Frequently asked questions

When Tony’s was founded, Max Havelaar (aka Fairtrade Netherlands) was the only organisation seeking to promote fair trade and better living conditions for cocoa farmers. To qualify for Fairtrade certification, production conditions must meet certain minimum social and environmental standards. Also, as a certification system, Fairtrade is most closely aligned with our commitment, because it guarantees a minimum price and works with cooperatives. Having said this, as far as we’re concerned, certification is simply a starting point: the first step on the way to a fair supply chain. We believe it’s possible to do more. That’s why we developed Tony’s 5 Sourcing Principles.

It doesn’t make sense for chocolate bars to be divided into equal-sized chunks when there is so much inequality in the chocolate industry! The unequally-sized chunks of our 180g bars are a palatable way of reminding Choco Fans and Serious Friends that the profits in the chocolate industry are unequally divided.

And in case you haven’t noticed, the bottom of our bars depicts the West African coastline. The chunks just above it represent the Gulf of Guinea. From left to right, you have Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo and Benin (terribly politically incorrect, we know, but we had to combine them to create enough space for a hazelnut), Nigeria and part of Cameroon.

There are all kinds of labels on chocolate packaging. This is because several certification systems operate under different names. Fairtrade and Rainforest Alliance (previously Rainforest Alliance and UTZ before they merged in 2018) are independent certificates that follow ISEAL’s Codes of Good Practice for Setting Social and Environmental Standards. Some brands have also created their own certification systems, such as Mondelez’s Cocoa Life and Nestlé’s Cocoa Plan.

Certifications are third-party checks on an external set of standards, a kind of compliance check on sustainability for companies. They are, however, not all the same. There are some fundamental differences between Fairtrade and Rainforest Alliance. Fairtrade guarantees a minimum price for their cocoa to protect against market volatilities. Fairtrade believes that farmers are stronger when they join forces, so Fairtrade farmers must be united in a cooperative. Rainforest Alliance places strong emphasis on conservation of the environment and farmers receive a variable premium on top of the market price. They work with cocoa cooperatives, as well as independent farmers.

As far as we’re concerned, certification is a starting point and the proliferation of certification models makes it harder for consumers to understand what they represent. Euromonitor International’s research in 2018 revealed own labels, such as Cadbury’s Cocoa Life or Nestlé’s Cocoa Plan, could create consumer confusion – ‘Many in-house schemes have yet to resonate; and consumers may be unclear about the changing working relationships between certifiers and brands.’

To create a fairer supply chain we believe that companies have to go beyond certification and take full responsibility for their supply chains.That’s why we developedTony’s 5 Sourcing Principles (and made them open source from the start). We invite all other companies that source cocoa to come ’round for coffee (and chocolate) to learn more about how they can adopt these principles through Tony’s Open Chain.

Good question. Read our story here.

Read our story here.

At the moment, we don’t have any plans to produce a sugar-free Tony’s bar or to produce one with a sugar substitute. We exist to end exploitation in cocoa. To achieve this, we have to make the most amazing ethically produced chocolate, so we can help cocoa farmers create a better future for themselves and inspire other chocolate makers to follow our example. In other words, we want to change the mainstream chocolate industry. Sugar-free bars are still too much of a niche product. Producing one won’t help the cocoa farmers. But this may not always be the case. We do our best to always be one step ahead.

The price of organic milk and sugar rose so enormously that we had to raise our prices. The result was that people stopped buying it. That meant we could buy less cocoa, sugar and milk from farmers. Which is not what we want. So, we decided to keep buying the same organic cocoa for the same price, but without the certification. Saves money you know. For the other ingredients we found alternatives that make just as much impact. Vera, our sugarbabe, researched sugar and found out what is actually ‘sustainable’. In the end we chose to get our sugar Fairtrade and traceable in Mauritius. Milk now comes from a group of German farmers via the ‘Faire Milch’ concept.

All of our choco is suitable for vegetarians. We’ve got 2 awesome vegan bars.. 70% dark chocolate bar and dark almond sea salt.

The simple reason is because all of our chocolate is made on the same production lines.

We’ve got super strict cleaning rules in place at our factory, and that partly involves running a ‘transition batch’ after each batch of chocolate has been made. By doing this, we clean and remove any remaining chocolate (and allergens) from the line before we start making the next batch. However, chocolate is difficult to clean, and even with these rules in place we still can’t guarantee that any of our bars will be fully allergen-free. That’s why we use ‘may contain’ allergen labelling on the back of our wrappers.