Currently, there are LOTS of choices in chocolate... perhaps way too many. ;-) Today in the New York Times: Tasteful Company | Madécasse
Food
July 10, 2009, 3:53 pm
By Jill Santopietro

These days my favorite chocolate isn't U.S.D.A. organic certified and it's not Fair Trade or Rainforest Alliance stamped. It's Madécasse, made from cacao grown in Madagascar's naturally organic forests. It's traded fairly and is environmentally friendly. Best of all, the new Madécasse 63% and 70% chocolate tastes so good — a refreshing anomaly in a sea of astringent bitter chocolates with trendy (and often misleading) labels.

When it comes to chocolate, the meaning of the term "organic" is much more complicated than it is for, say, local blueberries. But my personal theory is that cacao grown in pesticide-free forests shaded by biodiversity is better for the health of the plant and the land than cacao grown on a mono-crop organic plantation. It typically tastes better, too.

Kallari, a company I wrote about in a Times article last November, grows its cacao beans and produces its bars in Ecuador with the indigenous Kichwa people.

Madécasse (pronounced mah-DAY-cas) chocolate, on the other hand, is made from beans grown in Madagascar and produced in factories nearby. The company is owned by two young Americans, Brett Beach and Tim McCollum; both worked there as Peace Corps volunteers before moving on to the U.S Embassy and Usaid in Madagascar (Brett) and the business world and business school in New York (Tim). Because their entire manufacturing process happens in Madagascar's cacao-growing region, much of the profits go back into the local economy.

(some more is available via the link...)

And yes, what did they do with the chocolate that was in the vat with the guy...?

~ Becky in Tucson