- 1 week ago
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Shopping these delicious Ethically-sourced chocolate made from Ghanaian Cocoa @kandachocolates on this week’s #ShopEssenceLive in partnership with @newvoicesfamily
Kanda Chocolates, founded by Karen Blackwell, is an ethically sourced, fair-trade chocolate that is grown, processed, and packaged entirely in Ghana with 100% Ghana Cocoa Beans. They chose Ghana because they are known for having creamier, chocolatey, and more cocoa-forward cocoa beans – without the typical bitter taste that dark chocolate is known for. They call it the Ghana bean difference.
Through their research, they were struck by the lack of single-origin Ghanaian chocolate available within stores. While Ghana is the 2nd largest producer of Cocoa in the world, less than 2% of their exports are finished chocolates. With the country’s president working to change this, they wanted to join in on their efforts.
Kanda™ Chocolates was created to bring awareness to the superior quality of the chocolate that is made in Ghana. Kanda Chocolates delivers on the company’s mission by maintaining operations in Ghana, purchasing fair-trade cocoa, purchasing carbon offsets, and donating a portion of the proceeds to charitable organizations. Their most recent partner has been the Social Justice Learning Institute in Inglewood, CA.
Their customers love their Kanda Chocolates because they offer the nostalgic taste of chocolate that they know from their childhood without all the additives that mainstream chocolate brands have. Some of their customers are smitten by the creamy caramel taste of our Milk Chocolate (38% Ghana Cocoa) while other customers are stuck on the intense chocolatey taste in their extra dark chocolate (72% Ghana Cocoa). However, they created Kanda because they fell in love with the rich chocolatey taste of Ghana’s dark chocolate (56% Ghana Cocoa). Their dark chocolate bar (56% Ghana Cocoa) has converted even those that had written off dark chocolate.
Shop the Episode now on Essence's IG page!
Kanda Chocolates, founded by Karen Blackwell, is an ethically sourced, fair-trade chocolate that is grown, processed, and packaged entirely in Ghana with 100% Ghana Cocoa Beans. They chose Ghana because they are known for having creamier, chocolatey, and more cocoa-forward cocoa beans – without the typical bitter taste that dark chocolate is known for. They call it the Ghana bean difference.
Through their research, they were struck by the lack of single-origin Ghanaian chocolate available within stores. While Ghana is the 2nd largest producer of Cocoa in the world, less than 2% of their exports are finished chocolates. With the country’s president working to change this, they wanted to join in on their efforts.
Kanda™ Chocolates was created to bring awareness to the superior quality of the chocolate that is made in Ghana. Kanda Chocolates delivers on the company’s mission by maintaining operations in Ghana, purchasing fair-trade cocoa, purchasing carbon offsets, and donating a portion of the proceeds to charitable organizations. Their most recent partner has been the Social Justice Learning Institute in Inglewood, CA.
Their customers love their Kanda Chocolates because they offer the nostalgic taste of chocolate that they know from their childhood without all the additives that mainstream chocolate brands have. Some of their customers are smitten by the creamy caramel taste of our Milk Chocolate (38% Ghana Cocoa) while other customers are stuck on the intense chocolatey taste in their extra dark chocolate (72% Ghana Cocoa). However, they created Kanda because they fell in love with the rich chocolatey taste of Ghana’s dark chocolate (56% Ghana Cocoa). Their dark chocolate bar (56% Ghana Cocoa) has converted even those that had written off dark chocolate.
Shop the Episode now on Essence's IG page!
