Types of chocolate

Real chocolate - chocolate that contains coco butter, not very sustainable for big brands.

Fake chocolate - chocolate that uses products such at vegetable fat to make there chocolate more sustainable.

Diffrences

• Fake chocolate doesn't need to be tempered. Real chocolate does.
• Real chocolate doesn't set in room tempreture. Fake chocolate does.

Milk chocolate made with milk (powder or liquid) or condensed milk. Has minimum of 25 percent cocoa solids.

White chocolate has no cocoa solids, it mainly consists of sugar milk and cocoa butter

Dark chocolate has low portion of milk or sometimes no milk at all. Cocoa solids range from 70-99 percent

Chocolate Production

Chocolate production include: harvesting, fermenting, drying, roasting, cracking / winnowing, grinding / conching, tempering, moulding and wrapping.

Harvesting - collection of cocoa from trees.

Fermenting - placed / left in wooden containers.

Drying - left in one single layer outside.

Roasting - usually placed in standard stoves or ovens.

Cracking / Winnowing - papery substance of beans are blown away.

Grinding / Conching - grounding of nibs to create a thick paste.

Tempering - controlling of temperature and forming of correct crystals within chocolate,

Moulding - melted and placed into moulds to form shape.

Wrapping - placed into plastic or paper wrappers.

How to be sustainable: look for chocolate brands associated with Fairtrade, or smaller companies which do not mass produce - reducing factory and greenhouse gases.

Coffee production

1. Coffee seeds are planted and three to five years later they will start flowering.

2. The cherries are normally harvested by hand once or twice a year.

3. They are then laid out to dry so the flesh can be taken off.

4. The beans are then packaged and shipped around the world.

Ways to improve sustainability

Using coffee husks instead of cutting down trees to use as heating fuel

Replacing nutrients in the soil by using fertiliser (composted coffee pulp)

Using environmentally friendly machinery for wet processing to prevent water pollution

Consumer advice

The best way for consumers to help the environment is to make informed choices

Only buy from companies who use sustainable methods

Look for fair trade symbols and check the labels for information on how sustainable they are

Sustainability

Shade grown coffee is more sastainable than sun cultivated coffee

It provides shelter and food for animals and plants

Sun grown coffee is produced in plantations and trees are cleared to make them.

Over 2.5 million acres of forest has been cleared in Central America to produce sun cultivated coffee.

How to be more sustainable at home when drinking coffee:

• Usee a manual coffee grinder
• Use a French Press
• Use reusable coffee filters
• Use a spoon instead of a plastic stirrer
• Bring your own cup