We don’t grow these in South Africa – or do we?

Well, you can’t eat local if it’s not grown here. And you can’t cut some things from your diet if you are an addict. I know my husband would file for a divorce tomorrow if I banned basmati rice and coffee from the pantry. If he had to choose between his cup of coffee and me, there’s no competition, I am afraid. But are you sure it doesn’t grow locally?

Chocolates and cocoa

With cocoa, you are out of luck. You can buy South African made chocolate. In fact Cadbury and Nestle chocolates are made locally, although the brands are not local, and Cadbury uses local milk and glucose, as well as local marketing, distribution, warehousing and packaging. The cocoa, however, comes from further north in Africa (Ghana and Nigeria), South America or Asia. The same applies to locally manufactured boutique and organic chocolates. The products have local ingredients, but the cocoa doesn’t grow here and has to be imported.

Locally handmade chocolates are available from:

DV (De Villiers) chocolates, Drakensberg Chocolate Memories, CocoaFair, Von Geusau chocolates, Beyers and Chocolats Marionettes.

The latest fad is raw (unroasted) chocolate. This is supposed to be much healthier than processed cocoa. There are a number of labels, for example Fine & Raw, but my favourite local raw chocolates are from Honest. Their chocolates are tasty and come with pretty packaging. The wrapping for each flavour is designed by a different artist.