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00okay we are live once again my name is noni i'm vice president of video and branded content here
00:05at essence and we're back with another episode of shop essence live this time we are going to be
00:12tasting and talking to uh conda chocolates which i am when i tell you this is just if you're if you
00:23got somebody in your life with a sweet tooth you got somebody on your christmas lift with a sweet
00:26tooth but they want to give back to an incredible black owned business um these are incredible and
00:33karen blackwell who is the amazing founder who has an incredible story one of which is about being
00:40very close to beyonce in the last few days which i'm dying to hear about um will be joining us in
00:47just a matter of seconds um karen if you are in the audience please do make sure that you request to go
00:54live with me so i can find you just so you guys know this is shop essence live in partnership with
01:00the new voices uh foundation we are bringing you black owned businesses week after week after week
01:06this is not just for black owned business month in august this is not just for black history month
01:13this is not just for black friday this is every single week on thursday at 6 30. all right so karen
01:20i see you i see you hold on i accept we're gonna get into these chocolates i said previously on the
01:27last post that i had to have somebody hide these in my house because i was addicted karen hello hello
01:35hello hello hello and welcome thank you thank you i'm so excited we have quite a bit to cover quite a bit
01:42to talk about first of all first of all headline headline can you talk about your experience uh at
01:51the wearable art gala that miss tina knows uh through this past weekend how did that come about
01:58what was the experience like you gotta spill this see this is the closest i'll get to okay okay okay so
02:04i will try to be brief because i am still basking in the glow of that and then i'm in the basking in
02:10the glow of this so it's a whole it's a whole blessing fest over here so lots of praise going on
02:15okay so i was invited to represent my brand at miss tina knowles wearable art gala um and so i was
02:24brought in with amazon i'm a part of a black business accelerator as well and so amazon brought me in
02:29and i thought i was just gonna go and attend this event which was magnificent it was 1920s harlem inspired
02:35so i dressed up got into the part i just i love a dress up moment and so i just thought that was
02:41what i was going there for and then the surprise to me was they had cigarette girls who 1920s theme
02:48would normally hand out cigarettes they were walking around the room handing out candy chocolates
02:53it was and they were like how do you feel seeing this moment i'm like i'm speechless and i it wasn't just
03:00one chocolate or here or there it was like 20 girls in a room walking around handing out my chocolate
03:06to everyone at the event so i got pictures of kelly roland right being handed chocolate i listened and
03:12my my one moment was when somebody said there goes you know salt and salt and pepper she's eating your
03:17chocolate i said i don't want to bother her and they were like no no go talk to her so she comes up to
03:22me salt and she says hey i'm and she begins to introduce herself with her real name and i said
03:28please do not introduce yourself i know who you are you are amazing beautiful legend fan going crazy
03:36and she's like well i'm just trying to eat your chocolate and i was like please please enjoy it so
03:40definitely you know never to say you know you have to have dreams so not to say i'll never go back
03:46but to have that moment to be in that room to have my chocolate highlighted like that and people
03:52enjoying it and you're what you're looking you're like is that a little cool j is a holly bailey with my
03:56chocolate who's eating my chocolate what's happening who's who in that room yeah i mean you really can't
04:03even buy that amount of visibility to this audience so that's congratulations for that that's a really
04:09really big look so congratulations i love for you to talk about i have your the trio bars is up so if
04:16you guys want to start putting in your cart trust me you're going to want to put it in your cart now
04:20um talk a little bit about the journey of canned chocolates and how you came up with it how do you
04:26source the chocolate it's just like something like like chocolate i've never had in my life
04:31so if you could just talk a little bit about that yes yes i'm so happy to so you know what's a full
04:38circle moment is four years ago black panther was coming out this comes into the story but black
04:44panther was coming out i was feeling in my moment i took a trip to ghana with the black mba and i was
04:50like oh i'm just loving myself and while i was there uh not just loving myself but loving my blackness
04:56maybe i should clarify although i do love myself um that's just said um and so we took a trip to ghana
05:03and it was during that trip that i was just really open still working in corporate america
05:07i tried a piece of the chocolate thought to myself wow this tastes amazing didn't know enough
05:13about what was happening with the chocolate industry in ghana and so you know as i was there
