Seabury students take off on a "sweet" new project!

To supplement our discussions on human rights and international trade, part of our larger globalization unit, Seabury students began a sweet (and tasty!) project this week--creating and analyzing a new chocolate bar! Working in groups and also via individual research and writing, students will analyze market trends in the candy industry and research the impact cocoa production has on the environment and small-scale farmers. Using this research, they will create a brand new chocolate bar recipe! A comprehensive business plan is an integral component of the project, where students will discuss the "triple bottom line" of their bar, discuss the sourcing of their ingredients and the nutritional content of their bar, create a mission statement for their new chocolate company, and even design a wrapper.

As part of the project, we had the fantastic opportunity to talk first hand with Dr. Eric Durtschi, founder and owner of two different cocoa-related companies: Crio-bru, which creates drinking chocolate made of pure ground cocoa beans (brews like coffee) and also Durci Chocolate, which makes bars of delicious dark chocolate. Students asked insightful questions about what Dr. Durtschi does, how he sources his ingredients, his involvement in the fair trade movement, and even the profitability of chocolate bars. We learned a tremendous amount, and were introduced to ideas we had not even thought about, such as logistics of getting freshly farmed cocoa beans out of the rainforest (Eric trades with one village accessible only via a four hour donkey ride!)

We ended our session with a sampling of three different Durci chocolates, graciously donated by the company for our taste bud enjoyment, but only after we were taught the proper way to taste chocolate. :-) Ask your kids- they are now chocolate experts!! We are incredibly grateful to Dr. Durtschi for his time and talents!!