Bitter Chocolate
Anatomy of an Industry
Published on 4. March 2014
Book
Paperback/Softback
336 pages
978-1-59558-980-4 (ISBN)
Description
Hailed in hardcover as ?compelling" (Kirkus Reviews) and an ?astonishing [and] wrenching story" (The London Free Press), Bitter Chocolate is an eye-opening look at one of our most beloved consumer products. Tracing the fascinating origins and evolution of chocolate from the banquet tables of Montezuma's Aztec court in the early sixteenth century to the bustling factories of Hershey, Cadbury, and Mars today, investigative journalist Carol Off shows that slavery and injustice have always been key ingredients.
The heart of the book takes place in West Africa inside the Ivory Coast-the world's leading producer of cocoa beans-where profits from the multibillion-dollar chocolate industry fuel bloody civil war and widespread corruption. Faced with pressure from a crushing ?cocoa cartel" demanding more beans for less money, poor farmers have turned to the cheapest labor pool possible: thousands of indentured children who pick the beans but have never themselves known the taste of chocolate.
?An astounding eye-opener that takes no prisoners" (Quill & Quire), Bitter Chocolate is an absorbing social history, a passionate investigative account, and a shocking and urgent expose of an industry that continues even now to institutionalize misery as it indulges our whims.
The heart of the book takes place in West Africa inside the Ivory Coast-the world's leading producer of cocoa beans-where profits from the multibillion-dollar chocolate industry fuel bloody civil war and widespread corruption. Faced with pressure from a crushing ?cocoa cartel" demanding more beans for less money, poor farmers have turned to the cheapest labor pool possible: thousands of indentured children who pick the beans but have never themselves known the taste of chocolate.
?An astounding eye-opener that takes no prisoners" (Quill & Quire), Bitter Chocolate is an absorbing social history, a passionate investigative account, and a shocking and urgent expose of an industry that continues even now to institutionalize misery as it indulges our whims.
Reviews / Votes
Praise for Bitter Chocolate:"Bitter Chocolate is less a book about chocolate than it is a study of racism, imperialism and oppression as told through the lens of a single commodity."
?The Globe and Mail
"An astounding eye-opener that takes no prisoners in its account of an industry built on an image of sweetness and innocence, but which hides a dark and often cruel reality. You'll never look at chocolate the same way again."
?Quill and Quire (starred review)
"We know chocolate makers have their secrets?like how they get that caramel in there. That one, though, is pretty tame compared with the stuff unearthed in . . .Carol Off's new expose, Bitter Chocolate.
?Toronto Star
In the style of Mark Kurlansky's Salt, Bitter Chocolate unravels chocolate's glittery packaging and uncovers an industry tainted by war and genocide."
?Ottawa XPress
"[Off] makes her case so strongly and with such nuanced flavour that the book becomes as hard to put down as a bar of Toblerone."
?Shared Vision
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 208 mm
Width: 136 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
377 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-59558-980-4 (9781595589804)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Carol Off is a co-host of CBC radio's current affairs program As It Happens. One of Canada's leading investigative journalists, she has won numerous awards for her CBC television documentaries set in Africa, Asia, and Europe. She lives in Toronto.