Recently Rated:
Transparency and Original Beans
I am wondering if any of you can shed some light on this new company:
http://www.originalbeans.com/
I recently purchased a few bars to taste and consider using at chocolate tastings that we host and I am unable to determine basic things about the bars, like where they are made?! Very surprisingly this information is nowhere to be found on their packaging.
I am hoping some of you might be able to shed some light on this company, their tree planting feature, who the people behind the company are... anything!
Thanks!
Sunita de Tourreil
co-Founder Chocolate Dividends
www.chocolatedividends.org/
http://www.originalbeans.com/
I recently purchased a few bars to taste and consider using at chocolate tastings that we host and I am unable to determine basic things about the bars, like where they are made?! Very surprisingly this information is nowhere to be found on their packaging.
I am hoping some of you might be able to shed some light on this company, their tree planting feature, who the people behind the company are... anything!
Thanks!
Sunita de Tourreil
co-Founder Chocolate Dividends
www.chocolatedividends.org/
Thanks, Sunita, for these helpful suggestions. All best, Philipp
Hi Phillip,I hope to clarify with a couple of points:1. Original Beans is the only bar I have seen that does not specify on the package where the chocolate is made. The Original Beans website does not help clarify origin of manufacture either.2. You wrote below: "On our website, we provide clear information on 3rd party certification and direct purchase/traceability, we offer detailed location maps and series of photos documenting our work."Can you clarify for the three bars made by Original Beans what certification they carry? The only third party/independent certification that I am aware of for your product is the packaging:-FSC certified recycled paper-100% Recycled PaperboardCould you please post the link to your website where there is clear information on 3rd party certification and direct purchase/traceabilty?3. In the interest of increased transparency here are a few of my suggestions for improvement on your website, I am not sure all are possible:A. Specify on your website that Original Beans chocolate is made in Switzerland in partnership with Felchlin.B. Clarify for each bar any certifications the beans carry.C. Cross reference tree planting efforts with the partner organisations with whom you work. Perhaps you could add a section called "Partners" and list your partners and describe the relationship you have with them.Thank you for being open to suggestions for improvement.
Hi Philipp, I also give professional chocolate tastings along with my lectures on the history of chocolate. Would you be willing to offer a sample of the Peruvian for me? I've been following with my taste buds OB's chocolate since the first release, through Lesal. Let me know. My next tasting is in early March. You can contact me through my website or direct. www.worldtreechocolates.com or marksciscenti@gmail.com. Thanks for the great information... -Mark
Hi Sunita. I am grateful for your feedback, yet remain a bit perplexed by your review.On our website, we provide clear information on 3rd party certification and direct purchase/traceability, we offer detailed location maps and series of photos documenting our work. If you read our CV's, they combine more than 20 years of hands-on experience in conservation and small producer development. Together, we have worked in almost all tropical countries of LA and Africa. This experience and track-record has allowed us to raise money and start cacao work from zero in one of the most difficult places in the world, Eastern Congo, and to build infrastructure for 10K farmers, i.e. about 70K people. Last year, we worked with Wheels for Life Foundation to sponsor bikes to DRC. Again, all this information is on our website, though I admit we can improve presenting it and we appreciate your feedback in this regard.On Peru: We have been involved in Peruvian smallholder development for a decade now and have helped to found and finance APP Cacao. You may have heard that we are selling an exceptional Peruvian criollo coverture, linked to the conservation of a rare, and nearly extinct variety. If you like to present it someday in one of your tastings, wed be happy to send you a sample.
Thank you Mark and Olorin, for your comments and help! I am so thrilled to be a member of TCL. Thank you Clay.And, thank you Philipp, for taking the time to respond. Below are some of my thoughts as someone who is also very concerned about cacao, ethical labour practices, the rain forests and transparency. Oh, and last but not least, great chocolate of course!I am pleased to hear that you feel so strongly about transparency, rainforest conservation and sustainability. In the spirit of transparency I believe it would set a great example to have more of this information (that you shared here in this blog post) on the Original Beans website. I think that having complete and detailed information available for those who are interested would really help further your goals and mission.Omission of relevant information, for example, where the chocolate is made and who makes it, in this case, only serves to make other claims seem less genuine. Felchlin makes excellent chocolate, I would think that being associated with them would be something to really celebrate. I experienced Felchlin's Cru Sauvage a few years back, everything from the packaging, the delicate feather design on the bar and the lovely temper and flavour left nothing to be ashamed of.For what it is worth, when I first came across Original Beans (via your website and the bars) I was very reluctant to use Original Beans at our Chocolate Dividends tastings. Since we feature and promote chocolate that is made in a responsible manner, we are not comfortable featuring chocolate that has not been "vetted", either through independent third party certification (with all of the inadequacies of this system), industry knowledge/experience or through direct meetings with the producers and/or farmers. I share this because it would be a shame for other customers with similar values to shy away from Original Beans because of what seems like a lack of transparency.Wishing you the best of luck. It sounds like you are working on relationships with more small producers of rare beans: when might we get to savour the Peruvian single origin next?
+1. Philipp, thanks for explaining about Lesal.
Thanks for the clarification Philipp.
