"Eating this chocolate saves trees" ! How's that for an attention-grabbing slogan ?! If you're browsing the chocolate aisle in the supermarket when you spot this, the chances are you don't really need much convincing anyway but as they come, that is actually a very good reason/excuse for buying chocolate.
But what does it actually mean ? "Organic Meltdown has teamed up with the World Land Trust charity to preserve trees in Ecuadorian forests. Each wrapper of each bar carries a unique number which corresponds to its very own tree, and chocolate-lovers are encouraged to log onto www.organicmeltdown.com and register their number to find out where ‘their’ tree is situated. Organic Meltdown hopes to save 5 million trees by 2012 – helping to preserve valuable habitats and caring for endangered species." That's quite an ambitious target but around 108,808 trees have already been saved - and four of those were saved by me ! Yay, go me !! What I love is the small print that says "Any unclaimed trees will still be saved. Forever." For once, the small print is working FOR you and not AGAINST you !
So what about the chocolate itself ? "Available in four mouth-watering flavours, Organic Meltdown chocolate is made using carefully selected Fairtrade ingredients from Ecuador, Madagascar and Peru, and is a premium organic range. Choose from Swiss dark chocolate with candied orange (58% cocoa), Swiss milk chocolate with hazelnuts and currants (33% cocoa), Swiss dark chocolate (71% cocoa) and Swiss milk chocolate (33% cocoa)." So not only you're saving trees and helping the planet, it's also Fairtrade so you're helping the poor farmers in developing countries too. Forget the chocolate, it's already given me that snuggly warm-inside feeling when you know you've done your bit to help others !
The chocolate is tasty though. It's not my ultimate all-time favourite chocolate, which still has to be the unbeatably creamy Galaxy, but the added "good cause" element would certainly be enough to make me throw it in my trolley from time to time. I love the bitter-sweetness of the candied orange variety but Sophie preferred the hazelnuts and currants one. Juliette liked all of them except for the dark chocolate, which she found slightly bitter - I have to agree with her but that's because I'm not a fan of dark chocolate in general, this is certainly not as bitter as some dark chocolate brands I've tasted. And Mike liked all of them so it's all a matter of personal taste. Flavour-wise, they reminded me of the similarly ethical Seeds of Change brand.
So, Eat Chocolate - Save the World ? Well, you can certainly help - and you can definitely Save your Conscience too ! Right, I'm going back to the website now to check on my trees ! I love this feature : "If you want to dedicate your tree to someone and keep tabs on the area around your tree using Google Earth then register your email address below and watch yourself rise up the tree of treesavers." Aww that feel-good feeling is coming back again !
star rating : 4/5
RRP : £1.99
Organic Meltdown is available in more than 150 Waitrose stores and from independent stores, delis and other outlets across the UK.
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