Ethical mint chocolate tastes Divine

The new mint dark chocolate bar contains 70 per cent cocoa and natural peppermint oil.

Divine, whose cocoa is supplied by a farmers co-operative in Ghana, is an ethically-driven chocolate company and, as such, is well placed to tap into the recent consumer trend towards more sensitively sourced products.

The potential of the ethical chocolate market is growing as consumers become more cautious when it comes to food choices.

A recent YouGov survey commissioned by Marks & Spencer in the UK revealed that 78 per cent of consumers would like more information about how goods are made and 59 per cent said they purchase Fairtrade products while 18 per cent said they would if they became more available on the high street.

Divine's new mint chocolate will go on sale in charity retailer Oxfam outlets from next month priced £1.19 (€1.77) for a 100g bar.

Cocoa for the product is provided by the Day Chocolate company which is jointly owned by farming co-operative Kuapa Kokoo and the NGO Twin Trading.

Kuapa Kokoo has 47,000 members spread over 1,200 villages in West Africa and supplies Fairtrade chocolate for UK retailers Co-op and Starbucks as well as Divine.

Central to the Divine ethos is the idea behind the Fairtrade logo. According to the company: "Day Chocolate pays a fair price for the cocoa supplied by the Kuapa Kokoo farmer's cooperative in Ghana, and an additional social premium which is used by the farmers to improve their living and working conditions."​

Sales figures for Day Chocolate have been encouraging with a profit of £618,081 in the year ending September 2005 and a turnover of £7.6m which, according to the company, has now grown to around the £9m mark.

Next month, Divine will be heavily involved in campaigning for Chocolate Week which runs from 16-22 October and is a UK wide promotional event designed to raise consumer awareness of chocolate related issues such as Fairtrade cocoa farming.