05:18i was like wow this should be offered in the united states and it wasn't until i went to slave coast
05:23castle where i really connected and so for those if you have not been it is the place where slaves
05:29were kept before they boarded ships um it's it's a horrific experience it's an emotional
05:34transformative experience so while i was there shedding tears with everybody else in the group
05:39i was just thinking like how can i connect with ghana right i have some dna that connects but how
05:45can i connect how can my business connect um how can we you know they had this whole theme about
05:50bringing african americans back to ghana right so we have the circle that we have going on return yeah
05:55yes the year of return so i was like how can i connect and this is before the year the year of return
06:00actually so i came back to the united states i thought about it did my research found out that
06:06ghana is the second largest orcs exporter of cocoa in the entire world and i was like well how come
06:11i don't know that and i was like where are you sending your chocolate to or your the chocolate the
06:16cocoa beans were going to belgium they were being manufactured into cocoa mass cocoa liqueur and all
06:23that but sent to belgium and i was like wait a minute belgium doesn't make cocoa they don't have
06:28cocoa beans no so when you think about the best chocolate in the world it's switzerland it's
06:32belgium but they don't make the cocoa beans aren't coming from their soil it's not right it's coming
06:38from ghana right it's coming wow and so i was like no way so we have got to bring awareness to what ghana
06:44has to offer from a chocolate perspective uh much like what you think about coffee right so if you go to
06:50a coffee house and anyone that's popular you'll get some from kenya some from hawaii some from other
06:55places chocolate right also cocoa beans have their own flavor so you get different flavors depending
07:01on where the cocoa comes from and ghana is known for having the best cocoa beans they're creamy more
07:07chocolate forward so that's the flavor that you get oh i know the difference too can you talk a little
07:15bit and i have the products here you guys can go in you can start shopping now you don't want to
07:20miss out fair trade chocolate can you break that down for us yes so important so fair trade chocolate
07:28first i want to say fair trade is not enough right but what it does is for the cocoa farmers it ensures
07:35that they get a fair wage right but it would be the same as us going to work at a fast food restaurant
07:40here in the u.s and getting whatever that somebody said was fair that's what fair wage is so i'm ensuring
07:47that they're at least getting a fair wage but it's pennies right if i spend thousands of dollars to
07:52bring the chocolate here i'm adding a couple of hundred bucks for fair trade that that's what fair
07:57trade is so we're actually taking a movement to try to go towards a premium wage right to make sure
08:02we're actually paying them more you just have to make sure it's going to the right people so right now
08:07the way that the system is set up unless you're directly working with the farmers it's hard to get that
08:12premium wage to them but working through fair trade which is an organization make sure that they
08:17get a fair wage and also ensures that children right they do our best to make sure that children
08:22aren't working on the cocoa farms um i i should say and i wish i had a video going but if you looked at
08:28how the cocoa was actually you know pulled off the off the tree and cut open with a machete and left
08:35under banana leaves that's the chocolate you're eating right all the chocolate you're getting is manual
08:40labor and so so much goes into it um and there's a lot that can destruct that actual economy and what
08:46we depend on for chocolate and having that experience so yes fair trade is very important
08:51um look for it make sure if you're paying attention look for fair trade coffee cocoa and sugar if you can
08:57education on shop essence live and that is really important i just want to note to everyone whenever
09:04you shop with us those proceeds everything that you're putting in your cart that's going
09:09directly to this business and just imagine how her pipeline is with the fair trade you are giving
09:16back to ghana to those farmers in ghana paying them a fair wage think about where your dollar goes and
09:23and and how you are giving back so i think that's really really important all right let's get into
09:28these flavors a little bit all right so what what's the first bar that we have and i will fly that up
09:35so extra dark chocolate okay so if we were doing a tasting or if you order the trio you will get you
09:42know all three bars and so let's start with the extra dark chocolate bar and you want to taste from the
09:48least amount of sugar to the most amount of sugar by the way so i'm letting you know you want to start
09:52with the extra dark and move your way down so with the extra dark chocolate it's 72 right so this is for
09:59my chocolate holics that really like it dark sometimes it's not even dark enough just letting
10:04you know um but 72 is for those that want to enjoy the dark chocolate have always enjoyed dark chocolate
