Alter Eco Awarded Best Organic or Fair Trade Product Line at the 2010 San Francisco Chocolate Salon

SAN FRANCISCO, March 18 /PRNewswire/ -- With a remarkable total of 14 awards given to their line of organic, fair trade chocolates, San Francisco-based Alter Eco has been awarded the highest honor as the Best Organic or Fair Trade Product Line at the 2010 International Chocolate Salon show.

Coming off of their recent Master Chocolatier Awards, Alter Eco is delighted to continue creating award-winning chocolates for chocolate lovers, health enthusiasts, environmentalists, and individuals with a taste for organic and fairly traded products. "This award is possible only because of our hard-working fair trade farmers in Bolivia who create the quinoa and cocoa beans, along with our fair trade farmers in the Philippines who grow the sugar we use in all of our chocolates," said Edouard Rollet, co-founder of Alter Eco. "This award is really for them, as well as our artisanal chocolate maker in Switzerland," he added.

The entire line-up of awards given to Alter Eco includes:

Gold: Best Organic or Fair Trade product-Dark Chocolate Quinoa Bar; Best Organic or Fair Trade product line.

Silver: Best Dark Chocolate Line; Best Dark Chocolate Bars, Best Organic or Fair Trade product-Velvet.

Bronze: Best Traditional Chocolates-Blackout; Best Flavored Chocolate-Dark Chocolate Quinoa & Dark Chocolate Velvet, Alter Eco line; Best Dark Chocolate Bar-Blackout; Best Organic or Fair Trade product-Blackout.

Honorable Mention: Best Dark Chocolate-Dark Velvet & Blackout

Alter Eco's Gold Winning Dark Chocolate with Quinoa

The Gold winning Dark Chocolate Quinoa bar uses only fair-trade ingredients to create a dark chocolate delicacy. Using Fair Trade cocoa and toasted quinoa sourced from Fair Trade farming cooperatives in Bolivia, Alter Eco's Dark Chocolate Quinoa bar is produced in Switzerland using a unique slow-cook process to craft a pure, deep and satisfying taste. Alter Eco's Dark Chocolate Quinoa is vegan, organic, GMO-free, soy-free, and gluten-free, with no artificial sweeteners.

About Alter Eco Fair Trade Certified, Organic Chocolate Product Line

Alter Eco's chocolate bars are made from Fair Trade and organic ingredients using a slow-cooked Swiss tradition. For all of their chocolate bars, Alter Eco has selected fair traded ingredients from distant corners of the world: Fair Trade cocoa from Ghana and Bolivia, unrefined organic Fair Trade sugar from the Philippines, as well as Fair Trade cashews, quinoa, raisins, and fine Arabica coffee beans. Alter Eco chocolate bars are 100% natural and do not contain artificial flavors or sweeteners, chemical additives or emulsifiers. They are available in seven Dark Chocolate varieties: Mint, Twist (with crystallized orange peel), Blackout (85% cocoa), Cacao (73% cocoa), Almond, and Velvet (with a touch of organic milk), and the NEW Dark Chocolate Quinoa bar.

Alter Eco To Sample Chocolates at SF International Chocolate Salon

Alter Eco is proud to announce their participation at the 4th annual San Francisco International Chocolate Salon, March 20th at the Fort Mason Center in San Francisco. As a Certified San Francisco Green Business, co-founder Mathieu Senard is ecstatic that their recent awards were given here in their own backyard. "Sustainability, traceability, and responsibility have been as much a part of Alter Eco's mission as crafting the tastiest, most innovative chocolate possible. Whether it is caring for the farmers, implementing our Carbon Offset project in the Peruvian Amazon, or advocating for local compost programs here in San Francisco, we find that our legitimate desire to change the way business is done makes our products taste a whole lot sweeter," Senard said.

About Alter Eco

Working from small farming cooperatives throughout the global South, Alter Eco brings their ethical line of delicious chocolates, quinoas, rice, sugar and extra virgin olive oils to North America. Using only sustainable farming methods that preserve local agricultural integrity, the Alter Eco brand reflects diversity in the faces, shapes, colors, landscapes, traditions, and cultures of the small farmers who cultivate them. Each product has a unique story and an authentic taste that will take gourmet enthusiasts on a journey of discovery from the kitchen, to the Himalayas, Palestine, Bolivia, Switzerland, and beyond. Alter Eco's chocolate and other Fair Trade products can be found at natural food stores like Whole Food, co-ops, independent retailers and other grocery stores nationwide. For more information on Alter Eco, please visit www.altereco-usa.com.

For media related inquiries or to schedule an interview, please contact Jennifer Bryan of Christie Communications at 805-962-1347. Available via email at [email protected].

SOURCE Alter Eco