Personally, I would drink hot cocoa in the morning, green tea in the afternoon and a glass of red wine in the evening,” he says. “That’s a good combination.”

Sources for Organic Cocoa Powder

Ah!Laska
Dagoba
Green & Black’s
Tropical Traditions
Cocoa Camino

The weather outside has occasionally been frightful—and the skies are far from delightful in some areas of the country. It’s the perfect time to curl up by the fireplace and enjoy a mug of steaming hot chocolate.

Sure, you can buy a presweetened organic cocoa mix. (Check out mixes from Ah!Laska, Green & Black’s and Whole Foods Market.) But there’s nothing like making your own grown-up version of hot chocolate with organic milk and organic cocoa powder. The following recipe from the Dairy Farmers of Washington is all the richer with the addition of an organic egg.

Holiday Eggnog Hot Chocolate

1 egg
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup water
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1. Combine all ingredients in a blender.
2. Blend until smooth and well-mixed.
3. Transfer mixture to a double boiler.
4. Without boiling, heat until steaming hot, stirring constantly.

Note: If you find this to be too bitter for your taste, add the organic sweetener of your choice.

The Super-Easy Version

• For a simpler version, combine equal parts of organic chocolate milk and organic eggnog.
• Heat on the stove until steaming hot. Do not boil.

Note: We recommend two brands of organic eggnog: Horizon Organic and Clover Organic (available only in California).

Sources for Organic Cocoa Powder

Ah!Laska
Dagoba
Green & Black’s
Tropical Traditions
Cocoa Camino