10:10but gives you that a little bit of a sweeter taste you get that creamier flavor so you don't have to
10:15have just that bitterness right so i remember the video that i my claim to fame is adam glassman right
10:21from oprah's creative director he's i have video of him eating the chocolate saying wait it's not bitter and
10:27so he's definitely been a large supporter as well so him saying extra dark chocolate he sold that's
10:32adam glassman from oprah definitely a huge a huge win for that so yes extra when i tell y'all that is
10:39the biggest thing because when i saw extra dark chocolate i was like oh i don't even like dark
10:43chocolate so i don't think i like extra dark when i tell you i was full-on prepared to
10:50be like i'm tasting coffee grinds and this was so it's just so delicious it has me like
10:58going through like there has to be milk in here because it's just smooth you don't have the bitter
11:03taste but there is the dark chocolate taste but it's just so so good all right so that's the extra
11:12extra dark that's the extra dark break down the next one
11:16going to the dark chocolate this one is 56 percent gana cocoa this is my converter why do i call it
11:26converter it's because people that eat milk chocolate they're always like i don't eat dark
11:30chocolate and so in order to be dark chocolate you have to be over 50 percent with having cocoa beans
11:36and so i'm just over that tip that says hey you don't have to have milk in your chocolate you can start
11:41to make that crawl towards dark chocolate and that's this dark chocolate right here so it converts
11:46people in this into having dark chocolate when they normally wouldn't have had it so i normally just
11:51hand out samples of this and just say you don't like dark chocolate try a piece yes
11:56yep oh my goodness this is so awesome i brought this to work
12:03it goes really well with the pinot noir uh we've partnered with uncle nearest uh in the past so it
12:12also goes really well with their whiskey so there's a lot of different options it goes well with cheeses
12:17but this dark chocolate is what you want to bring to the party or as a gift for sure this is the
12:22converter even if they say they don't eat dark chocolate promise you they will convert if they
12:26will convert when i tell you it's almost like too good to be true it but it's true but it's just
12:32really good thank you really good okay and lastly lastly the milk chocolate milk chocolate okay so
12:44listen there's nothing wrong with eating milk and the chocolate that we grew up with has milk in it
12:49right and so when you want to like return to your childhood and have that nostalgic feeling of what
12:56chocolate tasted like but without all those extra ingredients right you're talking about six
13:01ingredients you come to the milk chocolate for candied chocolates right so milk chocolate will
13:06definitely give you that that caramel you should be tasting caramel and vanilla and like you just like
13:12just got a little natural high off of chocolate because it has that it's taking me through a lot it's
13:17taking me through it definitely will i haven't tasted the milk chocolate yet i was just on the dark
13:23because i was like if the dark chocolate is like that i'm gonna go into i'm gonna go into overload
13:30you can't even go back right it's hard to go back from milk chocolate to the extra because even though
13:34they're all great but once you get to the milk you're like whoa that's a that's definitely that flavor
13:39so that caramely chocolatey vanilla um nostalgic feeling that we know from our childhood
13:46get it in this milk chocolate right you don't have to eat the brands that we're used to you can go
13:51fair trade and have natural ingredients not for nothing but the brands that we're used to
13:57i ain't gonna name i would never name any names but they don't even it's not even the same anymore
14:02and i don't know if they've like changed their recipe it's almost like a plasticky this is just like
14:09it tastes so pure and i think the more pure the ingredients are the more the flavors and that
14:17that taste comes out um i'm seeing perfect stocking stuffers absolutely it melts in your mouth so tasty
14:24melody jerry said you guys have any questions for karen please do leave it in the chat now you are
14:31a part of the new voices family i'd love to hear from you how that experience has been uh for you
14:39and your business and then expanding and scaling your business yeah so imagine that someone gave you
14:46a scholarship to college right and in addition to that they gave you tutors you had weekly meetings
14:53and you had mentors that's new voices family right so you could go to one school and get a scholarship
14:58and then you're like well how am i supposed to succeed here but you come to new voices you get
15:03that scholarship you get the mentors you get the circle you get other business owners loving on you
15:09supporting you uplifting you can't get enough of that so new voices i've had other programs i've had
15:15other grants nothing like it and walking in day one was probably like a month before the essence
15:21festival and i was like wait you're connected with essence wait you want me to come to the essence i
15:26didn't get to go to the essence festival i had a friend's wedding she's online right now i sacrificed
