Press Releases

Divine Chocolate

10 Aug 2010

Christmas Press Release

Divine Chocolate, the chocolate company owned by cocoa farmers, is delighted to announce its Christmas 2010 product range, which this year sees the addition of a chocolate box collection. The Divine chocolate box range comprises milk chocolate pralines; dark chocolate covered salted fudges; white chocolate strawberry truffles; and dark chocolate brazil nuts & mangos. Read on for details of these and other festive treats – and sprinkle a little Divine love on your celebrations this Christmas.
The Divine chocolate box collection will be available at Waitrose from 29th September 2010.
Divine’s Milk Chocolate Nut Pralines are made using smooth milk chocolate and are studded with crunchy caramelised almond pieces. The powder blue box contains eight pralines (150g) that are suitable for vegetarians. They are available from Waitrose, RRP £6.00.
The 70% Dark Chocolate Covered Salted Fudge is serious grown-up fudge. The sweet softness of the fudge is enhanced by a touch of salt, and a coating of Divine’s dark chocolate combines to create a mouthful of delightful textures and tastes. Eight fudges (150g) are contained in the pale green box. Available from Waitrose, RRP £6.00. Suitable for vegetarians.
The White Chocolate Strawberry Truffles are inspired by the favourite combination of strawberries & cream. A coating of luscious white chocolate enrobes each of the eight white chocolate strawberry truffles. Suitable for vegetarians. Available from Waitrose, RRP £6.00.
Divine’s box of 70% Dark Chocolate Brazil Nuts & Mangos are a refined chocolate treat and make an ideal after-dinner delight. Fairtrade Brazil nuts from Peru and Fairtrade mangos from Burkino Faso are coated in Divine’s award-winning dark chocolate, making for an exotic and festive chocolate treat. Suitable for vegetarians. Available from Waitrose, RRP £6.00
Divine’s advent calendars are always a bestseller and this year’s brand new design is guaranteed to delight children of all ages. The advent calendar depicts a scene in vibrant colours showing the ‘bean to bar’ journey … from harvesting cocoa beans to fermenting & drying, then packing up the sacks of cocoa, shipping them to the chocolate factory, mixing the vats of melted chocolate, and making the heart shaped chocolates that are contained in the advent calendar itself. The journey from cocoa bean to chocolate bar is explained on the reverse of the calendar. The advent calendar will be on sale at Waitrose (and Ocado) from 29th September at an RRP of £4.00. Also available from Lakeland and Oxfam. The chocolate contained in the calendar is suitable for vegetarians.
Other festive favourites that are a must for Christmas stockings and for adorning the house are milk chocolate Gold Coins and Christmas Puddings. Kids adore these miniature choccy morsels made using Divine’s smooth and creamy milk chocolate. Both are suitable for vegetarians and the gold coins are also certified Kosher. The RRP for the Gold Coins is £1.99 for an 80g net and they are available from Lakeland and National Trust shops. The Christmas Puddings from Divine’s sister brand Dubble are sold in 90g nets at an RRP £1.99 and are available from Booths supermarkets.

