Maya Gold

Cadbury's the mother ship of Green and Black's has received a lot of flack recently from the English press. Cadbury's is no longer British owned and was in fact taken over by the American giant Kraft in February 2010, a deal worth $19 Billion. Irene Rosenfeld, Executive Chairman of Kraft, recently refused to attend a Commons Business Select Committee meeting with MPs. Cadbury's did break their promise when they closed the Somerset plant so you think the least Ms Rosenfeld could do was turn up to face a few angry MPs. As Ms Rosenfeld is rated as being the second most powerful of the top ten business woman by Forbes. I'm sure she would have parried and deflected their questions easily. A missed opportunity perhaps.


On 3 June Cadbury's had to apologise for any offence they may have caused to supermodel, Naomi Campbell and her family for their apparent racist advert. I didn't see the advert in question but it allegedly compared Naomi to a Cadbury Dairy Milk Bliss chocolate bar. Cadbury's has apologised and has withdrawn the adverts pledging not to use them again. 

According to the tabloids sales of Cadbury products have begun to slide in all regions. Some people have even talked of boycotting their products, which in my opinion is madness. Our businesses are having a hard enough time as it is without knee jerk reactions such as this. Many of the top executives have left, up to two thirds of the original Cadbury executive have gone. A new broom sweeps clean! I'm sure this is the norm in terms of takeovers but I think PR and confidence building ought to be top of the agenda at Cadbury's monthly Executive meetings. How long before Cadbury's = Hershey?


Ok, let us hope that they can turn things around. In the meantime lets taste some chocolate from Green and Black's. 


The Chocolate: This particular bar of chocolate has been infused with a twist of orange and delicate spice. As the blurb on the back of the bar states, 'Traditionally, the Maya people in southern Belize flavoured their cocoa with spices'. The spices used in this bar included cinnamon, nutmeg and a hint of vanilla. This chocolate is both organic and Fairtrade. 

This particular chocolate has a cocoa content of 55% which is low but maybe this is the norm when it comes to mixing spices with chocolate? Orange is the overriding flavour coming from this bar. The bitterness from the very citrus orange works really well with the slightly sweet dark chocolate. I can't pinpoint the nutmeg or cinnamon but there is a hint of spice. The orange flavour does hang around for a long time. I'm not usually a fan of orange and chocolate but I enjoyed this bar.


Overall 6/10 for a good blend of flavours and priced at £1.82 for a 100g it has to be good value. Tesco currently have this bar on offer, 2 for £3.00, click here.

Green and Blacks Organic Dark Chocolate Cherry 60%

I've been looking forward to road testing this bar as I've made a few dark chocolate cherry bars myself and it's always good to have something to benchmark against. Green and Blacks as a brand is totally new to me and I consider myself a G&B virgin! According to their website they make and sell premium organic chocolate that has been ethically sourced. Apparently they pay a premium price for their products.


Their Story:  It all started in 1991 by Craig Sams, founder of Whole Earth which was ahead of its time pioneering organic products. Craig was sent a sample of dark 70% chocolate made from organic cocoa beans. His wife, Josephine Fairley, who just happened to be an environment writer for The Times found the half eaten bar and sampled some for herself. 


In 1994 Maya Gold was added to the range when the couple were on holiday in Belize and met up with a group of Mayan smallholder farmers who had planted cocoa trees at the request of a large chocolate company which subsequently withdrew from Belize leaving the farmers with no market. Well as they say, "the rest is history!" Maya Gold brand earned them the UK's first Fairtrade mark. What a brilliant story!


The name was chosen to demonstrate their strong ethical principals and passion for taste. Green represents sustainable and organic principals that are followed whilst making their chocolate. Black represents the colour of their original Dark 70% chocolate bar.


Well the couple eventually sold out to Cadbury Plc but the name and ethical approach has continued. Craig remains President of this company.


The Packaging: The rich cherry colour and bold gold lettering just ooze quality which shouts, "attention to detail". The bar is wrapped in gold foil to carry through the quality feel.

The Chocolate: Every ingredient is organic as you would expect. The chocolate is dark, shiny and the 100g bar is equally divided up into little rectangles for easy handling. I'm really enjoying this bar as the organic sour cherries are not overpowering and work really well with the dark chocolate. For those people who've not experienced dark chocolate it is probably a good entry level as it is slightly sweet. A 60% cocoa content means that your mouth remains moist and  there is sufficient bitterness to counteract the cherries. The only downside is that the bar contains whole milk powder which is not great for Vegans or those of you who are Lactose intolerant.

Green and Blacks Organic Dark Chocolate Cherry 60%

Overall I give this bar 8/10 for a good taste, ethical principals and excellent presentation. The bar was purchased from Adnams Cellar & Kitchen store in Southwold at £2.09 which is good value for money.