York Fair Trade Forum organised this celebration of all things chocolate on 5th March as part of Fairtrade Fortnight. The evening at Aroma Café, Haxby, was very well attended and centred around an extremely enjoyable Divine Chocolate tasting. Nine different flavours were sampled, ranging from White Chocolate with Strawberries to 70% Dark Chocolate with Pear and Ginger – Divine are nothing if not adventurous with their flavours! Many thanks to Fairer World, Gillygate for donating all the chocolate for the event.

Guests also listened to a short talk about Fairtrade in York, had a go at guessing the weight of the chocolate cake and the number of chocolate mini-eggs in the jar, and enjoyed home-baked refreshments and drinks served expertly by Aroma volunteers…all Fairtrade of course.

‘Fairtrade Matters’, the thought-provoking new short film from the Fairtrade Foundation, provided moments of reflection on the difference Fairtrade makes to the lives of tea-workers in Malawi – all the more poignant because the area featured has recently been affected by very serious flooding – guests gave generously to the Foundation’s newly-launched appeal to support the communities affected.

We would like to thank Pauline and her wonderful team at Aroma Café for helping us organise a very successful evening; almost £100 was raised to support the work of York Fair Trade Forum.

You can watch the Fairtrade film here

…and give to the flooding appeal here