Style and Substance
Why choose Ocelot? Nice packaging, tasty chocolate, there’s plenty of that around. But there is more to our chocolate, and here’s why it matters:
We Fight Poverty: Our beans come from the world’s best - and best paid - cacao growers. We pay 100% living income directly to farmers, as well as providing them with vital resources. In 2023 Original Beans schooled 2,944 farmers, 40% of them women.
Why? 40 million people in countless tropical counties are involved and dependent upon cocoa agriculture. The cocoa industry creates extreme poverty among many of these farmers which, in turn, leads to child labour in 2 million kids.
We GROW Trees: When you break a piece of Ocelot you are breaking ground for a tree. To-date Original Beans and Ocelot customers have helped grow more than 3 million trees in origin (the world’s longest-running one-for-one forestation programme). And we don’t just outsource this work: our growers plant the trees at source, regenerating the forests around them: the surest way to make a difference.
We are 100% Organic: Our farmers work with nature, not against it.
Why? More than 4 billion kilos of pesticides are used annually. The effects of pesticides on humans are an open debate, opinions vary. What is not up for debate is the catastrophic effect on insects: “the little things that run the world”*. One third of all insects are now close to extinction, with butterflies, beetles and bees among the hardest hit. One of every three bites of food we take comes from pollinated plants (including chocolate): without them we’re done for.
*Biologist E.O Wilson
We Protect the Rainforest: In 2023 our farmers protected 8 hotspot rainforests. Thorugh our One4One Trees program, we support indigenous growers in planting and nurturing native trees, contributing to forest restoration and biodiversity.
Why? Tropical forests shelter at least two thirds of all species on earth. Older tropical trees absorb 3x as much carbon as younger trees. One of the most consequential climate actions we can take is their protection.
In 2023 Original Beans drew down 15,221 tonnes of CO2.
We Empower Women: Original Beans employs hundreds of female farmers, most notably our Femmes de Virunga (DRC); where hundreds of women have taken local leadership to become craft cocoa growers, heal their war-torn communities, and regenerate the forests: together these women have planted more than 100,000 trees! Original Beans’ NGO (IDAD) provides vital education on agriculture, enterprise, leadership and hygiene, and provides necessary equipment - from beehives to sowing machinery. In 2023 Original Beans schooled 1,177 women farmers.
When you eat our Femme dark milk you are not only eating the most delicious chocolate, you are supporting these incredible women.
Our packaging is fully recyclable / compostable, and we are on our way to a net-carbon negative footprint.
Why? We believe that the chocolate choices we make do matter - for many people and countless forms of life - and these are principles that Ocelot was founded on, concurrent to great design and delicious chocolate. Together we can make a difference!