A lot of people don’t realise that very few companies actually make chocolate from scratch.
On Wednesday, The Spinoff published a story about the possibility that Potter Brothers’ “handcrafted” Pineapple Pieces in Milk Chocolate are simply mass-produced pineapple chunks with an extra coating of chocolate. The accusation was originally made by Great Kiwi Bake Off finalist Courtenay Adele, after she noticed there was a distinct second layer of chocolate coating what looked like a Pascall’s pineapple lump. Since being published by The Spinoff, the story has spread, with Potter Brothers yet to issue a response.
Beyond the audacity of the alleged behaviour – taking an already crafted product and adding more chocolate then selling it as “handcrafted” – there is a larger question to be answered: How handcrafted is handcrafted?
A lot of people don’t realise that many chocolate companies don’t make chocolate from scratch. There’s a broad spectrum of starting points for chocolate manufacturers, ranging from tree-to-bar makers (who grow their own cacao), to bean-to-bar makers (who start with roasting cacao beans), to makers who start with cacao nibs or pre-processed cacao mass. Then you’ve got chocolatiers, who mostly use pre-made chocolate (known as couverture) that is sourced from huge industrial chocolate companies in Europe. Lastly, you’ve got companies that have their chocolate contract-made by other factories, and that purely deal with marketing and distribution.
Where a company starts its chocolate process tells you nothing about the quality or honesty of the business. I’ve tasted some terrible tree-to-bar chocolate in my time, and there are some world-class chocolate companies who have their chocolate contract-made, while simultaneously doing incredible work with sustainability and ethical cacao trade. There are also a lot of chocolatiers who use pre-made chocolate, and some of them are incredibly skilled professionals who create exceptional treats.
In the Potter Brothers’ latest Facebook post, where they explain their intention to respond to the article as soon as possible, one person commented: “Too busy buying up Warehouse eggs, melting them, recasting them, wrapping them up then selling them.” That person probably thought it was a witty takedown, but the funny thing is, that’s exactly what lots of chocolate companies do! (Though probably not with chocolate from The Warehouse.)
There’s nothing inherently wrong with using pre-made chocolate, as long as you don’t claim to be making it from scratch. Whatever a company’s methods are, they should celebrate them openly. Is coating mass-produced pineapple chunks in extra chocolate worse than having your chocolate contract made by another factory? Only if your packaging and marketing implies you’re doing something else.
I’m not excusing the possible actions of Potter Brothers. I think the “handcrafted” claim is a bit of a stretch if they’re using mass-produced pineapple chunks, and I think the price of the product is disproportionately high in relation to the quality. But this also applies to many other chocolate companies. The terms “handmade” and “handcrafted” are found on the packaging of most artisan chocolate these days, and it can be very misleading to the public. Most people are not aware which products use pre-made chocolate and which chocolate is made from scratch, from bean-to-bar.
I’ve been supporting and promoting the bean-to-bar industry for the past eight years, not because I think it’s the only respectable chocolate business model but because that’s where I’ve found the highest quality, most ethical and most delicious chocolate. One of the biggest difficulties for that sector of the industry is getting consumers to understand the difference between a chocolate maker who starts with cacao beans and a chocolatier who starts with couverture. Neither is right or wrong, but when people are going through the time and labour-intensive process of making chocolate from scratch, they deserve credit and respect for it. Unfortunately, the packaging and marketing of non bean-to-bar producers can make it hard to relate that message clearly.
I was very interested to read the comments from Consumer NZ, in relation to the Potter Brothers accusations. “Any advertising and marketing material on food packages must comply with the Fair Trading Act and the Food Act. If something is labelled as ‘hand made’ it must be made by hand,” a spokesperson said. “In our view, altering a mass-produced product by hand does not turn the product into a ‘hand made’ one and it’s likely the Fair Trading Act has been breached.”
Does that mean that artisan chocolatiers using couverture are not allowed to label their chocolate “handmade”? Because they are altering a mass-produced product, no matter how skillfully. What Potter Brothers is accused of doing is undoubtedly much less ethical and a greater bending of the truth, but the outcome of this investigation could have major ramifications for other chocolate companies in New Zealand. I hope none of the great chocolatiers in this country have complications because of this, but I would love to see more transparency in chocolate marketing, and more credit given to the craft of making chocolate from scratch. It will be fascinating to watch this case unfold.