Many people assume that if they buy chocolate from a health store, they are automatically choosing a better product. It makes sense. Health stores are built around ideas like organic farming, natural ingredients, sustainability, and ethical consumption.
But when it comes to chocolate, things are not always that simple.
Chocolate starts with transparency
I’ve seen countless chocolate bars covered in reassuring labels and buzzwords: organic, Fairtrade, vegan, raw cacao, ceremonial grade.
Yet when I turned the bar over, one simple piece of information was often missing:
Where did the cacao come from?
Not where the chocolate was manufactured.
Not where it was packaged.
The cacao itself.
Sometimes there’s not even a country of origin listed.
That’s a red flag.
If a company can’t tell you where its cacao comes from, it’s difficult to evaluate the claims made on the front of the packaging.
Transparency is the foundation of responsible sourcing. Before we can talk about sustainability, fairness, or quality, we first need to know where the cacao was grown and who produced it.
Without that information, consumers are simply being asked to trust a logo.
The problem with labels
Labels can be useful, but they’re often treated as shortcuts.
Many consumers see a certification or a familiar marketing term and assume it tells the whole story.
It doesn’t.
Organic
Most of us want cacao to be grown responsibly, and organic farming can be an important part of that.
The mistake is assuming an organic label tells you everything about the quality of the cacao.
It doesn’t.
Organic certification says something about how the cacao was grown. It doesn’t tell you how well it was harvested, fermented, dried, stored, or selected before becoming chocolate.
I’ve seen certified organic cacao with mouldy beans, insect damage, poor fermentation, and other defects that no chocolate maker striving for exceptional quality would willingly use.
Organic is an agricultural standard—not a quality standard.
The same principle applies to finished chocolate.
Have you ever tasted a 70% or 80% dark chocolate that was overwhelmingly bitter or left your mouth feeling dry? Many people assume that’s simply what dark chocolate tastes like.
It isn’t.
Those harsh flavours are often signs of lower-quality cacao or poor processing. Well-made dark chocolate can be rich, balanced, fruity, floral, nutty, or deeply chocolaty without being aggressively bitter.
You wouldn’t accept burnt coffee and call it “strong coffee.”
Don’t accept harsh chocolate and assume it’s the “real cacao flavour.”
Fairtrade
Fairtrade is probably the best-known certification in chocolate.
Ask most consumers what it means, and many will say something like, “It means the farmers are paid fairly.”
I once asked a customer how she thought Fairtrade worked. She told me she believed it meant that most of the money from a chocolate bar went to the farmers.
Imagine if a multinational chocolate company gave most of its profits to cacao farmers.
We’d probably see a lot farmers driving around in Lamborghinis.
Jokes aside, it highlights a common misunderstanding. Many people recognise the logo, but relatively few understand how the pricing system actually works.
As of 8 July 2026, the global cocoa commodity price is around USD 5.80–5.90 per kilogram.
According to Fairtrade’s own pricing table, the Fairtrade Minimum Price for cocoa beans ranges from approximately USD 2.40 to USD 3.50 per kilogram, depending on origin and cocoa category, with West Africa at the lower end of the current pricing table. On top of this, producers receive a Fairtrade Premium of approximately USD 0.22–0.24 per kilogram.
* Fairtrade states that when the market price exceeds the Fairtrade Minimum Price, producers should receive the current market price or the price negotiated when the contract was signed.
So why does this matter?
Because many consumers believe the Fairtrade logo guarantees that farmers are paid more than everyone else.
For one of our upcoming projects, we sourced cacao through a specialised fine-cacao importer. The producers received between €9 and €13 per kilogram for their cacao (different origin, different price).
The point isn’t that every sourcing model should look like this, or that Fairtrade has no role to play.
The point is that some sourcing models are built around exceptional cacao, direct relationships, and transparency, allowing producers to receive substantially higher prices than many consumers assume represent “fair” trade.
A certification logo can’t tell you that story.
Transparency can.
Raw cacao
“Raw cacao” is one of the most widely used marketing terms in chocolate, yet there is no universally accepted definition of what “raw” means once cacao has been fermented, dried, and processed.
I’ve written a separate article exploring this topic in more detail.
Ceremonial grade
“Ceremonial grade” sounds official.
It isn’t.
There is no legal definition, internationally recognised standard, or independent certification for ceremonial-grade cacao.
Some producers use the term to describe carefully sourced, high-quality cacao intended for ceremonial use.
Others simply use it because it sells.
The words themselves tell you very little.
As with any chocolate, what matters is who made it, where the cacao came from, and whether the producer is transparent about their sourcing.
Choosing better chocolate
Choosing chocolate based solely on labels is easy.
But the easiest choice isn’t always the most informed one.
A health store may be highly knowledgeable about organic products, supplements, nutrition, and other health-focused categories.
But does that automatically mean the staff understand the complexities of cacao and chocolate?
Do they know how to evaluate fermentation quality?
Can they identify defects in cacao?
Do they understand the difference between a marketing term and a meaningful indicator of quality?
Are they familiar with cacao market?
Chocolate is a remarkably complex product.