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Green & Blacks sale in Tesco

Fruitella

Well-Known Member
Messages
304
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Insulin
Just picked some more 70% G&Bs in Tesco for half price. It has a shelf life until October at least. The bags weren't so much of a bargain but the boxes have 20 mini bars in for £1.50. At 3.3g carbs per portion they will last me for ages.
 
Got some the other day - delicious!!!... thought they would last me a couple of weeks but sooo nice ate the box in a day!!!...oops
 
I used to love Green and Blacks. Then they were acquired by Cadburys who were acquired by Kraft who did away with their Free Trade side and Green and Black just became another chocolate brand.
Still, it tastes good so I still indulge ... shame I can't feel good about it any more.
 
Bought some of these at Christmas. Not quite the same as my fave - a tube of rolo's - but pretty good, especially when surrounded by the temptation of Christams selection boxes.
 
Do you mean Free Trade or Fair Trade? I got these for Xmas and they are marked Fair Trade.
 
Green and Black used to be a 100% Fair Trade company, only using Fair Trade chocolate, Kraft now mixes up their sources of chocolate but claims they buy more Fair Trade chocolate, then they sell as Fair Trade, so still puts the label on.

Kraft ONLY cares about profits and the "return on investment" of having the Fair Tade mark, Green and Black cared about the people working in the 3rd world growing the chocolate for us.
 
Fruitella said:
Just picked some more 70% G&Bs in Tesco for half price. It has a shelf life until October at least. The bags weren't so much of a bargain but the boxes have 20 mini bars in for £1.50. At 3.3g carbs per portion they will last me for ages.
Click to expand...
Tesco's own is quite good. £1
 
Fairtrade admitted: "The cocoa for Cadbury products in the UK and Ireland under Cocoa Life will not be traded according to the Fairtrade Standards of certification."

Part of the "unwritten" deal with FairTrade was that the farmers would be paid a pre-agreed price for the cocoa beans, so would not be exposed to the "middle man" etc forcing down the price in years where farmers in another county had a high output. If you are interested in supporting "workers cooperatives" who support education and health care with all their profits by keeping to "transitional fairtrade", have a look at https://www.shared-interest.com
 
I used to work in the coffee industry, buying and selling beans across the world. I worked with a lot of producers who bought into FairTrade and the feedback from them and the consumer was rarely positive. Let me explain:

The farmers are guaranteed a minimum price for their coffee. That is what FairTrade is. In order to gain the 'protection' of FairTrade they have to buy into the scheme. However, the minimum price is actually pretty low ($1.40 per lb) - all it really does is ensure that the farmers aren't ripped off by huge organisations (Kraft, Nestle, P&G etc.) offering pennies per pound.

In reality most farmers can sell most of their produce for much more, especially those producing coffee on small single estates. the coffee market also fluctuates dramatically, and when prices are high FT doesn't really do much for the farmers. in effect, for a lot of the time, the farmers are paying out for FT certification when they don't really need it.

So FT isn't actually all that good for the producer. But what about the consumer?

well, FT actually forces lower quality coffee to be delivered under its label. Why? Well, because the producers can sell their high quality beans well over the FT minimum price so obviously don't bother certifying those estates/farms/fields/batches. But they also produce coffee that they can't sell above the $1.40 mark, so they certify it as FT. This includes most Robustas (a lower quality, stronger tasting coffee species - the opposite of Arabica) and low quality Arabicas. So the impact on the consumer is that what you buy under FairTrade is actually much more likely to be lower quality and less delicious.

Now I know this is all about coffee, but it translates into cocoa too. Different product, same mechanism.

From my experience you're much better looking for Rainforest Alliance Certified products - higher quality, more sustainable and well paid farmers.

Anyway, we seem to have got a little sidetracked from diabetes...
 
I was promoting this brand with free samples a couple of weeks ago, it went pretty well with most customer's and on promotional offer too ( Velvet range) . Pic of the individual bars that I gave out, which included Sea Salt, Salted Caramel and 75% chocolate.

 
Love Tesco chocolate but try the nine bars, the raspberry carob seeded bar is delicious. But have your monitor nearby, just in case, half a bar is sufficiently enough!
 
Jeremy_Wood said:
I used to work in the coffee industry, buying and selling beans across the world. .....
Click to expand...

You have explained very well why fairtrade works best when the managing director of the small UK based producer has a direct and long-term personal relationship (and commitment to) the 3rd world farmer's cooperative that is growing the crop.

As soon as "mid man" buying and selling a commodity, insert themselves between the 3rd world producer and the UK factory, "fairtrade" becomes little more than a marketing label.
 
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Robinredbreast said:
I was promoting this brand with free samples a couple of weeks ago, it went pretty well with most customer's
Click to expand...

What were there BG readings after easting the sample, otherwise how do you know if it went well.....
 
ringi said:
What were there BG readings after easting the sample, otherwise how do you know if it went well.....
Click to expand...

Customer's bought the product from my stand, some already ate G& B, and the feedback was especially positive from older customers, some who had type 2 diabetes and liked to eat a small amount of dark chocolate. No idea about BG readings I'm afraid, as I am not a medical professional.
 
How lovely to talk about chocolate. Very thought provoking too. Things that come to mind for me:
1) Before my type 1 diagnosis last year I was treated to a tasting session at .Hotel Chocolat. I prefer dark chocolate anyway but have now learnt to REALLY appreciate 80% even 90% single origin. It may be expensive but 1 tablet is more than enough. )
2) I‚m not an expert but I believe that Divine chocolate is the most ethically modelled major chocolate company
3) Some years ago I gave up chocolate for New Year and kept it going for nearly 2 years (!) Had to allow myself to sin occasionally but I also found it next to impossible when out & about to find a dessert or sweet snack which didn’t contain chocolate.. So it’s hard to avoid but also more enjoyable if you think of it as a treat and buy/eat selectively))
 
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