Valrhona Chocolate

Valrhona, a one-hundred-year-old French company, makes chocolate we feel good about eating. That’s no small feat, given all of the frightening reports we read about chocolate, ranging from child labor to high levels of heavy metals. According to a December, 2022 Consumer Reports evaluation, Valrhona was one of only five brands — out of 28 tested — whose chocolate didn’t contain unsafe levels of cadmium and lead. Unlike most chocolatiers, Valrhona, a Certified B Corp, operates its own cacao plantations, boasting a “bean to bar” operation. We enjoy Valrhona’s own chocolates, but we also like knowing that the Valrhona name serves as a kind of a bellwether. A number of small chocolate companies use Valrhona’s chocolate as a base for their own confections, and we think their decision to choose Valrhona indicates that they take their sourcing seriously.