I can seldom resist gourmet chocolate. And when it comes in funky, well-designed and eco-friendly wrapping, I don't have a chance. That's how I happened to pick up a bar of Askinosie Chocolate. And not only was the chocolate good (amazing, in fact) but right there on the package was the name of the farmer who had purportedly supplied the cacao beans to make it. Could this be for real? Or was it just another "Juan Valdez" story made up to personalize the brand?
Turns out, this company is everything you could possibly hope for—environmentally responsible, ethically upstanding, and committed to excellence at every level. Based in Springfield, Missouri, it is the brain child of Shawn Askinosie, an ex-defence attorney and unstoppable force. In 2005, burnt-out from a couple of gruelling court cases, he decided to leave the law profession and pursue his passion for chocolate.
Askinosie soon decided that he wanted to know exactly where the beans came from, and he wanted them to be prepared to very exacting specifications. So, he set out to find farmers who would work with him—first in Ecuador and Mexico, and then in the Philippines. He travels to the various countries and personally works with each farmer to select the beans and supervise the fermentation process.
The beans are then imported directly to the facility in Missouri, where they are roasted and processed into chocolate. And because this whole process is so controlled, Askinosie knows exactly where each batch of cacao beans came from, and precisely which farmer provided the beans for each product. He calls this "authentic single origin." So Peter V. Cruz—the man whose name and photo appeared on the bar of chocolate I bought—is a real farmer in the Philippines. And Shawn Askinosie knows him personally.
All that's pretty cool, and, according to the chocolate reviews out there, it makes for some pretty damned fine chocolate. But to me, the coolest part is that Askinosie takes it one step further: he gives each farmer 10% of the net profits from each product made from their beans. Yup, the guys who do the hard labour in the field actually get a reasonable cut!
Askinosie calls this his Stake in the Outcome™ (SITO) program. It's based on a business philosophy founded by Jack Stack, and the principle is that if workers share in the end success, they will hold a greater stake in the process along the way (if you want to find out more, Jack Stack's book is for sale on the Askinosie website). Askinosie uses this idea with farmers to link quality, price, and profit share. The farmers have grasped the benefits very quickly—the higher the quality of their crop, the more money they will make. So although I paid $9 for that chocolate bar, I feel fine about it, because I know the profit isn't being sucked up by some middle man.
For Askinosie Chocolate, the cacao farmer has become an integral part of the brand. What a concept! And just imagine if we could get it together to do that in Canada: you would choose your flour based on whether you like George's wheat more than Sam's. That's what I would call taking fair trade to the next level—it's more than just fair, it's generous, sustainable, and makes great business sense. And, it's really good reason to go buy some more of Peter V. Cruz's chocolate...