Bay Area Fair Trade Coalition

Dedicated to raising awareness and building demand for Fair Trade in the Bay Area.
Join the Coalition! Add us on MySpace! Friend us on Facebook! Follow us on Twitter!

8.10.2010

Get Ready for Back to School with Global Exchange!! Fair Trade Curriculum Mural Project


"Fair Trade Chocolate's Journey from Bean to Bar"
Saturday, August 14th
11am-4pm
Global Exchange Fair Trade Store
4018 24th Street @ Noe Street, San Francisco

Bring your kids to the Global Exchange Store in San Francisco to join in the making of a mural that follows "Fair Trade Chocolate's Journey from Bean to Bar."

A fun educational neighborhood activity to foster learning about Fair Trade and a time for parents to taste FREE Fair Trade Divine Chocolate!

To harvest the cocoa, the pods must be cut from the trees, split open and the slimy pulp containing the beans scraped out. The bitter cocoa bean is subsequently wrapped in plantain leaved to ferment and then dried under the sun.

The beans are then shipped to Europe where they are roasted, crushed, and ground into a rich cocoa butter. The cocoa butter is combined in varying proportions with sugar and milk and stirred continuously over several days, then cooled and molded into the delicious chocolate bars we enjoy at home!

Come join us this Saturday! Hope to see you there!

*The cocoa from Divine chocolate is grown in the southern regions of Ghana by a farmers' co-operative called Kuapa Kokoo. Most Ghanaian cocoa is grown on small family farms, and is usually intercropped with other plants and trees, such as plantains, maize and spices. Cocoa trees grow to between 12-15 meters high and produce blossoms which when pollinated turn into cocoa pods. Each pod contains 40 seeds which become cocoa beans. It takes one tree's whole crop for the year to make three big bars of Divine.