I don't know if that's true or not, but it does say in the inside of the wrapping that the chocolate has unequal shapes since the workers get unequal pay (by other companies of course).
Fun fact: one of their hallmarks is traceable cocoa. One of their biggest struggles early in life was producing white chocolate which doesn't use cocoa but cocoa BUTTER (a byproduct of chocolate production). Cocoa butter is very difficult to trace the origins from. Instead of buckling under the demand and produce chocolate with questionable origins, they refused to produce it until they found traceable butter. Another fun fact: their hazelnut bars briefly went out of production when it was discovered they weren't being harvested ethically. I can't tell you why they were using hazelnuts that were farmed using slavery, whether it was an oversight or their supplier made a change. Regardless, when this news reached the company, they stopped producing hazelnut bars until they could find a new, traceable supplier.
Well not sure if you know this but many of those “inspectors” hired by nestle etc. simply warn them of their upcoming inspection so they can just make sure the kids are hidden for the day. Surprise inspections have caught many in a web of lies.
Yeah to bad it's already sold out to Nestle 😂😂😂 being a good person and company doesn't make you profit so all "ethical " companies sell out sooner or later for profit
@@Kerttisits expensive because the employees are paid fair wages, which makes them unable to cheaply produce the chocolate, its a small price for a better world
@@Kerttis Costs for small operations are always much higher. The massive conglomerates own every step of the process and pay everybody a part of them barely an acceptable pittance proportional for the countries they live in, in exchange for resources and labor. Sure, the price comes out a few bucks cheaper, but the CEOs are also making millions more dollars per quarter than what this guy's taking in. And a lot of people have to be screwed over for it to be just a few bucks cheaper, cause of course the billionaire has to make their billions. Imagine the prices of all goods if we didn't have to account for these overpaid CEOs or the interests of investors (majority stake holders all being part of the same club and likely CEOs of other companies too).
Not only does it come from a good heart, it is also the best chocolate bar I've ever tasted. You can truly taste the love and passione coming through, I hope it'll get more representation
Got around to trying it recently, really damn good chocolate. Well worth the small premium over the usual brands because you get so much with each portion.
Also in the original story the oompa loompas were actually not mythical creatures, they were literally African slaves, and in case you're wondering, yes he did call them that word.
Tony's chocolate is so good and what a wonderful thing he is doing to make sure the farmers are paid fairly and child labor is not used. It is an honor to be able to support this!
I agree! I’ve seen Tony’s chocolates in stores but only recently learned the history behind the company. Because I wanted to support the company, I bought Tony’s advent calendar this Christmas. Omg! The chocolate is sooooo good! Now I will always buy Tony’s given the choice.
From what others have pointed out it’s not all as it seems. It’s not being run like he set out to be. Just goes to show how anything can be corrupted and people will still just buy into the “dream” of it
Fun fact, his name is not Tony but “Teun” which is typical Dutch. When starting this chocolate brand, he got into contact with a lot of people who didn’t speak Dutch and thus could not pronounce “Teun”. He therefore opted to use Tony instead.
@@Celticsfor18thwhoah, 4 dollars is quite a lot! They're like €2,70 in the Netherlands (where the company's from). I rarely buy a different brand, except for when i'm cooking.
The patterns are also a symbol of the shape of the nations he focuses on to solve the problem And they are completely honest about the fact that there might be still some child or slave labour into their chocolate, but that they try their best to fix it.
its all the cocoa producing countries in with africa. Cut it from the long flat piece, and you get the ocean and equator, ivory coast, ghana, togo and benin, nigeria, and some of cameroon
From how I heard it explained, the uneven shape of the chocolate is meant to illustrate how "uneven" the revenue of the chocolate itself is divided between the company and the farmers.
Nah, lets be real both the packaging and shape is only there to attract customers and look different. The sizes are different shapes so it's harder to keep to portions. E.g. With another chocolate someone might eat 5 pieces and feel guilty about the 6th. But with this one you eat one one piece as large as 6 pieces. But it's.. I mean you only ate one piece right so it's ok if you eat another ... lol
If I remember right, it says this on the package. It also explains everything this guy said about people, mostly the children, being exploited to make most of the chocolate we consume around the world.
Honestly, the Tony's collaboration with Ben & Jerry's chocolate ice cream is one of the best chocolate ice creams I have ever tried. They are clearly doing something right.
Ben & Jerry's is one of the lowest quality ice creams out there, and is owned and made by Unilever, a massive multinational conglomerate. Stop kidding yourselves.
