So, this thing happened. Commodity cacao crops had some unanticipated natural issues and didn't have the yield that they were anticipating. All of a sudden, supply and demand, and the big ol' companies who said it was impossible to pay farmers out at the kinds of prices that we do on the regular were lining up at the co-op, any co-op, to pay much, much more than they had been (even more than we had been!) just to get any cacao at all. As a result, cacao prices surged. We're talking record high - nearly double! As the cacao harvest comes in this fall crops in Africa are looking healthy. Although this is ultimately healthy for the rest of the industry, economists predict that commodity prices aren't going down any time soon, if at all.
Fortunately (we think) we are the kind of chocolate shop that uses real chocolate in their chocolate. This might sound weird to say but oddly enough in our industry in our country it's worth stating. It is in times like these that relationships matter the most. We are so grateful for the amazing farmers and families in Ecuador who grow the liquid gold that we all rely upon as part of the same value chain. We are honestly thrilled for our co-ops and farmers and hope that "a livable wage" is something attainable at commodity prices (and not exclusively or most consistently by working with "weirdos and hippies" aka the less than 1% of the cacao market who operates alternatively, like us). That would be cool.
It should be no surprise to anyone who knows us that we tend to do things differently. Sourcing ingredients including cacao is one of those things. The truth is, the status quo kinda sucks. Deeply, really deeply, we believe that people tend to deserve something better than the status quo so that's what we work our best at creating. We're not out here to make the fanciest chocolate, but we do stay obsessed with using the goodest ingredients. We aren't here to employ the best, schmooziest sales people, we are here to employ good humans who want to do right by other good humans who just want some chocolate made out of good ingredients. We aren't here to have luxury packaging and jewelry boxes, we're here to use good design to protect the good chocolate that the good people on our team made with the goodest ingredients that they could find so that the good people who serve the good humans who just want some good chocolate can depend on it being as good as we can possibly make it. You get the point. This goes on and on.
In the end, what we do is the best we can with what we have at any given time. What we have right now is unprecedented sky high cacao prices that we are paying, like everyone else in the biz. We are getting gooder at the operation of our business, too - so fortunately a very vast majority of this expense we were able to capture using internal efficiencies that have been hard won by many a Babe Babe Babe present and past. Some of it, a very small amount of it we are passing along to you, raising our in-store prices to match our online prices of $3.50 a piece on August 28th, 2024.
Honestly, this is that economic time when a lot of companies do things like reduce their product quality or size. That's (perhaps obviously) a hard no for us. As much as we hate to just candidly tell you we are charging you more and why, it is absolutely worthwhile if it means continuing to do what we do best, the way we think is the goodest. Maybe it's weird but it's who we are.
The fact that chocolate grows on trees will never cease to amaze me and as one member of this amazing value chain to another, I want to thank you for being a part of it the way you do and being willing to ride the waves that Mother Nature throws at us while doing it. As always, we are ever so willing to hear any comments or concerns about this transition, and hope you stay with us on this wild (chocolate) ride.
