They used to be independent and now are owned by Hershey's. It makes me sad because they used to have all kinds of handouts and info about whether their stuff was vegan and whether it qualified as fair trade and all of that, but now they're owned by a company that uses cacao from Ivory Coast plantations that use child slave labor... which just kills my appetite.
Since Scharffen-Berger uses its own special blends of particular beans from particular (other) places, I assume that they're still not supporting slavery on chocolate plantations. But it makes me sad to see their profits potentially going to evil.
The STORE is awesome though. The factory store in Berkeley is very wonderful. Everyone there is super-friendly, and they recognize me and often give me and other people broken chocolates and stuff that isn't selling, just for fun. Or tastes of stuff that isn't out yet. They have great art for sale and great shirts and great fun kitchen stuff - not just chocolate. Even books. And they have a freezer full of this amazing ice cream made with their chocolate. And incredible cookies and brownies. It's just so much more from them than you could ever get at the supermarket.
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