Divine’s After Dinner Mints combine natural peppermint fondant and Divine’s acclaimed 70% dark chocolate. They are available from Oxfam at an RRP of £3.50 (200g). Suitable for vegetarians.
The Divine Tropical Collection includes dark chocolate-coated Brazil nuts, mangos and apricots. Choose one for a treat or all three for a grand gesture this Christmas. They are suitable for vegetarians and are approved by the United Synagogue Kashrut Division of the London Beth Din. They are each priced at RRP £4.00 and available from Liberty in London and online at www.ethicalsuperstore.com/divine.
Also new this year for Christmas is Divine’s latest 100g bar: dark chocolate bursting with citrusy orange and warming, spicy ginger – a marriage of festive flavours if ever there was one. Divine’s Dark Chocolate with Ginger & Orange is suitable for vegetarians and carries the Kosher mark. It is available at Sainsbury’s supermarkets nationwide (and Sainsbury’s online) RRP £1.69.
The entire Christmas range can be found online at The Divine Chocolate Shop, where you will also find gift combinations that you won’t find anywhere else as well as Divine’s full range of 12 chocolate bars, seasonal lines, gift chocolates and baking products.
Why choose Divine this Christmas? Going beyond Fairtrade… Choosing a Divine product this Christmas is a delicious way of playing your part in a more equitable trading partnership. Divine is the only Fairtrade chocolate company that is owned by the farmers themselves – 45,000 cocoa producers own 45% of the company. While Fairtrade ensures farmers receive a better deal for their cocoa and additional income to invest in their community, company ownership gives farmers a share of Divine’s profits and a stronger voice in the cocoa industry.
The best quality chocolate comes from pride in company ownership… The smallholder farmers in Ghana who grow the cocoa for Divine take great care in growing, harvesting, fermenting and drying the beans in order to bring out the purest cocoa flavour in their chocolate products. The cocoa pods are grown in the shade of the tropical rainforest and only the best cocoa beans are selected to be used in making Divine products. All Divine’s products are free from artificial flavourings, colourings and preservatives. A Divine product is easy to spot on the supermarket or shop shelf because in celebration of Divine’s Ghanaian ownership, it is packaged with distinctive traditional West African motifs called Adinkra symbols, each of which carry their own meaning.
Please contact Rosanna Mayhew on 0207 378 6550 or Rosanna@divinechocolate.com for images and more information.
Ends
Editors’ notes
• Divine has won critical acclaim which includes:
o Gregg Wallace, MasterChef presenter says of Divine: “it’s my one indulgence”
o Cake maker to the stars Lily Vanilli says: “With Divine, you’re drawn to them because their products are Fairtrade, but once you’ve tried it it’s all about the chocolate”
o Charles Campion, Food Critic for the The Independent says: “…for a really good balance between price and performance look out for Divine’s Fairtrade 70% dark chocolate – very fruity, with a good texture and a long finish”.
o Sara Jayne-Stanes, chocolate expert and founder member of the Academy of Chocolate says of Divine’s 70% bar, “a mouthful of intense, very smooth, delectable chocolate … Divine is in a league of its own”.

• Dark chocolate sales grew 221% from 2007-09 (Mintel 2010)

• Divine Chocolate Ltd is the only Fairtrade chocolate company that is also co-owned by cocoa farmers. Kuapa Kokoo, a co-operative of 45,000 cocoa farmers in Ghana, benefit not only from the Fairtrade premium on the sale of their beans, but also receive a 45% share of Divine’s distributable profits giving the farmers more economic stability, as well as the increased influence in the cocoa industry company-ownership brings

• Keep up to date with Divine online:
? Everything you need to know about Divine: www.divinechocolate.com
? For Divine gifts: www.divinechocolateshop.com
? Follow the Divine blog: http://divinedelights.wordpress.com
? Follow Divine on Twitter: www.twitter.com/divinechocolate

• All Divine products carry the Fairtrade Mark. This is an independent guarantee certified by the Fairtrade Foundation that the ingredients are sourced under internationally agreed fair trade terms and conditions. These include a guaranteed, secure minimum price, an extra social premium payment for the farmers to invest in their own community programmes, long term trading contracts, decent health and safety conditions – all aimed at empowering farmers to make their own improvements to living standards and prospects for the future

• Divine Chocolate has won a number of prestigious awards. These include Good Housekeeping’s Favourite Fairtrade Product 2008; Best Food Brand in the SHE magazine Ethical Awards 2007; and Best Buy in Ethical Consumer magazine 2009. Divine Chocolate Ltd was awarded Best Social Enterprise 2007 at the Enterprising Solutions awards run by the Office of the Third Sector and The Observer Best Ethical Business 2008. Divine has been voted a Cool Brand 2009-10.

• The UK chocolate market alone is worth approximately £3.76 billion a year (Mintel 2010): if Fairtrade products can capture even a small proportion of that market, producers in developing countries gain real benefits.