@@markobighead3173Ben and Jerry’s offer the most delicious and unique flavors in the market when compared to anyone else. Who the fuck wants plain vanilla
@@giwrgaqis i was about to say!! where i am they reach a minimum price of $8 and maximum of $11! it’s good chocolate and i love the cause but it’s just so expensive..
Recently, Tony distanced himself from his namesake chocolate company after discovering that his goals and promises are not being fulfilled by the CEO of his company.
Yeah. I had done some research and it was shown a few years ago that the CEO had connections to a guy who was connected to companies like Nestlé and so the chocolate wasn't actually made in house
I love Tony’s chocolate I didn’t even know it had such a beautiful backstory to its creation either. It’s awesome to hear something so small, yet so humane and caring
Those other companies need to learn that if you can't pay your workers a fair wage and especially if you rely on child labor, your company shouldn't exist
Nestle said in a big hearing about this subject that they had to use child slaves or else chocolate prices might have to go up 😢. Wouldn't that be terrible? I fuckin hate it here.
@@kinglokimrvegas8687 you're a bad person to your very core and you should examine why you're fine with children being forced to work for dimes a week.
Another sad fact about this chocolate bar is that it actually says "Tonys chocoLONELY" because he feels that hes the only person who actually cares about helping out the farmers and combatting child labour.
he probably is the only one that cares :( big companies throw around the word ethical and anti slave for nothing but monetary gain. its all about profit. not one decisions most big companies does is ever done in any other name than profit.
Go read their website, it has the same double talk as all the rest. Is their product produced slavery free? Answer, no. Are they trying to get slavery out of their supply chain? Answer, yes. Does every other chocolate producer say the exact same? Answer, yes. Don't be fooled by the hype with this company they have been in and out of court defending false claims for a couple of years and now have the same disclaimers as the rest of the big companies eitchical brands.
Oh what nice guy, he totally made this company as charity not at all to make profit. Oh look all those shorts saying the same feel good story, one could call this advertisement. You guys are being taken for fools. In a world with billion of different chocolates and very narrow tight margins we have the Jesus-like dude coming to save us!!
@@stefsot2 i get what you're saying there is absolutely no real ethical consumption under capitalism, but this is really the closest we can get atm. also it's just nice chocolate 👍
"kids are actually producing the chocolate that we love." All the sudden Willy Wonka's chocolate factory seems even more like a WW2 POW camp disguised as Disneyland.
In the original incarnation they were an African Pygmy tribe from the "deepest darkest place of Africa", working for cocao beans as that was the only currency they understood. While local workers were fired when Wonka found that tribe and hired them.
yeah, learned about it from Last Week Tonight a while ago, saw comments about its taste, saw it as special offer few days later and tried it myself. Its really delicious.
I think the price is worth it, making chocolate is not easy and I consider it a luxury item at that. And in the end everyone gets their fair share of the work
@@cryshunt7226 they didn't say anything about why the pieces are shaped the way they are however it looks like the founder said that one particular price he pointed out was large just like a big company
While it is good chocolate, he's said they're not 100% slave free anymore and I don't remember which, but it was taken off an ethical (and slave free, i think, don't remember) chocolate website.
I'll be honest it's so do-goody and liberal I kinda get annoyed with it, lol. I love the chocolate, but I'm like, dude, just keep your politics to yourself 😂 but it's good chocolate.
It’s not a mission though. It’s more like a sales gimmick. If it was a mission, the company would provide alternative educational opportunities for those children or viable economic recourse for their families. One company with this policy won’t change the economic conditions of communities where families can’t survive unless young children work.
@@emdeejay7432 ... that's some right wing conservative stuff ur spouting. How do u think that child labor and exploitation is good? Crawl back to whatever conservative cave u came from.
I’ve tried Tony’s chocolates multiple times and I love it.. it’s a Belgium chocolate with many different flavours such as a wafer one. Try it! You can find it almost anywhere in places such as the UK, US and Australia I believe.
@@-Blueness- there is a list known as the "Slave Free Chocolate List" which promotes the use of Fair Trade in the chocolate industry. A part of that criteria is to have your production line be 100% and showing to have come from fair labor practices. Tony's was on this list until about 2021, where the company lost it's designation because it uses the company Barry Callebaut, which had a lawsuit that same year from 8 former child slaves for being willful participants in forced labor Tony's defended the partnership saying that it's necessary to make the chocolate to a large scale. But that's kind of like saying you run a Nazi-free hospital then employ Dr. Mengele
Fun fact: like some others said the name Tony comes from the Dutch name Teun. They chose it since Teun isn't an easy name to pronounce when you're not from the Netherlands were Teun/Tony originates from. Teun (van de Keuken) is from a Dutch journalists program (Keuringsdienst van Waarde) that tries to show how consumer products are produced. Some producers cooperate some try to hide some things for more or less obvious reasons. So an episode about how chocolate is made turned into a mini series within the program. Eventually they initiated with Teun the brand Tony to try produce chocolate that doesn't use slavery and child labour. The rest you know thanks to this short. 😊
And the most heartbreaking part is most of these workers never have eaten or seen a chocolate bar in thier life 😢 . Just imagine how much sinister are these big chocolate corporations.
