For me, being a locavore means I eat local food, but not only local food. I eat food as locally as possible. If something grows in CT, I get it from CT. If it doesn’t grow in CT, I’m open to getting it from its natural habitat. Coffee and chocolate come to mind. When I do get things from out in the world, I prefer that they come from a small farm or producer with a name rather than an anonymous industrial operation. I still want to know where my food comes from and want to support a small-farm model, even outside my 100 miles (such as beans from Cayuga Pure Organics).

It’s no secret that I love chocolate and often claim it as an exception in an otherwise local dish or meal. So imagine my delight when I heard about direct-trade chocolate from the Chocolate: the Raw Truth article in Delicious Living magazine!

Following in the coffee industry’s footsteps, some chocolate makers are adopting a direct-trade model, dealing one-on-one with small-scale cacao farmers and paying fair-trade prices to obtain superior beans while supporting cacao communities. “Direct trade is a lot of legwork, but you get much better quality ingredients, and you can also ensure the transparency of your supply chain,” says Alex Whitmore, cofounder of Taza, a direct-trade artisan chocolate maker in Somerville, Massachusetts.

I think it’s excellent that you can find out the exact origin of the ingredients of any coffee bar you get from Taza Chocolate!

To ensure integrity, Taza prints a batch number on the back of every chocolate bar; buyers can enter the number on Taza’s website to trace exactly where the beans and other ingredients in that bar came from.

I put in an order and we’ll see if the taste lives up to their ideals. I’m certainly looking forward to trying  out their stone-ground organic chocolate!

Note: Tazo Chocolate is 133 miles from me which puts them out of my 100-mile local zone and into what I call my regional zone, in case you’re counting.