On August 1, Dr. Bronner’s, a company known for its all-in-one soaps, will release Dr. Bronner’s Magic All-One Chocolate, a vegan chocolate candy bar line, at retailers nationwide. The organic candy bars are made with fair-trade chocolate and will be available in six flavors: nut-accented bars Roasted Whole Hazelnuts and Salted Whole Almonds; nut-butter filled Crunchy Hazelnut Butter and Salted Almond Butter, and Smooth Coconut Praline (filled with a sweet praline made from coconuts). The new chocolate bars are made with 70 percent dark chocolate sourced from regenerative organic cocoa beans and sweetened with coconut sugar.
“Our recipe is simple: perfectly balanced delicious ingredients sourced from fairly paid farmers implementing regenerative organic practices, that fulfill chocolate’s promise as an expression of love, elevating it to be the pure and ethical indulgence it is meant to be,” Dr. Bronner’s President Michael Bronner said. 
Ethical vegan chocolate
Dr. Bronner’s aims to change the often unethical chocolate industry with its first food line by making improvements on the environmental and social side of chocolate production. The idea behind the chocolate line first emerged when the company learned that the 800 farmers in eastern Ghana who supply the organic and fair-trade palm oil Dr. Bronner’s uses for its soaps also grow cocoa. The company worked with the farmers to grow the ingredients for its Magic All-One Chocolate line and is continuing to work with them to improve the health and productivity of existing palm and cocoa trees through dynamic agroforestry—a practice that integrates complementary trees and other crops to create a self-supporting environment where toxic chemicals such as pesticides are unnecessary.
“The true cost of chocolate production has been externalized and paid by cocoa-producing communities in the service of profit for a few at the expense of many—leading to wide-spread ecological destruction, climate instability, poverty, worker exploitation, child labor, and even slavery,” Gero Leson, Vice President of Special Operations at Dr. Bronner’s, said. “We want to model a move away from extractive capitalism to a truly constructive model. This thinking is at the foundation of Dr. Bronner’s decision to bring our magic chocolate to market.”
Vegan soap pioneer
While the chocolate line is new, Dr. Bronner’s has been making its all-in-one vegan soaps since 1948. David Bronner, Dr. Bronner’s CEO and grandson of founder Emanuel Bronner, adopted a vegan lifestyle more than 20 years ago in an effort to live more compassionately. The environmentally and socially responsible company donates a large portion of its annual profits to support charities, including a variety of animal-rights organizations such as Mercy for Animals, Sea Shepherd, and Animal Outlook (formerly Compassion Over Killing). In 2020, the company—which sold one bottle of soap every 1.51 seconds—generated $190 million in revenue and donated 40 percent of its profits (8.6 percent of revenue) to support charities.
The company’s Magic All-One Chocolate line, which is on track to be Regenerative Organic Certified by 2022, will boost Dr. Bronner’s efforts to create a more equitable world. “Dr. Bronner’s is making magic through regenerative organic agriculture and its many benefits: dynamic agroforestry, biodiversity, soil fertility, better livelihoods for farmers, and delicious, rich, dark chocolate,” David Bronner said.
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