Wow, this guy is actively working to protect children and make sure adult workers get paid fairly. I know his chocolate is more expensive than most others, but I think it's worth it because it is ethically sourced. What a kind man...❤
There is a reason companies use child labor, instead of supporting this somewhat less exploitative form of labor why not agitate for systemic change.. This guy is running a business, he will NOT take any action that hurts his bottomline and profits, please keep that in mind.
I'm ordering some right now! The world needs more of this kind of business model! Big businesses have been exploiting humanity for too long! Companies like this give me hope that humanity will pull through!
@@ekklesiasthonestly and they aren't being exploited they are children of poor farmers working on their parents farms helping to keep the business alive. Unlike Tony they didn't grow up privileged
@@squidwardstentacle Linking sources is not possible on RU-vid. But to give the short version, this brand started working with Barry Callebaut which is not slave free. So the brand was removed from slave free chocolates list. Now the reason varies by source. Tony's chocolonely has informed about this on their website. They do not claim to be 100% slave free, but aim to monitor and create traceable chocolate. Rather than some bigger companies which have untraceable chocolate. Quote "Last year we found 387 cases of illegal child labour and remediated 221.
@@squidwardstentacleRU-vid deletes links, but you can find it with a simple google search. It’s disturbingly hard to avoid slave labor in chocolate making though.
Well, there are some good bean to bar brands. Tony's is not the only one with good heart. But i will not buy Tony's because they don't put enough cocoa in their bars. Milk chocolate only has 35% and even the dark chocolate only 51%.
@@alexolfis3441 yes of course, but you can have both. 60% cocoa and more, fair payed, good quality, no children. I would rather stop eating chocolate than buying a bar of sugar with only 30-40% cocoa.
@@alexolfis3441there are other chocolate brands that don’t use child slaves. Your setting up a false choice, between buying Tony’s Chocolonely and buying chocolate made by child slaves.
Just did a bit of research and it's surprising to see that Tony's might not be as impactful in their mission as they claim. In contrast, giants like Hershey’s and Milka not only have a larger influence due to their size, but they also seem to have stricter oversight of their cacao sources, which is crucial for ethical sourcing. They're not just about words; they have robust programs actively benefiting their farmers, showing real commitment. Taste-wise, I'd say Hershey's and Milka bars are superior, offering that classic, satisfying flavor. Tony's, despite their compelling marketing and strong stance against slavery in the cacao industry, seems to lack the same level of transparency and results when you dig deeper. It's essential to look beyond the marketing and evaluate the actual impact and practices of these companies.
Last I checked Hershey’s was still refusing to say they don’t use sources that use child slaves. And were involved in a lawsuit with other companies about it. Unfortunately the judge had to dismiss the case because the people who had been child slaves couldn’t provide a direct trace from the cacao to factory, which doesn’t mean all those chocolate companies are innocent but rather points to the limited resources of a bunch of ex child slaves, and the judge noted that it was too broad so they if they did rule for them it would mean a lot of other people and companies liable when they just sell the product in their store
@@Nevertoleave Appreciate the dialogue. It’s critical to understand that Hershey’s and Milka have indeed faced past criticisms but are now among those leading the charge in improving the chocolate industry’s ethical standards. They have committed to comprehensive programs that increase traceability and reduce unethical labor practices, showing tangible progress. On the other hand, Tony’s, while excelling in marketing their stance against unethical practices, may not have matched the larger scale impact that Hershey’s and Milka’s resources and efforts have achieved. This isn’t to say that Tony’s efforts are insincere, but rather that the larger companies are making substantial strides that merit recognition and can potentially lead to industry-wide improvements.
I'm so glad that finally more and more people are finding out about Tony! The chocolate is amazing and the multiple different flavours isnjust the cherry on top
The weird shapes are the borders of West African countries. These countries are where most cocoa is grown which means that there is a lot of unethical labor in them.
