Christmas is coming: maybe you’re looking for a chocolate Advent calendar to help the kids count off the days? But you’ve heard that 20% of all the cocoa in the world is produced by children, and you don’t want a child overseas to suffer just so your child can have a treat! Fortunately, there are a number of slave-free chocolate Advent calendars for you to choose from :-)
We particularly recommend the Tonys Chocolonely Christmas Countdown Calendar (mostly sold out, but still available at Ballantynes and at least one online retailer - around $48 for 255g chocolate). It’s fully Fairtrade certified, meaning that all risky ingredients (cocoa, sugar, vanilla, hazelnuts etc.) are slave-free. In addition, Tonys Chocolonely pay farmers Fairtrade’s ‘living income reference price’ - which is more than the Fairtrade minimum and means farmers can make a living income.
The Warehouse is stocking this Nice Nativity Advent Calendar - 50 g of Rainforest Alliance certified chocolate in a beautiful setting for just $2.50.
The Warehouse, New World, Woolworths and Pak n Save are all stocking a square Kinder Advent Calendar. These don’t have any slave-free certification marks on them but we are confident they are made with both slave-free sugar and child-labour free cocoa. Kinder’s parent company, Ferrero, uses Bonsucro certified sugar for most of their cane sugar (with the balance also slave-free) and all their cocoa is also all independently certified, mostly through Rainforest Alliance and Fairtrade. Read more here. The Kinder Advent calendar contains 123g milk chocolate and sells for around $13 -17.
Safka is also stocking a different Kinder advent calendar.
Do you have allergies in the family, or are you looking for vegan options? We have two calendars to recommend to you this year.
Woolworths is stocking a NOMO calendar this year. NOMO chocolate is all free from dairy, gluten, eggs and nuts; it’s also made with Rainforest Alliance certified cocoa. Each day contains a creamy vegan chocolate with a total of 96g chocolate. Retails for around $15.
You may also be able to find a second NOMO calendar from The Warehouse, but it seems stocks are mostly out.
Moo Free also has a dairy-free calendar out this year, a ‘milk’ chocolate Moo Free chocolate is Rainforest Alliance certified. Look for them at vegan, organic and health food shops - around $13-$20 for 70g chocolate.
And finally one for the grown ups!
The Warehouse sells a Dilmah Christmas Advent Calendar with 24 days of Luxury Christmas Teas for $40. Also available online.