Chocolate Is Political
Our chocolates are made in small batches by hand, with politics and passion. What's political about candy?
- First of all, because our truffles are vegan, they do not support the system of institutionalized cruelty and death that is the meat and dairy industry. We do not believe that animal food is food. Food is things that are edible, and, as we see it, a cow was put here on this earth for her own purposes and not ours. Therefore, a cow is a living being and not food, nor does she produce food that is ours to eat or drink. But because everyone does not see things the way we do, this is a political issue.
- We are political vegans who believe in real food, fat, and mind blowing flavor. We don't believe a vegan diet needs to be lacking in any way, and a feeling of scarcity in a vegan diet is one of the most common causes of people falling off the veganwagon. Our truffles are not "vegan versions" of "real" truffles—they ARE real truffles. We don't use anything "instead" of anything else. All our ingredients stand on their own merit and are not intended to replace anything.
- Third, Lagusta's Luscious Truffles are political because they are anti-corporate. It is with great sadness that we have witnessed the co-optization of the natural foods industry by large multi-national corporations. We believe in local economies, bartering, and getting by without the help of huge, hierarchal companies. Therefore we make our truffles in small batches of about 1000 and we (used to) sell them at Bloodroot Feminist Vegetarian Restaurant in Bridgeport, CT, a restaurant that we are proud to support because it stands for all of the things that we believe in and is not afraid to be political and knows that politics must go hand in hand with truly luscious food.
- Fourth, unfortunately, chocolate itself is a huge political issue. It's not nice to think about while you're having your happy little nibble, but the chocolate industry is notorious for using slave and child labor. We are committed to using only fairly traded chocolate that is certified to not use child and/or slave labor. We also buy some American (Hawaiian) chocolate that is not fair-trade certified because there is no certification available for US companies. Our Hawaiian chocolate is made by a tiny mom-and-pop (literally!) company who harvest and make most of the chocolate themselves with a small crew of chocolate artisans. We also use Taza brand chocolate in one of our candies (the Vandana Shivas), which uses a direct-trade system that is superior to traditional fair-trade certification.
Bluestocking Bonbons by Lagusta's Luscious on Facebook