— Linda Byington

Linda's saying Chow, you know, I never really know how to pro pronounce it's CHO. Chocolate bars are delicious. I agree with you. It's a wonderful chocolate company and they have a variety of plant-based flavors and are fair trade. So yes, I like them. And they have come out recently with more and more plant-based. You know, it's really interesting because a company like Valona, which is a French chocolate maker, they didn't, you know, they didn't speak vegan for a really long time. Um, I did a class at the Valona Academy in Dumbo in Brooklyn and um, it was some time ago, but now look at this. This is their 80% cacao chocolate noir and it says fair trade, it says vegan, it's a B Corp and all that. So you know, more and more companies are jumping in and the fact is that's because people have asked for it. We vote with our forks. So if you're concerned, if we're, you know, concerned about child labor, let the chocolate companies know it's not okay. I don't use ever Hershey's or Nestle, um, because they are notorious for using child labor. Now Hershey's I understand had said by the year, I think it was originally 2 0 2 3 and that's passed, they would stop using child labor, but they haven't. And these companies have been sued, so I'm not using them. And they do have a line of vegan non-dairy chocolates, but I personally don't buy them. I'm not judging you, you know, it's a decision for each of us to make, but I'm going to go for fair trade. The fair trade label, some people are saying is not what it used to be. There's um, it's expensive for small chocolate makers and so on, but there are other labels. Get to know the companies you're dealing with. That's the very best thing to do.