Bitter Chocolate

Investigating The Dark Side Of The World's Most Seductive Sweet

Carol Off

• Publisher: University of Queensland Press
• Year: 2016
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9780702258510
• Subtopic: Food Industry
• Index: History

For most of us, chocolate is an indulgence synonymous with pleasure. But behind the sweet image of the cocoa bean there is a long history of exploitation, corruption, greed and slavery. In Bitter Chocolate, Carol Off traces the history of the cocoa craze from the eighteenth century onwards, through its evolution under such overseers as Hershey, Cadbury and Mars, and its connection to the violence in Cote d'lvoire, the West African nation that produces almost half of the world's cocoa beans. Groundbreaking and eye-opening, Bitter Chocolate is a social history, a passionate investigative account and a stirring exposé of the inner workings of a multi-billion dollar industry that has institutionalised misery as it has served our pleasures.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Author bio
• Also by Carol Off
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Chapter 1. Death by Chocolate
• Chapter 2. Liquid Gold
• Chapter 3. Cocoa on Trial
• Chapter 4. The Geopolitics of a Hershey’s Kiss
• Chapter 5. No Sweetness Here
• Chapter 6. The Disposables
• Chapter 7. Dirty Chocolate
• Chapter 8. Chocolate Soldiers
• Chapter 9. Class Action Cocoa
• Chapter 10. The Man Who Knew Too Much
• Chapter 11. Stolen Fruit
• Chapter 12. Bittersweet Victory
• Epilogue: In All Fairness
• Source Notes
• Acknowledgements
• Index
• Imprint Page