Living Plastic Free: Plastic-free: Chocolate

Hello my name is EnviroWoman and I’m a chocoholic. Proud of it too. But will my resolution to let no new plastic into my life jettison my cocoa-dependent-endorphins down a deep, dark well of despair? PreggoWoman and I wanted to find out so we took a bevvie-break and headed down to LottoMan’s world to check out his temple of chocolate worship. Oy vay! It doesn’t look good…

Chocolate, chocolate everywhere but look at all of those plastic wrappers!!! Crap. Had I known this I would have never thrown my gauntlet into this plastic challenge. And what about this packaging that looks like foil, but feels like plastic. Kinda like plastic-in-sheep’s-clothing. Hmmm, when in doubt, check it out. Add to the ‘research’ list. (Can you help solve this mystery for me? Is it plastic coated foil, or just plain foil?)

Here’s how things added up. Of 27 varieties of sugary, chocolately, morsels, only THREE (gasp) qualify as SAINTs. The other 24 are SINNERs (including the beloved Cadbury Fruit and Nut, Eatmore, and Big Turk bars).

Envirowoman doesn’t give up that easily. Noooooo. Noooooo. Noooooo. Afterall, if you asked me to choose between air and chocolate…I’d have to think about it.

I head over to London Drugs but am once again downtrodden. Because it’s here I realize that my absolute Fav-Fav-FAVORITE — Cadbury Mint and Cadbury Orange chocolate bars are wrapped in that suspicious foily packaging and will be off-limits for 2007. Crap. Crap. And double crap. (Cadbury used to have a Raspberry bar too, which was super-divine, but they removed it from their product line last year — the EnviroWoman curse strikes again)

I tell ya, I’ve got the luck of a bug heading for the windshield, because it was just months ago that Cadbury changed the packaging from a paper-foil-plus-paper-sleeve wrapper (which would have qualified it as a SAINT) to the plastic-foil hybrid. Probably more tamper-proof, longer lasting. But not earth-friendly at all.

Well, at least I found a few more SAINTs cradled on LD’s altar of chocolate worship.

Now my mission gathers momentum and becomes more of a personal quest for the holy chocolate grail.

So I head for sacred ground. (A bit manic about chocolate, aren’t I? I told you I was a chocoholic). 853 paces later I arrive at the purply gates of Purdy’s. Surely a quality chocolatier will be more earth-friendly. Dang-it! 95% off-limits. Raspberry Jellies — SINNER. Sweet Georgia Brown’s — SINNER. Todd Bars — SINNER. ALL that boxed chocolate with little golden plastic trays that lovingly cradle their heavenly tasty morsels — SINNERs.

The one saving grace (and it’s a big one) — I can buy a whole wonderful assortment of endorphin-spikers individually (let’s be real here, by the half-pound) — without any packaging. This includes my absolute favs — hard cherry caramels. All hope is not lost. Thank you PURDY’S.

Just for confirmation, I head over to Sen5es and Over the Moon Chocolates. And although both have their share of SINs, again, I find a whole assortment of ambrosial morsels, each sold individually. I hear a chorus of angels singing Hallelujah now.

All this is both good and bad:

GOOD because theoretically I’ll be eating less chocolate and that’s gotta be good for the bod (I estimate about 73 pounds).

BAD because my chocolate-induced 24/7 euphoria will probably evaporate like the morning dew.

GOOD because now I have a legit reason to imbibe in expensive chocolate.

BAD because Cadbury, Nestle and Hershey’s will probably see their revenues plummet to historical lows now that I'm buying less/none of their product.

So here’s how things add up:

Category: Chocolate

SAINT: PURDY’S, SEN5eS, OVER THE MOON, and any chocolatier who sells by the gram or pound, boxed packages of Smarties/Reese’s Pieces/Glossette Raisins or Peanuts or Almonds, Cadbury Cherries/Caramilk, Lowney’s Cherries, some varieties of LINDT boxed bars, Green & Blacks Organic, Botticelli, Toblerone in a box, Junior Mints

Convenience: 3/10
Price: Comparable to much more expensive, but well worth it

Quality: Mediocre to downright heavenly

SINNER: Cadbury Thins/Mr. Big/Fruit and Nut/Hazelnut Dairy Milk/Burnt Almond/Almond dairy/Dairy Milk/Mr. Big/Premium Dark Burnt Almond/Dairy Milk/Orange Dairy Milk/Mint Milk/Dairy Milk Bubbly/Crunchie/Sweet Marie/Wunderbar/Crispy Crunch/Wunderbar, Nestle Kit Kat/Coffee Crisp/Big Turk/Aero, Hershey’s Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups/Pieces/Smores/Eatmore/Oh Henry, Toberlone, M&Ms, Snickers, Mars, Ferrero Rochet, Rittor Sport, Purdy’s Sweet Georgia Browns/Raspberry Jelly/all packaged individual bars/all boxed candy….and many, many more. How sad.

Lessons Learned:

This gift from the gods, CHOCOLATE has an unholy union with PLASTIC, mankind’s plague on the planet

To avoid plastic, don’t buy your chocolate at convenience stores, instead support local small quality chocolatiers which allow you to purchase individual nuggets of pleasure by the pound or gram and avoid all packaging.

The trend in chocolate packaging is headed away from relatively earth-friendly paper/foil wrappers, to more unfriendly plastic/foil hybrid wrappers.