BUSINESS TO BE PROUD OF.
When Doisy & Dam was founded back in 2014, it was with one clear goal in mind - to make the best chocolate in the world, and the best chocolate for the world. Today, we continue on our mission to offer a better option through better business practices, which can be summed up as:
BETTER INGREDIENTS, BETTER ETHICS, BETTER CHOCOLATE.
Since 2013, we’ve seen a lot of progress and change in the world of chocolate. Big and small brands alike are coming along with bold claims, impressive manifestos and ambitions, and pretty pioneering packaging. We love to see this, and this is what helps progress the whole industry. However, we believe the confectionery shelves are still very much behind where they need to be.
Palm oil is still present in over 50% of supermarket products and the growers who nurture the cocoa beans that end up as chocolate are too often forgotten about. This is what helped shape our principles. We've got principles on our products, as well as principles across our whole business, as we believe the two go hand in hand. Great products made by a great company. That's why we became a certified B Corporation back in 2017, the independent trademark of a business that meets the highest forms of social and environmental sustainability standards. Nice.
In 2022 we also became carbon neutral and set about giving back 1% of our revenue to good causes through working with 1% For The Planet. We make it easy to eat chocolate with a conscience -
SO GOOD, YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE.
To read our key thoughts on three of our biggest topics, just click below. Or if you have ay thoughts or feedback, let us know at hello@doisyanddam.com.
WE NEVER TOUCH PALM OIL.
Our Approach To
There's a lot of talk about palm oil at the moment and it's totally OK to not really know why. First, it's important to say that you won't find palm oil in our products. Anywhere. Ever.
Palm oil is a very versatile and reasonably priced ingredient which has all sorts of nifty uses in food and drink, biofuels and cosmetics. Other than being particularly high in saturated fats, it's not even particularly bad for you. HOWEVER, the production and farming of palm for palm oil can be hugely damaging to ecosystems around the world, from displacing animal habitats and causing deforestation to issues with worker exploitation and child labour.
It's EVERYWHERE in the mainstream chocolate industry and whilst we can't change that, we can show the big boys how it could and should be done. That's why you won't find palm oil in our products. Anywhere. Ever.
Calling ingredients natural can be a tricky one, I mean most things start off as natural right? Here's how we see it - we use as few ingredients as possible and the best possible. Nothing ending in -oxide or -dextrine and nothing your grandma wouldn't recognise.
If you want to know more about any of the ingredients we use, where they come from or why they're in our products, get in touch, we can bore you for hours on it!
We want to be a company that leaves behind more than it takes. That's why we became a B Corp - a business committed to being a force for good. We've got a lot to say on the ethical nature of our chocolate and too much to fit in this wee section, so have a read through our Better Ethics blog post above.
It's simple. We're committed to making products with less sugar than the market leaders. No compromise on taste, no compromise on quality.
We work with a couple of factories to make all our delicious products. They're brilliant but they handle different things so unfortunately that means you'll have to refer to each individual product for allergens advice. However as here is an overview if you can't wait to find out!
Our pouch products are made in a factory that handles milk, gluten, nuts, peanuts and sesame.
Our bars may contain traces of soya, gluten and nuts.
And out Nuttercups may contain traces of milk and other nuts.
We are Vegan Society Certified and one thing we can say for sure is that if it says 'may contain' these are just precautionary. All our factories have the highest level of health and safety and our products fall well within the allowance of traces. High fives all round.
Our pouch products are made in a factory that handles milk, gluten, nuts, peanuts and sesame.
Our bars may contain traces of soya, gluten and nuts.
And out Nuttercups may contain traces of milk and other nuts.
We are Vegan Society Certified and one thing we can say for sure is that if it says 'may contain' these are just precautionary. All our factories have the highest level of health and safety and our products fall well within the allowance of traces. High fives all round
There's too much take, take, take in this world. We want to leave something positive. So we refuse to use any palm oil in our products and, from source to product, only work with people and companies that we know are championing equitable pay all along the supply chain, good working conditions, and respect for the environment.
The truth is it's tricky to grown cocoa in Kent. And a chocolate company's carbon footprint is always going to be an issue. But we do everything in our power to keep our supply chain as streamlined as possible and, where we can, we go straight from source to the UK with no funny business in between. Now that's something not every chocolate company can say!
Wherever we can, we work with a brilliant supplier called Luker. They're family owned, and have been sourcing Colombian cocoa from farming communities for over 100 years. The work Luker does in the local communities is truly inspiring. Setting up social projects, providing education for farmers - no matter who they grow cocoa for. And, above all, creating sustainable opportunities for the 7,500 families who rely on growing cocoa to survive.
When we have to use a different couverture (type of cocoa), we use Fairtrade certified cocoa.
We're passionate about the sustainability of packaging. It's something we all use every day and right now, we're not as sustainable as we'd like to be.
We're proud to say that our bars are made with recyclable paper packaging on the outside, but our goal is for the rest of the D&D product family to join the recyclable gang within the next year. We figure if we aim for perfection, whilst we might not reach it, at least we'll be doing our bit to make the world better. Keep an eye out for the recyclable symbol that should be popping up on more and more of our packs.
We never compromise on the quality of our ingredients, from using cocoa certified by the ICCO as being in the top 8% of the world's finest, to making our very own nut butter. This means you can be sure that what you're tucking in to is only the very best. Oh yes.