A Love Letter to Dr. Bronner's Chocolate

Chocolate by Leigha Staffenhagen

I am a diehard Dr. Bronner’s fan. Like, so much so, that if I go to stay the night at a friend’s house, or am planning a trip somewhere, and I forget my little mini Dr. Bronner’s castile soap, I will find the nearest co-op or pharmacy to buy one, even if it means I’m stocking up on another 32oz bottle that I’ll have to lug around. For me, there really is no substitute. So, when I found out that my favorite soap brand (let’s be honest, favorite brand, period) was making chocolate, I couldn’t help but be stoked, albeit surprised, by the unexpected pivot from shower to pantry. But once I dug more into the “why” behind Dr. Bronner’s chocolatey endeavor, all the puzzle pieces came together, and it made me love them even more.

If you’re not familiar with Dr. Bronner’s, aside from making some of the best soap, their whole business is centered around what they call their Cosmic Principles. The six principles include working hard, doing right by customers, treating employees like family, being fair to suppliers, treating the earth like home, and funding and fighting for what’s right. And these aren’t just some lofty, fluffy, corporate goals to appease stakeholders. Dr. Bronner’s follows through on their principles, and oftentimes is quite unapologetic about fighting for the causes they believe in. Just take a look at their website, social media, or even the label itself, and I think you’ll agree that they don’t just talk the talk, but they walk the walk, too.

Their newest line of chocolate bars is yet another vehicle for them to promote real, impactful change, in the conventionally destructive methods of cacao and palm oil farming, and in the lives of farmers, too. Clearly, I wasn’t the only one excited, but confused, about the chocolate pivot, considering Dr. Bronner’s published a blog post about why they’re making chocolate in the first place. In the post, they quickly clear up the “why” by explaining that their move to make chocolate is about so much more than just making a tasty, low-glycemic, vegan sweet treat. In fact, the move dates back to 2009, when Dr. Bronner’s helped establish the world’s first certified organic and fair-trade palm oil project in Ghana called Serendipalm.

You’re likely aware of palm oil plantations’ nasty reputation for deforestation and the subsequent destruction of endangered orangutan habitats. By establishing this palm oil project, Dr. Bronner’s was able to help provide around 800 farmers with the resources they needed to move away from conventional farming methods that involved toxic pesticides and led to soil degradation and a heavy carbon footprint. After establishing these dynamic agroforestry practices, Dr. Bronner’s took the momentum they’d built to turn their attention to another commonly destructive industry: chocolate. For years, the chocolate industry has made a profit at the cost of child labor, deforestation, worker exploitation, and even slavery. Fortunately, Fair Trade chocolate is becoming easier to find, thanks in a large part to chocolate cooperatives and concerned consumers. Dr. Bronner’s is now a part of that effort, working directly with farmers by supporting them in transitioning towards regenerative farming practices, while offering them fair, stable wages that allow them to earn an income that’s reliable, regardless of fluctuating market prices.

While supporting a better chocolate industry is reason enough to try Dr. Bronner’s latest concoction, the chocolate itself is pretty darn tasty, too. Currently, we’re carrying their salted dark chocolate, salted almond butter, and smooth coconut praline. If you love a no-frills dark chocolate, the salted bar is the way to go. But if you’re like me, and prefer a bit of sweetness and texture with your dark chocolate, the smooth coconut praline is a must-try. It’s so rich and delightful that I’ve been whittling away at it for the last week.

I’ll leave you with this silly anecdote: when I was doing my shopping one day after work, I was looking for a sweet little treat to enjoy on my drive home. It was then that the sparkly glimmer of the word “MAGIC” caught my eye on the bottom shelf of our chocolate aisle. I’m embarrassed to admit just how giddy I got about finding the elusive Dr. Bronner’s chocolate bar, and I’d like to publicly apologize to the sweet couple looking at chocolate bars, that were likely caught off guard by the girl (me) who was too excited not to share the news with the closest humans who’d listen. I hope I wasn’t too wild-eyed and excitable. But I can’t help it, I’m a brand loyalist. And if you’re at all as passionate about Dr. Bronner’s soap as I am, I hope you have that same giddy, childlike reaction to their chocolate, too.

Halloween has a long and complicated history. Though celebrated now mostly as a secular holiday, it’s an amalgam of religious holidays from ancient Christianity and Celtic paganism. Many modern Halloween traditions trace their origins to Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and Great Britain: apple-bobbing, dressing in costume, and jack-o'-lanterns.

The origins of the jack-o'-lantern are significantly less complicated than the holiday itself. Though the term had been used as early as the 1660s to describe will-o-wisps, the tradition owes more to an old Irish folk tale.

In the mid-18th century, there were several versions of the tale of Stingy Jack, a cunning but stingy blacksmith. One chill autumn night, Jack meets the Devil in a bar and invites him to have a drink. Over the course of a whisky or two, he convinces the Devil to transform himself into a coin with which he will pay for the drinks. As soon as the Devil changes into a coin, Jack binds it to a silver cross in his pocket, trapping the Devil. Jack agrees to let him loose under the condition that he is to leave him alone for a year.

Jack does some planning over the course of that year. He has a prize apple tree in his orchard that he won’t ever share the fruit of, and people around the county know of it. Every year he sells the whole crop to the highest bidder, but this year he leaves some hanging. When the Devil comes back for him that fall, he starts talking about what a shame it is that he won’t be able to enjoy the last of his crop.

Even in Hell, the Devil has heard about Jack's apples. As Jack talks on about them, the crunch, and the delicate scent that hits you a moment later, the Devil starts to think some apples sound pretty good. But Jack refuses to tell the Devil which tree it is, and after a few hours of looking the Devil calls it quits. “Jack, you tell me which tree it is and let me eat my fill. If they’re as good as you say they are, I’ll give you another year.”

Jack hems and haws a bit, scuffs the ground, and finally agrees. He takes the Devil to one of the tallest trees in the orchard and points up to one of the highest branches. On it are seven apples, all of the rest of the branches are bare. They’re beauties—large, shiny, and bright red. “You go ahead and climb up, Devil, and help yourself. Those are all that’s left, with my bad leg I can’t get up there anyway.”

The Devil hesitated a little—he didn’t remember anything about Jack having a lame leg last year—but those apples looked fine, and he hadn’t eaten yet.

As soon as the Devil was up towards the top with his claw reaching for an apple, Jack pulled out his pocketknife and carved a cross into the bark of the tree, trapping the Devil again. After the Devil was done howling, screaming, cursing, and threatening, Jack offered him a deal—he’d let him down if the Devil would go away and leave him alone forever. After some more screaming and swearing, the Devil agreed again.

Many years later Jack died an old, rich man (though he’d never been happy). As he approached the pearly gates of Heaven, they slammed shut in his face, and down he fell to the pits of hell. But the Devil remembered Jack, and true to his word, wouldn’t take him into Hell either. The Devil sent him out into the night with a burning coal to light his way, and Jack put this into a hollowed-out turnip. He was cursed to wander the earth forever, and was called Jack of the Lantern, eventually shortened to Jack O’Lantern.

In Ireland, it became tradition to carve turnips, rutabagas, or potatoes into frightening faces, and leave them in doors and windows to frighten away Jack and other malevolent spirits. When Irish immigrants came to America and brought their customs with them, they found turnips to be in short supply. Pumpkins, however, were plentiful, and perfectly suited to carving. As the Irish immigrants spread throughout America, so did the tradition.

So, as you’re carving your frightening, friendly, or goofy gourd this year, take a moment to think about the history behind it. And maybe spare a thought for old Stingy Jack.