I remember doing a project on the topic of child labour, specifically in the chocolate industry when I was a kid. By the end of my research, I was in tears. Its truly a sad thing. Its not only chocolate brands that exploit children like this, but companies like Nike have been reported several times for exploiting children for cheap labour.
@@fumothfan9 very true! Tech companies are huge on it as well. Then they turn around and sell a phone they paid someone barely a dollar in wages to make for 100's to 1000's of dollars.
Tony's is genuinely one of my favourite chocolate bars and his message is so important, this isn't just a problem with cocoa farming. Make sure you buy fair trade everyone
Same here! I bought this at an airport randomly because the packaging looked so bright and I've never heard of the brand before. Loved the taste and the message in the package design and the bar itself even more.
I Love Tony’s Chocolony! It’s a decent price & they sell a sample box if you unsure about what chocolate bar you want. They also recently did collaboration with Ben & Jerry’s!
It isn't a secret and anyone who buys it is more guilty than the company. We have more power than the company, far more...just less centralized...until we accept our choices are the problem (where we find a problem) it won't change. Whether or not a given thing should change varies with each case.
One extra information...most of these cacao farmers (adults and chikdren) don't even know what is chocolate 🥺 I saw a video of when tgey tried it for the first time an old man was loke "Ooo this is good" ...and just like you said they barely get paid, I think it's only 6% or less 😢😠 Evil companies, they don't understand that everything starts with the farmers, the first and most important step starts with them. Thank you, I'm glad to know something like this exists, please continue to do good things that will make our world better
Most companies know what they’re doing. This is no accident. Companies purposely use child labor and slave labor in countries where it’s legal so they can produce their products as cheap as possible to make the highest profit possible. Basically, if you pay your workers as little as possible you don’t lose any profit from your sales, which is why companies do this.
this also goes for vanilla beans. Kids are labor workers too, also adults. and they get paid almost nothing and vanilla is one of the most expensive spices in the world
And mineral mines too.. from Cobalt for phones to Mica for makeup. Problem is, if you kick the kids out, it might make things worse. They don't work, they starve or get abused. This is happening in the USA too, for the same reasons. That's why some states lowered their child labor laws. Hiring kids is actually improving their lives. Not all kids have the choice of going to school... Be grateful ❤️🩹
@@DLlama those kids are already being abused at work. The solution isn’t “well it could be worse, be grateful.” The USA has actively pardoned companies that use child labor and treat their workers like shit. Unless something fundamental shifts, it will keep happening.
I actually really love Tony’s chocolate! Especially the salted caramel one. This is so fascinating to find out the real meaning of why its all uneven shaped. I thought it was really innovative and I didn’t really think much about it at first. Nice to know!
Surprised I haven't heard more about this guy lately. I've been bulk-buying the salted caramel milk chocolate at a local Rite Aid for weeks now, but the pretzel and toffee dark showed up the other day, and it's the absolute best! It's little more expensive, but it's worth it, all the way. It's always fun to argue over who gets the circle piece.
I’m weird like that ever since I heard about Hershey & Nestlé‘s practices I always buy sustainable chocolate even at higher prices for over 20 years. Soon as I learned how to procure vegan make up, I bought all natural vegan makeup for 30 yrs now. as Thich Naht Hahn says, if going organic or ethical is too expensive, than buy less.
As a Dutch person, i rarely buy a different brand of chocolate to eat. Not only some of the smoothest chocolate i know, but some great funky flavors as well. I'm sad to hear it's so expensive abroad.
Exploitative labor is far, far more common than a lot of people imagine. The worst part isn’t really about people not being aware of it (or not caring), it’s the fact it’s so vast it might never actually be possible to fix. And, in many places, it’s deeply ingrained in the local culture and attempts to fix directly the problem end up creating more problems or it makes all the workers who were lifted from that situation migrate into the nearest facility/farm that is about as bad as the last one. And then, the NGOs gloat about how they “saved” them and proceed to collect crazy sums of cash from donors who are now all patting each other on the back and feeling great about themselves… The most we can have at this time is small contributors/actions and companies pushing tiny and slow changes like that being showcased. As far as that’s concerned, good on them! Success in business while doing so encourages the practice on the industries! 😉
Very true, heartbreaking and problematical. Some people argue that this is the way of the world but industrial agriculture is very different from family farming and even further from subsistence agriculture. It does need to be addressed so I will look out for this chocolate company in future.
The only reason the children have to work usually is because their parents are being paid so little. This is why restrictions on child labor can't be made until adult salaries improve. If he fairly pays the adults, the children don't have to work.
The packing says that not everyone is treated equal, so there's each piece has a size, making an analogy of the random privilege some people have other than others
