For the first time in its history, The Royal Mint has combined gold with chocolate, offering customers the unique opportunity to indulge in style with the new bullion chocolate gold bars gift set. In partnership with Bullion®, an award-winning bean-to-bar chocolate maker, each chocolate gold bar has been exquisitely crafted with real gold leaf flecks and is presented in a gold foiled luxury gift box.
To ensure the cacao bean farmers gain maximum pay for their efforts, Silva Cacao, a key supplier for Bullion®, takes a more direct approach than Fairtrade, enabling those farmers to get higher pay than any others in the region.
The Royal Mint spoke to Max Scotford, founder of Bullion®, which is one of Silva Cacao’s key partners in the UK. He kindly provided an example of how their suppliers’ direct approach is benefitting farmers:
Ecuador Finca Garyth
“Ecuador Finca Garyth beans are from a single farm - the Garyth family farm. Thomas, who is in charge of operations for the family, has a few workers on his farm and is a decent employer, offering a competitive salary, health insurance and school bonuses for his employees' children. However, being a relatively small farmer himself, he does not qualify for any of the available Fairtrade certification systems. These systems are instead only applicable for cacao cooperatives or social enterprises working with smallholder farmers.
The Garyth family farm is not a gigantic operation (only 35 hectares), and we work with Thomas and his family, firstly because of the amazing flavour profile and the cleanliness of the beans. Also important is the ecological impact of his approach to farming. Thomas was the first to apply organic farming techniques in his area and became a 'knowledge centre' for neighbouring farmers.
Silva Cacao pays Thomas a premium for premium quality, around 15 to 25% more than the local price for cacao (which fluctuates). Furthermore, Silva Cacao pre-finance their purchases, which allows Thomas to expand his farm with another 10 hectares. More recently, they did not cancel their orders during the Coronavirus pandemic, which made them one of Thomas's favourite buyers”.
Bullion® is one of only a limited amount of companies in the UK which actually import their beans and make their chocolate from scratch. This bean-to-bar process is the reason why their chocolate is so highly regarded, with incredible flavour notes.
The Royal Mint is proud and excited to offer our first bullion chocolate gold bar. With gold leaf fleck delicately placed into each bar, will you develop a taste for gold?
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