15:31for her i missed that friend congrats friend congrats to the boys but all that to say i missed it but i
15:37will not miss it again but even the opportunity to be here and speak with you all of that is coming
15:42through new voices because they are continually pouring into me i cannot say enough about what
15:47they've done it's amazing i love that and you pour into your products and you don't even stop there
15:53because you actually have a 501c3 charity as well yes i my my organization my company right is in
16:02partnership with the social justice learning institute in inglewood california they are a
16:07famous name in their own right they do a lot of things for the community their focus right now is
16:12black and brown young men in high school going into college making sure they can persist and become
16:18community leaders and so when we can we either donate chocolate right which helps with funding
16:23or we donate portion of our profits so that's what goes on with it and i also sit on the board for the
16:28social justice learning institute but that is our partner and i think yes he's the executive director
16:35so yes so incredible and um remember everybody if you have any questions please do send it in i'm seeing
16:43like when are you adding peanuts to are you adding nuts or anything if you want to just talk about
16:49what is next are you expanding into more flavors and adding things to the chocolates yes i am so
16:55thankful to my community for hanging on but i was not going to launch chocolate unless i knew that you
17:00were into the chocolate itself and i had to let that run and be like okay do i have people that are into
17:05it then we can launch new flavors so finally coming within the next two months you will see two new
17:10flavors being launched we have almond and we have seesaw looking at bringing in more flavors that
17:15are more authentic to ghana i will say and this is for anyone in business you know it's always you
17:21have this dream right and it will happen but the one thing that we found is that wow my customers want
17:26organic ingredients and certified and they may not have the capability to have all those ingredients
17:31certified in ghana so my product is made in ghana which makes it different right so having certified
17:37products and getting the almonds to ghana maybe they're not coming from ghana right so just trying
17:41to figure out how we can get those ingredients certified which is working with the people that
17:45own those businesses in ghana so working through it but you will be getting the almonds anyway and you'll
17:50be getting the sea salt and then hopefully in the future you'll get some more ganayan flavors added
17:54into the chocolate oh let me tell you something if you want to impress with a charcuterie how do you say
18:01that charcuterie a sweet charcuterie i can't say it if you want to impress one of those cute little
18:08boys that you put all the sweets and the cheese on listen we're upgrading our lives you know she already
18:14told you the wine pairings and everything make sure that you follow them um canda chocolates and they have
18:23even more in their store we're just giving you a taste here if you go to their store and view the shop
18:29you can get their wide range of products that they have and combos and trios and all of that the box
18:36is beautiful you can put a bow right on that yeah you could just put a bow right on that and put it in
18:40the stocking and put it under their tree i tell you if you need ideas for what to give your boss at work
18:46your co-workers your your new girlfriend your husband the person with sweet tooth we got you covered
18:52here and and you're also giving back to those in ghana um with the fair trade wages which is you know
18:59karen you put us onto so much information in this show you are absolutely incredible and i'm excited to
19:05see what else you have coming and i'm so glad i got to open the rest of this chocolate i'm gonna
19:11i'm gonna share with everybody in my house but you know absolutely incredible the work that you're
19:17doing i'm so excited for what is to come is there anything else anything else coming up that you
19:22want to plug or just plug your instagram plugging my instagram at canda chocolates you're already
19:29probably clued in but at canda chocolates and uh more that'll be coming on you'll see some more ads
19:35from me some more specials and things like that coming up that i don't get to necessarily release yet
19:39but you will see more of me um and you'll i'm just you know just overwhelmed and excited coming from
19:46everything that's happened this week i will say that being on essence is a dream come true so this
19:51video essence.com under the videos so if you didn't catch this here you want to forward it to someone
19:57you can go to essence.com you know forward slash videos and you can look up the videos and you'll find
20:02me there i will be on the essence.com website yes and you can share this and this will be on the
20:10instagram wall on essence as well you can share this as well thank you so much to everyone that tuned in
20:15live and thank you so much to everybody that tuned in on the replay or on essence.com karen you are
20:21amazing i'm gonna go enjoy this chocolate thank you and i will see you guys next week bye bye
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