Jouvay Chocolate is a very small company founded by the Larry and Paula Burdick of L.A. Burdick. Ethically sourced and handcrafted from Grenada, it’s hard to beat the story of Jouvay. After selling their iconic family business named after themselves, the Burdicks took their chocolate skills to Grenada to improve the working conditions of farmers and to continue establishing Grenada as an amazing cacao region. But they aren’t without their faults. Their chocolate tested quite high in heavy metal contamination, an issue that plagues most chocolate makers. If you can look past that setback and if you enjoy L.A. Burdick chocolate or just want to support a Grenadian cacao company, then stick around and read about why Jouvay is making a big impact for cacao farmers.
Behind the Company (From L.A Burdick to Jouvay)
Larry and Paula Burdick created the famous luxury chocolate company L.A. Burdick out of NYC in the 80’s. The company was hugely successful and opened many new branches around the country. However, in the mid-2000s, Larry and Paula sold the company and opened a chocolate cooperative in Grenada where they emphasize quality and ethical practices.
Larry got his start while working in Switzerland as a student chocolatier when he realized there was a serious lack of artisan chocolate products in the States. Coupled with his wife, Paula, a creative fashion designer and with an eye for aesthetics, they made a formidable team in artisan chocolate making in the 1980s.
It wasn’t until 2001 when the Burdick’s personally made the trip to Grenada that they realized the quality and taste of Grenadian chocolate was very high quality and underutilized in the global chocolate market. Wanting to both make amazing chocolate and positively contribute to a predominately exploited industry, the Burdick’s decided to start a side project unrelated to L.A. Burdick to source from Grenada.
The Burdick’s kept quiet about the sale of the L.A. Burdick company and little is known of it, even today. During that time the Burdick’s made multiple trips to Grenade to invest in their local economy to promote better wages for cacao farmers. Jouvay goes as far as to mention their cacao processing plant in Grenada is in the poorest district in the country.
Social Responsibility
Jouvay is 70% owned by the farmer-elected coop Grenada Cocoa Association (GCA) and 30% by the Burdick’s. This is wonderful to hear and I’m ecstatic they disclose their ownership stake and how they allow the farmers to own the majority of the company, while they provide funding and business connections (plus their passion for great quality cacao and sustainable agricultural practices). You can read more about the GCA here, of which they confirm that the Diamond Center, where Jouvay is located, is one of the oldest buildings on the island dating back to French monks in 1774. This estate also planted the first cacao tree in the mid 1800’s, giving Jouvay a bit more uniqueness in their location and history.
In 2011, Paula founded the non-profit Cocoa Farming Future Initiative (CFFI) to promote Grenadian cacao via higher wages, sustainable agriculture, and the general conservation of the biodiversity of Grenada. The CFFI has partnered with many of the local groups to continue reinvesting back into Grenada’s environment and economy.
The Burdick’s have partnered with a gentleman by the name of Andrew Hastick, a Grenadian-born agronomist that is a passionate about bolstering Grenada’s cacao industry. With the Burdick’s business connections and chocolate background and Andrew’s unwavering love for his country and its cacao industry, there’s no doubt that Jouvay will find its place in the new wave of transparency in the chocolate industry.
Addressing the Heavy Metals
After contacting the Burdick’s (got a response from the daughter so huge kudos for the family business), I was provided with a test of how much lead, cadmium, mercury, and arsenic in the chocolate. See figure below.
I immediately notice how high the metal content is for Jouvay. Cadmium measures in at 0.434mcg which is quite high. I don’t want to see more than 0.05mcg at the most. 0.434mcg is nearly 9x what I’d consider acceptable. Same goes for lead. Measuring in at 0.042mcg is far too high. Maximum shouldn’t be higher than 0.0075mcg. Lead is the easiest metal to avoid, as it just requires Jouvay to not expose the beans around leaded fuel and machinery. So while they are socially responsible and working with local agronomists, they are doing a very poor job of removing metals after 20 something years in business.
Per bar, that’s 37mcg of cadmium and 3.57mcg of lead. Again, per bar, that’s 9x and 7x the MADL of cadmium and lead. These quantities are far too high to be acceptable, despite how tasty the chocolate may be. Their serving size does say two servings, though. Which means per serving you can cut the numbers in half and you’ll consume 18mcg of cadmium and 1.8mcg of lead. Still 4.5x and 2x the MADL.
Simply put, you can only eat 9g of an 85g (3oz) bar before reaching your MADL of cadmium, and 12g of chocolate before reaching your lead maximum intake for the entire day. That’s about 10-15% of each bar before reaching your maximums of each metal, not including your daily diet of which this will significantly put you over.
Unusually, I see arsenic (As) and mercury (Hg) on these tests so let’s look at that while we’re here. Arsenic has a no-signifiant-risk-level (NSRL) of 10mcg a day of which a single bar of Jouvay has 5.1mcg, or 2.5mcg per serving–still quite high and raises concerns on the soil quality in Grenada.
As for mercury, I assume it’s methylmercury (organic mercury) which is an organic form of mercury found in the environment and fish. There’s 0.01mcg measured so each bar contains 0.85mcg of mercury per bar. There’s no safe harbor level in Prop 65 for mercury so we’ll go by the EPA of 0.1mcg per kg of body weight. Using me as an example, I weigh 72kg (160lb) which gives me an upper limit of ~7mcg of methylmercury a day. Well below the NSRL set by the EPA.
Would I Recommend Jouvay?
Due to the abundance of heavy metals, it’s difficult for me to recommend Jouvay Chocolate. I want to buy their chocolate and support a great initiative, but I would reach the MADL in a single bite alone. That doesn’t account for the rest of my diet which undoubtedly contains plenty of other metals from vegetables and grains.
For this reason, while I want to wholly support the Burdick’s and the amazing farming initiative CFFI, Paula Burdick’s non-profit she created back in 2011, it’s difficult for me to reconcile with the high metal content. I give them praise for submitting the test results to me, a gesture not extended by most companies. I say, buy the chocolate knowing you support an amazing cause and directly helping farmers in Grenada, but be aware of the metal content and eat in very small moderation. I hope they will work with Andrew Hastick to knock those numbers down and then they’ll get a huge recommendation from me. Perhaps they could start a merchandise line of Grenada memorabilia for those who wish to support the cause but don’t want to consume the chocolate.