Perhaps you like to read more about us Behind the Burner: http://behindtheburner.com/expert/philipp_kauffmann.html?utm_source=The+Update+for+Original+Beans&utm_campaign=a2f35f94e0-Clean_Newsletter_4b2_4_2009&utm_medium=email http://behindtheburner.com/blog/entry/saving-the-rainforest-with-milk-chocolate.html?utm_source=The+Update+for+Original+Beans&utm_campaign=a2f35f94e0-Clean_Newsletter_4b2_4_2009&utm_medium=email
Lesal is one of the shareholders of Original Beans, but no longer one of the company's managers. She is listed on our site as a co-founder. The team who developed the formulations consisted of Sepp, Lesal and myself. It was intense work and a great adventure to make the first Congo bar.
Hi Olorin, I spoke and emailed with Lesal several times last fall. She told me that while she is still listed as part of the company and has not given up her status, she is no longer involved with the company on a working basis. I do not know any other details besides that and her status may have changed. An update would be good. Please let me know. Thanks.
Mark,Regarding Lesal Ruskey... I'm wondering if you're correct that she is no longer at OB. If you haven't talked to her in several months how do you know she's left OB? She's still listed on their website as a co-founder. Also, on 1/21/10 she sent me a message saying, "I am indeed one of the founders, and developed the recipe/formulations of Esmeraldas (Ecuador) and Virunga (Congo) bars." That indicates to me that she was still with the company ~3 weeks ago.If you could help clear this up I'd appreciate it.Philipp K, would you mind setting the record straight on this?
Thank you Philipp for your quick response and information. As I suspected, my information was somewhat faulty. Thank you for the clarification on Volker and your background. I like the work that you are doing as it seems to be truly what sustainability really means. This is what the fair-trade/organic movement should be including in order to truly support biodiversity and cultural/economic sustainability. One reason why the prices on your chocolate are higher - this actually reflects some of the true costs instead of our highly subsidized world commodities agriculture market.
Thanks, Clay, for attending me to this thread.Thanks, Sunita, for your interest in our products and company, also with regard to your tastings. Chocolate Dividends is a great name and a powerful concept. Id love to learn more.We hope our website and our Internet postings do provide some good information on who we are and how we operate.We have founded the company as a direct conclusion of many years of work and experience in the nature conservation and smallholder development arena. My background is in conservation, which is where I met Volker Lehmann years ago, when I was involved in financing La Tranquilidad. Rodney has spent his career in developing and financing smallholder organizations. On our website we have a link to a great network that's run from our office in Amsterdam: http://www.progresonetwork.org/en/home .The idea of the company was to design and maintain a supply chain that replenishes rather than exploits. Our principles of operations and criteria for sourcing are on the site.We spend a lot of time and money with/in origins and source beans directly. Bolivia is the only exception, since the contracts between Repsa and Pronatec preceeded our agreements. We prefer to import directly and manage our own bean inventory.When we selected a manufacturing partner, we spent months visiting candidates across EU and US. Felchlin is a 100 year old family company with great people and values similar to ours. We develop our recipes in teamwork with Sepp and his team, and choose the conch accordingly. Only the Cru Virunga is not produced on the original Lindt long-conches, but on a round-conch.The current pricing of our product has several factors. One important factor lies in the extreme logistics/costs of the Beni and the Virunga, including their respective carbon costs. But other factors play a role, too. Our packaging is from FSC-certified, recycled paper, soy inks and 100% renewable energy. It is completely unfair and wrong, but doing the right thing initially costs more, all the way to the consumer.Our replanting efforts are organized at nursery level: we educate and subsidize farmers to replant in sort of analogue forest systems, usually three layers, 3-5 tree species. Replanting is part of a wider conservation strategy we have for each origin: In Virunga, we are just embarking on a protected area-wide collaboration with WWF, WCS and the Zoological Society of London. In our upcoming origin in Peru, we have brought back the particular bean from the brink of extinction and have started several hundred hectares of forestry with smallholders.Hope this helps a bit. For any questions it raises, you can find me easily: philipp@originalbeans.comall best, Philipp
Hi Sunita de Tourreil. I can give an update on some of this information. First off Lesal is no longer involved with OB. Don't know why, but I've have many conversations with her. As I understand it she was the one behind the biodiversity/sustainable issues and concerns of OB as that is her training. But I may be misinformed on this point. I've not been in touch with Lesal for a number of months now.And Felchlin in Switzerland is making all of OB's chocolate on their older machines.As Olorin said, it would be nice of someone from OB would comment.-Mark
Great questions and I think that in the case of Original Beans transparency is crucial. Their business model is to ask people to pay more for their chocolate and to trust that the extra money is really going back to the earth and the farmers. In order for this trust to be established there has to be more transparency and information available. Casey M wrote about OB in her excellent blog, The Chocolate Note, and as usual, she makes some excellent points.I'd suggest that you might want to contact them directly and ask some questions. From their website here's some info:Started in 2008Co-founders: Philipp Kauffmann, Rodney Nikkels, Lesal N. RuskeyUnited Kingdom | uk.press@originalbeans.com | Philipp Kauffmann | +31 652 098 998United States | us.press@originalbeans.com | Nicole Bailey | +1 323 255 9178 x13United States | us.orders@originalbeans.com | Jerry Kryszek | +1 877 992 4626 Philipp Kauffmann'sTCL profile An interesting article that is mainly about OB: The True Cost of Chocolate OK, one of their chocolates is 68% and made from the feral beans from Bolivia that Volker Lehmann promotes. OB's website says the chocolate is made in Switzerland. Who makes the chocolate? I'd like Philip Kauffmann, or someone from Original Beans, to answer to that question here.