Locomotoring

Bon-fiction nudged my very first memory…

If you ask my brother, his first memory is from when he was a toddler in mum’s arms. Mine is from later years, somewhere between 3-5 years old, just starting school in a place I knew as Rajahmundry. The city was named after a 11th century king and is now called Rajamahendravaram. My mum says that I was the official translator for the family – going back and forth between Telegu and Bengali. I wish I remembered even an iota of Telegu. I remember my mom’s chickens, the well in the backyard, clusters of banana hanging on the clothesline and cowdung patties drying on the mud wall of the patio. The last were commonly used as fuel, was it the maid who brought them over from nearby fields? I have two very strong memories of the home in Rajahmundry. The first is that of a climbing jasmine, that would go all up on the rooftop of an outhouse. I adored that vine. I remember climbing up to the rooftop once with another girl who was older, it could be a fake memory, arising from a wanting. The other memory is somewhat disturbing, it is that of a pig being captured and tied to the bicycle. It was squealing loudly and I had imagined the pig knowing that it was on its way to getting butchered.

Enter Bon-fiction – found at our neighborhood green grocers, Sigona’s. We are adventurers when it comes to chocolate bars, you can get us to try a brand at least once. The whimsical art on the packaging caught our eye. Looking at fine print hooked us. Bon-fiction had won an award by Academy of Chocolate, we didn’t know the awarder or the awardee. When we were growing up in India, the home grown cacao and chocolate wasn’t worth writing about, let alone win anything. We soon learned that the cacao in Bon-fiction is grown in Rajahmahendravaram and in surrounding Godavari river basin (link). The other day, we had the opportunity of eating Federation of Odd, Bon-fiction’s “milk” chocolate, side by side with Thomas Keller and Armando Manni’s (K+M) Golden Milk chocolate, and I was delighted to find that Federation of Odd stood its ground firmly. Once we noticed one award winning chocolate that boasted of India’s terroir, we found more. Along with Bon-fiction, there are a growing number of tree-to-bar chocolates that boast of the Indian terroir – Paul and Mike, Kocoatrait, Soklet, Manam, Naviluna, Mason & Co, Anuttama, and Chitram. We can’t source the others yet.

Bon-fiction rocked my boat …

Have you noticed sinister things lurking around in the air that you don’t pay attention to, until you do. And I admit that I have the habit of burying my head in the sand to avoid bad news. When I started reading about cacao in Godavari basin, these sinister things came tumbling out. According to US Department of Labor, Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, together, produce 60% of the world’s cocoa each year. Estimated 1.56 million children are engaged in child labor on cocoa farms in these two countries (link). US chocolate giant Mars, producers of the popular M&M, 3 Musketeers, Twix and Snickers, uses cacao harvested by kids (link). Hershey, Cargill, Mondelēz (Cadbury, Toblerone) and Nestle (KitKat) are also in the same boat (link). In view of child slave labor, cacao farmers getting less than minimum wage ($3/day) and farming related deforestation in Africa feel like lesser crimes.